Steve Kragthorpe is fired up, but Cards still lose a game they could have won

The morning after each 2009 University of Louisville Cardinals football game, we will provide a sampling of news and commentary about the contest. Regarding the Cardinals’ 31-27 loss yesterday to Kentucky, it is not really comforting to me that they were decided underdogs and were unexpectedly in the game with a chance to win late. They simply made too many mistakes and failed too often to take advantage of Kentucky’s generosity.

Rick Bozich, Louisville Courier-Journal

For more than three hours UK seemed determined to give this football game to the Cardinals. No, thanks. The Cardinals were just as resolved not to accept..

A Louisville team that was supposed to lose by two touchdowns had to be thinking this was a game they could (should?) have won by two touchdowns. That would have stopped the unrelenting criticism of their coach, Steve Kragthorpe, the first UofL coach to lose three straight to UK since this series resumed in 1994.

Here is the statistical nugget that will haunt the Cardinals as they review the video and search for answers about why they lost:

In the second and third quarters, Kragthorpe's team had four possessions where they pushed the football to the Kentucky 15-, 5-, 11- and 5-yard lines. Football people say moving the ball inside the opponents' 20 is taking it into the red zone. The Cardinals were in the bright end zone.

But instead of celebrating a possible 28 points, the Cards settled for six — two field goals.

Eric Crawford, Louisville Courier-Journal

This may have been Steve Kragthorpe as you've never seen him. His news conference Saturday after the University of Louisville lost to the University of Kentucky 31-27 wouldn't rival Chris Rock for salty language, but by Kragthorpe standards, it was spicy.

“I'm freaking sick that we didn't win that game,” he said.

Say what you want about this coach. I doubt if his team's passionate performance moved the needle much on his approval ratings. But UofL came to play, and Kragthorpe got the ball into the hands of his playmakers enough not only to give the Cards a chance but to leave them thinking they should have won.

Tom Heiser (Louisville Courier-Journal fan blog):

This one is really disheartening. I guess it's only apt that the Cards squandered what looked like a stunning upset when Trent Guy, arguably the Cards' MVP, badly muffed the punt that would have given the Cards the ball back leading 27-24. After all, Louisville directly benefited from three UK turnovers in the third quarter -- but therein lies the problem. This game was lost in that momentum-shifting 15-minute block when the Cards twice settled for field goals and whiffed on another.

How do Card fans feel after cleanly beating the spread and almost coming out of Commonwealth Stadium with a win? Probably the same as UK fans felt when the boasted and brayed on this blog about nearly beating the Cards in 2005. But Utah and Pittsburgh are close enough to feel them breathing. Did the Cards show the kind of progress to lead fans to believe that a win over either of those upcoming foes is likely?

Brian Bennett (ESPN.com):

Bad luck, thy name is Steve Kragthorpe.

Louisville had every opportunity to beat Kentucky on the road [Saturday]. The Cardinals got three third-quarter turnovers, and had the ball inside the Wildcats' 10 four times in the second half. But they only came away with 16 points on those drives, and they gave it away twice themselves in the fourth quarter, falling short, 31-27.

What can we take from this game? Louisville played hard, and Justin Burke showed me something. He didn't make many mistakes until the fourth quarter, and even his interception was tipped at the line of scrimmage. The Cardinals played hard and showed some life.

At the same time, it's the same old story under Kragthorpe, with Louisville coming up on the wrong end in a game it could have and should have won. Kentucky did everything to give this game away, yet the Cardinals still couldn't take it. Now with a trip to Utah coming up next week and few breaks on the schedule, you wonder where the wins will come from.

Card Chronicle

If Tom Jurich and the fan base were looking for improvement, they got it. But as my friend Brian put it so eloquently, "If there's one thing I hate, it's a moral victory."  As I see it, this moral victory could be the tipping point for the Kragthorpe era. This game had three potential outcomes:   1) Louisville loses looking like a lame duck, Kragthorpe watch officially goes from "Hottest seat in America" to "We've gone plaid", 2) Louisville makes it competitive, showing much-needed improvement and assuaging the beleaguered fan base for another week, or 3) Louisville turns the corner and stuns the Cats at Commonwealth.  Most people expected the outcome to be worse than #1. This fell somewhere in between # 2 and # 3.

Both on the field and in the presser following the game, Steve Kragthorpe was fired up.  You could tell he wanted to run right back out on the field and play best 2 out of 3. SK quotes out of context:  "That guy's a stud.  That guy's a freaking stud" in reference to Trent Guy's game. "We were going after his ass!" in reference to the intimidating Trevard Lindley.  "Next freakin' question, you're wrong!" in response to a reporter's ill-willed question.  SK is fired up about this team. This is the kind of fire I have wanted to see from our coach since day one, not just some stupid Kragisms and coach-speak to fill the newspapers, but a true desire to win.

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