Louisville had the better ranking, the bigger expectation and the home field edge, but Wake Forest walked out with a 30-27 win in a game that fit an uncomfortable Jeff Brohm pattern all too well.
The Cardinals were favored by 12.5 and still couldn’t avoid the kind of letdown that has followed Brohm teams before. The source lays out the list: Pittsburgh (-7) and Kentucky (-7) in BrohmEra S1; Stanford (-21) and SMU (-7) in BrohmEra S2; Virginia (-7) and California (-19), with the California loss followed by back-to-back defeats to Clemson and SMU in BrohmEra S3.
Brohm, the piece argues, has shown he can deliver big wins. But he also has a habit of leaving his team unprepared for games that should be easier.
This one started in the wrong direction immediately. Louisville opened with a three-and-out, then another three-and-out. Even after the Cardinals had worked their way to a shaky 14-10 lead, the game never really felt settled.
With about six minutes left in the second quarter, the turning point arrived. Smarts, the writer’s viewing partner, summed it up in three words: “A Jeff Brohm Special.”
On the next play, former Tar Heel failure Gio Lopez found Carlos Hernandez wide open downfield for a 77-yard touchdown at 5:49, and Wake Forest moved in front 17-14. Louisville never led again.
From there, the Cardinals kept hurting themselves. The source points to holding penalties, busted coverages, failure to set the edge and several “Unnecessarily Stupid Unsportsmanlike Conduct” penalties, including some that came at especially bad times.
One unnamed Cardinal was singled out for two particularly costly mistakes late. First, on a third-and-11 at the Wake Forest 14, he failed to touch the defender he was supposed to block, leading to a sack and a big loss of yardage. What could have been a touchdown instead turned into a long field goal attempt that went wide left.
Then, in Louisville’s final desperate drive with no timeouts left, he was called for holding and shoved the Cardinals out of realistic field-goal range.
Brohm then went to another kicker, one who had not yet seen action, for a 57-yard try. It never had much of a chance.
Metaphorically, it was blocked.
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Louisvilles Early-Season Ceiling Suddenly Looks Like A Real Debate
Wake Forests visit to Louisville turned into the kind of afternoon that can reshape the conversation around an early-season team. The No. 16 Cardinals came in with momentum, but Wake Forest walked out with a 30-27 win that pushed it to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the ACC, with Gio Lopez throwing for 225 yards and a touchdown and Carlos Hernandez doing the damage as a receiver.
For Louisville, the result was more than just a loss in the standings. A game that stayed tight until the closing sequence ended with the Cardinals staring at a chance to salvage it from long range, and the final moments only sharpened the debate over how high this team can climb if the margin gets thinner against ACC opponents. [Read more 🡒]
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Louisville Faces One Big Second-Half Test After Wild Start
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Carlos Hernandez has been the biggest problem for the Cardinals so far, piling up six catches for 170 yards and a touchdown for the Demon Deacons. Louisville still has time to settle in and control the game, but the second half now feels like a test of whether the Cardinals can clean up the mistakes, slow down Wake Forests passing attack and turn a shootout into something more manageable. [Read more 🡒]