SPORTS

Sullivan | Cardinals' progress proves steady

Tim Sullivan
@TimSullivan714

Like a painter with more canvas than conviction, Bobby Petrino keeps calling his football team "a work in progress."

Not quite there. Not yet a finished product. Not the kind of high-octane offense synonymous with a coach accustomed to testing the capacity of scoreboards. Not the sort of operation fans associate with Petrino's previous stint at the University of Louisville.

Well, let the record show that the progress remains incomplete, but the work is picking up speed. Thursday's 42-31 loss to second-ranked Florida State was the sort of near-miss where the sting lingers and the mistakes are magnified. But also, upon reflection, a sign of better things to come.

The Cardinals led, 21-0, before their proud defense was shredded by Jameis Winston and his robust running game. U of L became the first college team to intercept the Heisman Trophy winner three times in one game, only to yield 401 passing yards and three lengthy touchdown tosses. The Cards struck early and often, but with Muhammad Ali in attendance they were unable to go toe-to-toe with the defending national champions for the duration.

"All we have to do is finish," Louisville quarterback Will Gardner said. "The first half we were dialed in, running the ball, moving the ball. We just needed to execute at the end."

There was a lot to like, just not enough to sustain 60 successful minutes against a team that has now won 24 straight games. Considering the competition, and the retooling required in the aftermath of the Teddy Bridgewater era, the result was fairly representative of the relative state of the two programs.

Recognizing the talent Jimbo Fisher has stockpiled, Petrino resolved to take outsized chances in an effort to even the odds. He gambled and lost early at the goal line, his offense stopped on fourth down when it might have salvaged a field goal, but that decision spoke as much to the competition as to the Louisville coach's strategic inclination. It's tough to beat a team of Florida State's caliber three points at a time.

"We kind of made the decision going into the game that we were going to be aggressive, and we felt like we had to take our opportunities and our shots down the field," Petrino said. "We opened up with the real deep throw (a 71-yard completion to DeVante Parker). Unfortunately, we didn't score when we got down there and that came back and really hurt us."

Later, Louisville would lose its shutout when a fumbled Florida State exchange bounced into the end zone and was pounced on by the Seminoles' Nick O'Leary. That reprieve provided FSU's only points of the game's first 35 minutes, and it sliced U of L's lead to a more manageable 21-7. Limited to 200 yards of total offense in the first half, the visitors exploded for 374 more after halftime.

If it looked like Louisville hit a wall in the second half, that's been the pattern for Florida State foes all season. Yet beyond their immediate disappointment and recriminations, the Cardinals should have emerged from the experience reassured that their progress is accelerating and their season may not have peaked. The return of Parker after a seven-week layoff and the improved health of running back Michael Dyer has transformed an offense that had previously lagged noticeably behind Todd Grantham's defense.

Parker caught eight passes for 214 yards. Dyer carried 28 times for 134 yards and three touchdowns. And their playmaking abilities put the Seminoles back on their heels until they started to find consistent footing in the third quarter.

FSU's comeback was largely attributable to Winston, a player whose off-the-field issues sometimes overshadow a terrific talent. Numerous Louisville fans, determined to tease the visiting star, showed up in seafood restaurant bibs – a jab at the quarterback's highly publicized supermarket shoplifting of crab legs. One fan in the front row behind the Florida State sideline appeared in an orange prison-style jumpsuit bearing Winston's No. 5 and the words "Department Of Corrections" on the back.

But after completing only three of his first nine passes and providing Louisville's Gerod Holliman with his ninth and 10th interceptions of the season, Winston performed more like he had in a transcendent second half against Notre Dame. His three touchdown passes covered 68, 47 and 35 yards and trying to keep up with Winston's receivers made Louisville vulnerable to touchdown runs of 40 and 38 yards by FSU freshman Dalvin Cook.

"At halftime, we knew they had been a team that had been good in the second half," Petrino said. "But we weren't able to stop 'em."

The work continues. So does the progress.

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, by email at tsullivan@courier-journal.com, and on Twitter @TimSullivan714.