U of L football falls to Virginia 23-21

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – They stormed the field here at Scott Stadium after the home-standing University of Virginia upset 21st-ranked University of Louisville 23-21 on a hectic September Saturday.

They left scraps of trash and empty bottles along the patchy green on the north side of the field, the only lingering evidence of a topsy-turvy, sometimes-thrilling affair.

They left a stunned Louisville football team in the visiting locker room.

"There were a couple tears," U of L linebacker Lorenzo Mauldin said after his team's first loss of the young season.

"We just know we have to build on our losses and mistakes."

Mistakes ruled the day at UVA.

Louisville (2-1, 1-1 in the ACC) lost four turnovers, which led to 13 Virginia points. The Cardinals converted 4 of 14 third-down attempts and averaged four yards a play on offense.

Virginia (2-1, 1-0 ACC) lost three turnovers. The Cavaliers converted 6 of 18 third-down attempts and averaged 4.1 yards a play on offense.

Somebody had to win.

The difference maker came just before the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter.

With Louisville leading 21-20, Virginia's offense stalled, sputtering through a six-play, 18-yard drive that led to nowhere.

Louisville's defense, as it had all afternoon, did its job.

But Virginia's punt wobbled high enough and long enough to create confusion on Louisville's punt return.

U of L receiver Michaelee Harris bumped into return man James Quick as he prepared to catch the ball.

The ball popped loose, and Virginia pounced. Kelvin Rainey's fumble recovery led to Ian Frye's 42-yard field goal, the game winner.

"It looked like we had a chance to win the game, and then we made another mistake," U of L coach Bobby Petrino said.

But, Petrino added, "I told the team the mistake we made in the kicking game did not cost us the game … When you lose a game like this, we will watch the video and there will be 15 plays individually that, if we would have made that play, we had a chance to win the game."

Virginia's pass rush was overwhelming – suffocating at times and always menacing. The Cavaliers bum-rushed Louisville's right tackle Ryan Mack, right guard Jake Smith and center Tobijah Hughley all game, poking holes time and again in Louisville's pass blocking.

They threw linebackers and safeties and just about every other possible blitz at Louisville, and the Cardinals wilted.

"They did what we thought they were going to do," said running back Dominique Brown, who ran 20 times for 74 yards and a touchdown.

"They brought a good rush and we picked up on that. We just didn't execute."

U of L quarterback Will Gardner was only sacked twice but he was uncomfortable, under constant duress after the snap. When the pressure didn't come, Gardner still looked like he expected it, sailing throws and missing open receivers.

The official statistics say Gardner had seven of his passes batted down. A casual observer might've guessed a number closer to 15.

He finished 14 of 34, with two touchdowns, two interceptions and 164 passing yards.

The way the game started, few would've guessed that a meltdown was coming.

Gardner engineered a nine-play, 75-yard march for the opening touchdown. His play-action throw to freshman tight end Charles Standberry was a work of art, a sell job that would make a community theater director proud.

What followed was enough to keep U of L's quarterbacks out of the post-game press conference. Gardner completed two of his next 15 passes, throwing two interceptions in the process.

Freshman Reggie Bonnafon replaced him, but the Louisville native didn't do much better.

On his first drive, Bonnafon guided the Cardinals 34 yards in 46 seconds, but his last-gasp Hail Mary to end the half fell incomplete. He ran three more series, but Louisville totaled one lost yard on nine plays.

"We thought maybe we could get a spark and get something going," Petrino said.

Gardner came back on the field with 13:59 to play, leading Louisville on back-to-back scoring drives. The way the Cardinals had played the previous two-plus quarters, the possibility of Louisville rallying like that seemed distant.

But the defense had done everything it could to keep Louisville in the game, right down to snapping up a fumble and grabbing two interceptions, all in their own territory.

Then the punt happened. The field goal hit. The band played. The seats emptied. The field filled.

And a shocked Louisville walked off, back into the locker room, where those tears were shed.

"We just weren't executing," Brown said. "We were killing ourselves with mistakes."

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).