Louisville had enough big-time individual plays to win this one. That’s what makes the finish sting so much more.
Tre Richardson ripped off a 35-yard catch-and-run touchdown that featured two feints, a juke, a drop step and a full-field dash to the end zone, trimming the deficit to 20-14. Earlier, he also turned what looked like a sure loss for 16 yards into something useful.
Isaac Brown added a 70-yard score straight up the middle. Lincoln Kienholz, dealing with a bad wheel, kept pushing through even after a few mistakes.
And Kaleb Beasley came up with a one-handed interception in the end zone early in the fourth quarter that, as the source put it, “Should Have Been a season saver.”
Instead, the final line was Louisville 28, North Carolina State 31 at 00:00.
It was the kind of loss that can define a season, especially against a team that, in this account, is coached by someone who called a timeout when he was going to punt on fourth down late in the fourth quarter with the game tied at 28 and timeouts carrying more value than five yards. It also came against a program that, just a couple of weeks ago, produced what the source described as the biggest choke in the history of the sport.
The most glaring issue came on defense, and it was a sequence that said plenty all by itself. Early in the third quarter, with NC State facing second-and-19 at its own 26, Louisville was in zone coverage.
Bailey hit his man 24 yards downfield, and three Louisville defensive backs were in the area. None of them were within five yards.
That was Bailey’s eighth completion of the day to a receiver with nobody around him.
A few snaps later, he found another uncovered target on fourth-and-2 to keep the drive alive. Not long after that, NC State cashed in with a 34-yard strike to what was, again, the loneliest receiver in the stadium. Bailey finished with 24 completions, and 13 of them went to receivers who were essentially undefended.
The numbers fit the picture. Louisville ran 55 offensive plays.
NC State ran 84. That’s a 29-play gap.
In time of possession, NC State held the ball for 37:20, while Louisville had it for 22:40.
There was also a brutal protection breakdown at the end. On Louisville’s final drive, with the Cardinals down a field goal and facing third-and-9 at their own 22, Harvey Dyson III came through untouched for the sack on Kienholz. The missed assignment was charged to Eryx Daugherty, who, in the source’s words, “literally, like a matador in the bull ring in Sevilla, watched Dyson blow through the hole.”
There’s been plenty of talk this week about Jeff Brohm’s staff and, more broadly, about Brohm himself. The source noted that when the camera lingered on Louisville’s sideline, Brohm was often engaged with his brother Greg, who is technically the Chief of Staff and not even a coach.
Louisville has talent. That much is clear. But something is off, and at 2-3 with a string of losable games still ahead, the source’s conclusion was blunt: this season sure seems kaput.
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