CARDINALS

Instant Analysis | Louisville-Miami takeaways

Jeff Greer

@jeffgreer_cj

University of Louisville's Crovin Lamb (4) breaks free from University of Miami's Nantambu-Akill Fentress (28) as he runs the kick-off back for the touchdown during the first half of play at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. September 1, 2014

The University of Louisville's first ACC football game is in the books, and the Cardinals walked out with a 31-13 win. I wrote at length about it in my game story, but it's worth mentioning a bunch here: The defense was huge tonight. They were supposed to be the team's weaker unit, but that wasn't the case tonight.

Live stream of Bobby Petrino's press conference right here.

Play of the Game: I'll go with a second-and-12 sack by Deiontrez Mount, who hunted down Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya for an 11-yard loss on a pivotal Miami drive. The Hurricanes were down 11 at that point, and they desperately needed a touchdown. They'd entered Louisville territory, but the sack stopped the momentum in its tracks.

Turning Point: Corvin Lamb's 97-yard kick return for a touchdown put his 4.26 40-yard-sprint-speed on display and it gave Louisville the lead back. He didn't get much use on offense tonight, but his special-teams play made up for quite a few other special teams miscues tonight.

MVP: Can it be an entire unit? Gerod Holliman and James Sample had interceptions. Lorenzo Mauldin and Deiontrez Mount combined for three tackles for loss, two QB hurries and a sack. Andrew Johnson was solid. So was Terell Floyd. James Burgess, too.

Surprise: The defense stood out, not the Bobby Petrino-coached offense. It bears repeating. The 3-4 looked hungry and alive tonight.

Takeaway: Louisville's defense was supposed to take a step back this year, but it looked very much like the group that had the second-best scoring defense and top-ranked total defense in the country. The rush D in particular was impressive. Louisville needs that defense to show up at the end of October when Florida State comes here. The Cards need a bit more offensive firepower going forward. You have to think Will Gardner's shakiness can be worked on. He showed signs of his talent at times, and signs of his inexperience at others. The offensive line's struggles didn't help, but he took a bad sack and lost two bad fumbles. That'll improve as he gets more starts and snaps under his belt.