Another Game Another Loss For The Cards

The Louisville football team is starting to resemble a broken record. Play hard for a half, make some dumb mistakes, get behind big and then lose. The latest debacle occurred Saturday against the West Virginia Mountaineers. A game they lost 35-21, giving them four straight L's.

Sitting at 5-5 all the Cards needed to do was win this game to become bowl eligible. Send the seniors out in their last home game with a win. Instead they resemble your local top 40 radio station playing the same song several times an hour. How many times are we going to see the Cards commit stupid penalties like the unsportsman like conduct flag against Chris Vaughn late in the third quarter. That 15 yarder took away any momentum Louisville had and turned a 22-yard gain into a 7-yard gain.

How many times are we going to see the Cards turn the ball over in crucial times. A Vaughn fumble in the third quarter led to a West Virginia touchdown. And Hunter Cantwell's three interceptions sure didn't help. Quarterback was supposed to be the one position the Cards were set at going into the season. Instead Cantwell has just as many interceptions as he does touchdowns, 15. Saturday against the Mountaineers he threw an unforgivable pick, going deep over the middle into double coverage.

The same mistakes Louisville made in the season opener, they're making in week 11. To me that sounds like the players are not responding to the coaches. Either they're not smart football players or they lack focus. You can't blame all the mistakes on a lack of talent. Coach Steve Kragthorpe doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon. Athletic Director Tom Jurich told me earlier in the week he plans on keeping Kragthorpe around for another season. But like I said in an earlier post; Jurich needs to keep a close eye on the start of next season. If the Cardinals get off to another slow start and find themselves with a losing record early Jurich may have to consider making a change.

One thing I can say about the team however is they have not given up. Watching them against the Mountaineers they were still playing hard. They were still trying, so they haven't tuned out the coach. But they need to stay focused and play 60 minutes of football if they want to have any shot of beating Rutgers a week from Thursday and becoming bowl eligible.