Louisville - Connecticut Week 7 Recap

The Louisville Cardinals had few problems moving the ball on Saturday in East Hartford, Conn. They did have problems holding onto it.

Storylines don't get much simpler than the one fashioned at Rentschler Field this past weekend. Louisville, a team with minimal margin for error, coughed up four turnovers against the Connecticut Huskies, who have built a reputation for playing cleaner and crisper football than their opponents ordinarily do. As a result, a potent performance for Steve Kragthorpe's Cardinal didn't amount to much against Randy Edsall's roster. The cool, soggy New England Autumn had to feel that much colder when this contest was placed in the deep freeze, because Louisville produced lots of attractive numbers, with the exception of one. A single deficiency derailed everything else the Cards hoped to attain, while the homestanding Huskies gladly picked up the Louisville loot and carried it all the way to the winner's circle.

Louisville's four turnovers--two interceptions by quarterback Adam Froman, plus two fumbles by running back Bilal Powell--led to 24 points for Connecticut. That stat is enough of an indication of the central role ball security (or lack thereof) played in this game. But just for good measure, one must also consider the fact that two of UL's turnovers occurred in Connecticut's third of the field. Powell fumbled once at the Husky 4, and on another occasion at the 33, a pair of mistakes that, it could reasonably be argued, deprived the visitors of 10 points, if not more. Therefore, one could claim that UConn netted 34 points, not 24, from Louisville's lapses.

From a Cardinal standpoint, the handful of huge mistakes was particularly hard to stomach because this was one of the Cards' better 60-minute offensive performances of 2009. Froman is continuing to grow at the position after relieving Justin Burke earlier in the year. The junior from Santa Rosa, Calif., presided over a balanced attack that piled up 457 yards against coordinator Todd Orlando's blue-shirted Husky defense. Offenses belonging to Baylor and Pittsburgh were held in check by Connecticut, but the Cards moved the ball up and down the field with considerable consistency. With 295 passing yards and 162 rushing yards, Froman's forces were hard to defend; Louisville offered a two-pronged attack that Orlando wasn't able to easily solve. It's not unreasonable--nor is it whiny--to say that if UL kept its Redbird talons on the pigskin, UConn would have been sweating, and not strolling, in the race to the finish line at Rentschler.

Does any of this reflect negatively on Connecticut, however? Not really.

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Louisville came to New England with a fresh supply of confidence after nipping Southern Miss at the wire in week six. Connecticut expected to get a stern test from its guests, so the Huskies' ability to prevail says a lot about their competitive chops. UConn's gutting week-six loss at Pittsburgh was the soul-crushing kind of setback that can oh-so-easily lead to a hangover loss the following week, as one game's depression sabotages a second successive Saturday. Coaches tell their teams not to get beaten twice by one game, so Connecticut truly stood tall by rallying against Louisville, and not folding the tent after its painful experience against Pittsburgh.

From a more game-specific standpoint, winning the turnover battle and playing smarter have formed the double-barreled backbone of the Huskies' success this decade, so after snagging four takeaways from Louisville, Edsall's outfit will gladly concede yards in exchange for the only statistic that truly matters: an increase of one in the "W" column. Louisville might have played hard, but the Connecticut Huskies--football moralists that they are--once again reaped the pronounced benefits of clean living.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer