NASHVILLE -- Louisville’s offense did enough to keep punching back Sunday night. The problem was Ole Miss never stopped swinging.
Trinidad Chambliss turned in the kind of performance that makes a quarterback look inevitable. After a shaky opening stretch, the Ole Miss signal-caller threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns, and he kept answering every Louisville push. The biggest response came late, when the Rebels drove 40 yards in the final 90 seconds after the Cardinals had tied the game at 38, setting up the winning field goal.
Lucas Carneiro finished the job with a 48-yard kick, and Ole Miss walked away with the result it had been chasing all night.
For Louisville, the damage came on defense. Jeff Brohm was blunt afterward about what his team needs to clean up.
"I think when we play good football teams, we've got to continue to change things up and give different looks. I think we can get better at that," Cardinals coach Jeff Brohm said about the defense.
"There's some work to be done. At times we've got to be aggressive and cover things.
There's times times you've got to play coverage and try to confuse the quarterback. We did that at times ....
We need to do it more."
The Cardinals had moments, but not enough of them. Ole Miss scored touchdowns on three straight second-half possessions, and Chambliss repeatedly found space in the middle of Louisville’s coverage, especially on seam routes that took advantage of gaps in Cover 3.
That was after a first half in which Chambliss gave the ball away twice, including a fumble. But once he settled in, Ole Miss started looking like the more dangerous team on the field. The Rebels’ quarterback didn’t just recover from the early mistakes; he took control of the game.
Louisville quarterback Lincoln Kienholz had his own rough start. The Ohio State transfer went 7-of-14 for 47 yards in the first half, missed a wide-open Tre Richardson, and bailed from the pocket too early.
"A couple of times, I kind of saw things crossing my face. Not going to lie, I panicked a little bit," Kienholz said. "At the same time, I should do better trusting my line."
Brohm said that sort of early unevenness was part of the package he expected from a quarterback who had not played at this level before.
Kienholz did settle in, though, and Louisville’s offense came alive around him. He finished with 307 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 69 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. After he ran in the score that tied the game, there was still 1:28 left, but Ole Miss had already shown enough in the second half to make the closing minutes feel tilted in its favor.
Louisville’s ground game never really got going. Isaac Brown was held to 36 rushing yards, and the Cardinals still needed Kienholz to carry a heavy load to stay in the fight.
In the end, the offensive production wasn’t enough to cover for the defensive breakdowns. Louisville gave up 41 points and 488 yards, and that’s the number that will linger. The Cardinals know what they were last season on that side of the ball, when they led the ACC by allowing just 188 passing yards per game and gave up more than 300 passing yards only twice, against Cal and SMU.
That version of Louisville isn’t here yet. And until it comes back, nights like this one are going to keep ending the same way.
In Other News...
Louisville Saw Enough From Lincoln Keinholz To Fuel A Bigger Question
Lincoln Keinholzs first start for Louisville gave the Cardinals a real opening to assess where they stand at quarterback, and there was plenty to like in the way he settled in against Mississippi. The debut came in a high-scoring opener that asked a lot of him early, and he responded better as the game went on, showing clear progress in the second half as Louisville hung around in a back-and-forth matchup.
Jeff Brohm left the night with a familiar mix of encouragement and concern, praising the way his team competed while also pointing to the need for more plays against quality opponents. For Louisville, the bigger question now is not just what Keinholz showed in the opener, but how much of that performance can carry over when the schedule tightens and the margin for error shrinks. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Just Found A Quarterback Fans Can Dream On
Louisville came up just short in its Week 1 battle with Ole Miss, but the game still offered a glimpse of something the program has been searching for at quarterback. Lincoln Kienholz, the 4-star transfer from Ohio State making his first start, settled in quickly and gave the Cardinals a legitimate dual-threat presence, throwing for 307 yards while adding 69 on the ground.
The debut mattered because it showed Louisville more than survived a tough opening test against a ranked opponent, it found a passer who can tilt a game with both his arm and legs. Kienholzs production also put him in a rare category for the program, with the kind of early return that can change the feel around an offense even in a loss, and now the bigger question is how far that carryover can go once the schedule keeps moving. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Just Took A Painful Recruiting Hit At Center
Louisvilles frontcourt recruiting board took a hit when five-star center Darius Wabbington backed away from the program, ending a run that had the Cardinals among his final six schools. Wabbington, one of the top centers in the country, had been scheduled to make an official visit on Sept. 11, but that stop is now off the calendar as Louisville loses ground in a pursuit that once looked promising.
The timing makes the setback sting a little more, because the Cardinals are still trying to stay active with another elite big man in Lewis Uvwo. Louisville has made a late push there, but Duke is currently out front, leaving the Cardinals searching for a way to recover from one miss while trying to keep another high-end option within reach. [Read more 🡒]