By Derek DeBurger

Louisville walks away with an easy win against the Bowling Green Falcons.

This was the first-ever meeting between the two programs, with the Cards now 1-0 in the series.

In Lacy we trust

After winning the kickoff and deferring, Louisville’s defense came up with a quick stop to force a punt. Unfortunately, the Cards did nothing with the ball, going three-and-out.

After the Cards forced another easy stop, the Falcons gave the ball right back. But Caullin Lacy muffed the punt and Bowling Green recovered in field goal range.

Louisville’s defense held strong, but the field position gave BG an easy kick to go up 3-0.

On the next drive, Isaac Brown was able to get the Cards off right with an 18-yard gain on one of his only snaps of the day. Miller Moss was then able to get chunk play after chunk play until the offense was right at the goal line.

Keyjuan Brown punched it in for his first score of the day.

Bowling Green was then able to move the ball on the Cardinals defense surprisingly well. But a terrible pass from Drew Pyne led to an interception by Antonio Watts.

Back-to-back long passes from Moss to Dacari Collins of over 30 yards each put Louisville back in the redzone. Another run from Brown put him back in the endzone and gave the Cards a 14-3 lead.

The second touchdown was Brown’s first multiple-touchdown game of his career.

On the next drive the Cards again forced a three-and-out, but this time Lacy was able to field the punt and take it 75 yards to the house.

The rest of the first half was pretty dull on both sides, with neither team getting much going on offense. But like in the first quarter, the Falcons were able to string some plays together to get a nice drive into Louisville territory. But another awful pass from Pyne was snatched out of the air by D’Angelo Hutchinson.

Louisville got themselves in good position for a hail Mary attempt, but Moss took a bad sack after being blitzed to end the half.

Louisville went into the break up 21-3.

Setting records (plural)

Moss and company came out of the locker room swinging, easily moving the ball down the field into the redzone. But an ill-timed penalty pushed the Cards back after what would’ve been first-and-goal.

The Cards settled for their first field goal of the day.

That would start a third quarter trend, as the defense forced a three-and-out and the Louisville offense would stall out after a solid drive.

Cooper Ranvier hit his second field goal, and the defense would follow it up with another three-and-out. Nick Keller, the kickoff specialist, would then get his chance at the fun. Jeff Brohm brought him out for a 57-yard attempt, and he nailed it.

Keller’s kick set the Louisville-record for the longest field goal that was set just a season ago. The duo of kickers became the first to both hit field goals in a single game for Louisville since 1989.

The fourth quarter was more or less Louisville going through the motions.

Ranvier hit yet another field goal to put the Cards up by 30.

But a missed tackle saw the Falcons get a 75-yard touchdown, by far their biggest gain of the day.

Louisville then matched that with a handoff to Braxton Jennings for his first career touchdown.

Bowling Green then marched down the field and reached paydirt one final time on a combination of a nice play call and busted coverage.

Brohm was comfortable killing the clock, letting Brady Allen and Deuce Adams get some playing time on the final drive.

Louisville won 40-17.

Was it pretty?

Louisville came away with a big win and an attractive stat sheet.

But the Cards didn’t look that great.

Louisville had the clear advantage in both talent and coaching, and that essentially carried them to victory. The Falcons actually had a better, more creative game plan and far more energy.

Moss was able to throw for 316 yards, but he still looked near useless with pressure in the backfield.

Lacy was fantastic, racking up 281 all-purpose yards to rank seventh all-time in Louisville history. His 106 punt return yards were the most since Jaire Alexander had 130 in 2016.

Perhaps the most positive takeaway is the special teams, as the Cards kicked field goal after field goal and the placeholding looked flawless every time.

Conference play is now down the barrel for the Cards, and they still have a lot of concerns and question marks. If Louisville continues to come into games flat, and if Brohm fails to take pressure off of Moss, the Cards could be in for a rude awakening.

For now, Louisville is 3-0 on the season. This is the first time in program-history that Louisville has started 3-0 in three consecutive seasons.

Photo by Vinny Porco