Louisville

 Let's play one of my favorite games of late...Is it worse than..? 

It was 2002, and most of us in garnet had no idea that the Dynasty was over and we were about to careen into the lost decade. As the #4 Noles led by all-everything youngster Chris Rix were charging into Louisville ready to destroy another unranked opponent. My boys and I had scheduled a morning round at Valhalla, and then this Thursday night game would kickstart a bourbon splash weekend. Then, the storm hit. Yup, a damn tropical storm...Isadore...rose from the gulf all the way to bluegrass and hammered us on the golf course (yes we played through), and then just obliterated a still new Papa Johns Stadium. Ann Bowden parked herself under the cement of the concourse and did not see a down. The three of us about 15 rows up on the goal line could honest to god not see the game when it was on the other side of the 50. I have been less wet naked in the ocean. I told every woman who loved me upon my return to get me Nole raingear for Christmas. We lost in OT, and spent the next 8 years wondering when the hill starting sloping down. Was it worse than that?

In 2016, the #2 Noles cruised into now conference foe Louisville coming off of 29 straight ACC wins and Jimbo has yet another top 5 recruiting class primed to reload and take us back to the playoff. This time the sun chose to greet us and national tv. Louisville chose this game to honor Muhammad Ali who was in a suite standing and waving to the crowd after every touchdown; until he had to sit down and just lift his hand because he was just tired. Lamar Jackson ran for roughly 600 yards and I am not sure we ever touched him. Louisville scored 63 points and thank goodness they had a running offense that ate the clock. Debbie and I left the game and went ziplining in caves immediately after. We needed to see if going blind at high speed underground potentially smashing into unseen walls would improve our mood. Was it worse than that?

Nope, it was not. This game loses that game. Oh, it was bad. This defense is on a record setting pace and I am fairly certain there are middle school squads out there that strongly believe they can score 35 in the first half against us. Here is how wacky this blowout was. I strongly believe that our offensive line won more battles than they lost Saturday, and our much maligned defensive front absolutely owned the Cardinal line. When you win both sides of the line of scrimmage, you win big right. Umm, no Virginia, Santa Claus is dead. The other dudes on the field for FSU were so mind numbingly and consistently bad, you are Appalachian roadkill. 

Let's unpack this defensive strategy that we employed this week. The Cards are not tough to diagnose. They have one wideout you need to worry about, and they run the same wide split zone read to Hawkins about 15 times a game. Everyone knows this, and most employable DC's choose to double TuTu or at the very least have your All-American cover corner be on him all game. Nope, we are gonna stick with the "system" (god knows it has been a impregnable wall so far). Asante had Atwell only on one play when they made a mistake and had him line up on his side. Literally every other snap the entire game, we chose to cover this 4.2 kid with a safety or a linebacker. I am almost certain that if I was asked to cover Usain Bolt from the slot, I might get beat. My 5.6 forty looks good for the first 2 or 3 steps, but he has a chance of slipping by me after that. On the stretch zone reads, our line was winning every battle - which did not matter at all because the safeties and backers asked to play wide and tackle were on Instagram practicing their finger waggle to the warchant. It was an absolute disaster of a plan, and who knows about the execution, because they were scoring too fast to dissect our mistakes. 

On offense, I am going to be very unpopular here as the Jordan Travis fan club is reaching Shaun Cassidy or Mendes status based on your haircolor. Jordan is a leader, an effort machine, and has almost singlehandedly resuscitated our offense...and he is not sustainable as our QB. Unless, in the offseason, he can learn to throw a forward pass more accurately than we have seen thus far...we will be constantly outschemed. He is a one read guy that constantly makes Copperfield magic when the crowd and defense are looking the other way. His pigskin crossover dribble on the first drive was ridiculous. But that entire drive was him making miracles. But, in the midst of all this adulation, remember that almost every long toss in the last three weeks was actually underthrown, and the sideline safe passes are invariably a tough catch. And tough catches are not in our current wideout wheelhouse. In fact, it appears, we need a absurdly bigger wheelhouse for this group of scholarship athletes who should be shut out from the meal plan this week. 

Let's assume that Chubba Purdy throws an uncatchable ball. I think that is indisputable. Have you ever seen an oh for nine start like this kid? One toss out of bounds to avoid a sack, one high toss over the middle and 7 doinks right in the numbers of his guys - not a one pulled in. Before he dropped a Purdy TD toss, Helton Roberto Duran'd a perfect first down uncovered seam toss that would have meant a tie score when the game was still in doubt. Warren Thompson decided to go up with only one hand on a sideline route, and the freshman triplets had 8 targets, 16 hands on the ball and zero grabs. Yowza, no wonder Ron Dugans was sick. 

Why was this game not worse than the first two funhouses I took you through? Because this feels more like a speed bump than a program altering defeat. Coach Norvell was as damning as a say-nothing coach can be after the game about the defensive "coordination"; saying they need to do a better job planning and putting the kids in a position to succeed. Whoa, may want to shorten the lease Adam. We have two weeks to get Jordan healthy and teach Chubba how to throw a ball that can be caught. We have two weeks to see if we need to recruit 6 more wide receivers. We have 14 days to see if our back seven dwarfs on defense can be less sleepy and more doc. The defensive staff has to slow everything down. In week one, focus on one thing...Go with Treat Coach Fuller...Trick is just too complicated...then in week two we can move on to covering guys in the other jerseys. 

Yes, it was bad, but it will get better. November is coming folks. We will better then or Coach's head might explode right behind that shield. Happy Halloween Noles!