By Derek DeBurger

Louisville weathered a lethargic start to squeeze out a win over the James Madison Dukes.

Predator and prey

While already being the hunted, Louisville opened the game looking like they were going through the motions, resulting in negative yardage and a three-and-out.

Louisville forced the Dukes into a three-and-out of their own, but their very first play was a double pass out of the backfield that was drawn up beautifully. The only issue is Isaiah Alston, the wide receiver, overthrew the wide open tight end.

After getting the ball back, the Cards didn’t look any better. The run game got stuffed on almost every attempt as JMU just stacked the box and dared Miller Moss to beat them.

The drive ended when James Madison sold out for the run on a fourth and one and stuffed Duke Watson.

Moss had an open lane if the play were designed as an option, but Jeff Brohm was insistent on establishing the traditional run game.

The Dukes took the short field and almost blew the opportunity, going four-and-out with a failed fourth down try. But a defensive holding call kept the drive alive and moved them further into Cardinals territory.

James Madison then dinked and dunked their way inside the five-yard line, and after a timeout to avoid a delay of game Bob Chesney called an identical formation with a different result for the first score of the game.

Louisville finally got the most momentum they had all day, using two penalties to advance the ball into enemy territory for the first time of the game. But a strip sack on Moss ended the drive.

Louisville was able to get the ball back and get back to driving. Jaleel Skinner took a short pass 19 yards to get the Cards into the redzone for the first time.

Louisville was able to get into a goal-to-go situation, but couldn’t close out the drive as they had to settle for a field goal at the four-yard line.

JMU had yet another slow drive stall out. But this time the punter barely caught the ball and the kick only traveled eight yards.

Louisville had their best starting field position of the game, but they still failed to reach pay-dirt.

After settling for another field goal, Louisville went into the half trailing 7-6.

Escape from Louisville

After fighting back to be down just a point, James Madison took the second half kickoff and marched down the field for their second touchdown of the game.

The drive lasted nine plays with the Dukes not taking a single loss of yards on the drive. That was by far the worst the Louisville defense had looked.

Just when thinks were beginning to look bleak and the crowd was getting meek, Chris Bell took a pass 64 yards for the Cards’ first touchdown of the day and the crowd’s first roar of the day.

On the PAT, Moss had to scramble around and got crunched by about four defenders but not before crossing the goal line for a successful two-point conversion. It was the first time since 2004 that a Louisville quarterback ran for a two-point try, and it tied the game at 14-14.

From there the game got ugly, with defenses playing the role of bully for both teams.

That was never more true than when Clev Lubin sacked Alonza Barnett in the endzone for a strip sack. AJ Green fell on the ball on the endzone for a touchdown.

But after the third botched special teams snap in two games, Louisville missed the PAT and only went up by six.

Into the fourth quarter, the Dukes still couldn’t make heads or tails of Louisville’s defense.

A turnover on downs and a three-and-out saw the Cards get the ball back with a chance to kill the clock.

Then Isaac Brown happened, as he took a carry 78 yards on the first play of a drive for a touchdown. Another two-point try put the Cards up by two touchdowns and iced the game.

JMU tried to make things dicey at the end, but Louisville held firm.

The Cards escaped 28-14.

Just a disaster

Where Moss looked very impressive a week ago, he looked horrible against James Madison.

All game long the Dukes were practically begging Moss to beat them, stacking eight or nine guys in the box every play. And Moss just simply could not do it.

Part of that was play calling, as Moss has wide open running lanes all night but no designed runs were call. But when Moss’s number was called he rarely rose to the occasion.

Regardless of Moss’s abysmal performance, the run blocking has a serious issue.

For two games now, the offensive line has been helpless to teams loading up the box and selling out for the run. Again, part of that is on Jeff Brohm and the scheme put forth, but it’s just a glaring issue that continues to grow.

Brown did still manage to run for 104 yards on just 12 carries, but his one long one did most of the heavy lifting.

On the flip side, the defense played incredible.

If it weren’t for a defensive holding call, JMU would have only put up one touchdown. If the offense even halfway showed up, the praise for the defense and Ron English would be unending.

The front seven looked disruptive again, with Rene Konga, Wesley Bailey, D’Angelo Hutchinson, Lubin and TJ Quinn all get seven or more tackles.

The entire unit recorded six sacks and seven tackles for loss.

It was ugly, it was stressful and it was a win.

Louisville now sits at 2-0 looking down the barrel of a bye week and a whole host of things to work on.

Photo by Vinny Porco