Louisville and Brian Brohm blasted West Virginia 44-34 to turn the national title race around in a game with over 1,000 yards of total offense. Check out Pete Fiutak's commentary in his Stream of Consciousness Notes.
By Pete
Fiutak
Welcome again to my pretentious, goofy and self-serving
stream-of-consciousness thoughts and notes on the big games, the
broadcasts, the ads and the teams for the attention deficit
disordered. E-mail
me with your own thoughts and notes and what you'd like to see.
Pregame I'm asking for too much. In no
way can I envision this showdown sucking in any form. I'm not asking for
last year's classic multi-overtime West Virginia win, but I am looking
for one of the most competitive, high-octane games of the year. The
sports world is watching with the full attention on the Big East for the
first time since Miami was ripping through the league. It the showcase
for the conference, and it's a chance for one of these teams to make a
statement in the national title race. If one team blows out the other,
it'll likely control its own destiny on the way to the national title
game. A close win, and there might still be work to be done to convince
the world that the winner deserves to be in over a top one-loss team.
First Quarter
- A beauty from Kirk Herbstreit: "He's (Louisville QB Brian Brohm) going
to have a lot more mobility. It's the best his thumb has felt." I joke,
but I can't think of another twosome I'd want doing this game than
Fowler and Herbstreit. Louisville starts on its own 20 - Brohm comes out firing.
- "Everything is on the line" type of statement count at one.
- West Virginia is hanging back deep and letting the Cardinals work
short on the early plays. If there isn't any pressure, Brohm is going to
pull a Tom Brady vs. the Vikings. Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick.
- The Mountaineer linebackers aren't even close to being in the right
position to stay with the Cardinal receivers.
- Wow. John Holmes (giggle, tee hee) ripped around the UL tight end and
came up with a sack. He's going to be turned loose all game long.
- On the next play, RB Kolby Smith picked up Holmes.
- Nice point by Herbstreit: Brohm's footwork is a bit off rushing his
throws.
- How big was that sack from Holmes? It stopped the UL drive cold.
- Field goal just sneaks in. Considering how the drive started, WVU will
take it. Louisville 3 ... West Virginia 0 - Ooooooh. WVU almost screwed up by fumbling the kickoff. That
would've been a colossal disaster.
West Virginia starts on its own 25 - I love this Mountaineer offensive line. Pat White and Steve
Slaton get all the credit, but this line, as a collective, has been the
star over the years.
- Hebrstreit: "The Louisville linebackers are the best in the Big East
and might be the best in the country."Penn State, Virginia tech, Florida
and Michigan heard that and had to think, "oh really." I know, I know,
big game, but let's relax. Don't Paul McGuire this thing.
- Third down and WVU not only gets stuffed, it loses a fumble.
West Virginia starts on its own 20 - While the UL linebackers aren't the best in the nation, they
are fast. As long as they're patient and don't overpursue, they should
stay in position to stop Slaton and White.
- As I write that, Herbstreit says the opposite and thinks UL should
attack, attack, attack.
- White fumbles for a first down.
- And there we go. William Gay has Slaton dead to rights, overshoots
him, and Slaton gains a yard instead of losing five.
- As I was writing that WVU is sunk if it has to start throwing, White
throws a perfect strike to Darius Reynaud.
- Stung by the last pass, the UL back seven doesn't get it together,
Slaton has the entire right side open, and zipppppppppp. 42 yards for a
touchdown. Man, is he fast.
- You say Borat, I say Yakoff Smirnoff. West Virginia 7 ... Louisville 3
Louisville starts on its own 34 - And the panic starts. Louisville immediately tries to
get it all back looking for the big play. Brohm had Mario Urrutia, but
the star receiver dropped it.
- Ooooooh. Great play call. Kolby Smith took a short pass into the
clear, had blockers downfield, and stumbled and fell. He would've
scored. Little things like that are going to be the difference.
- Every world out of Rick Pitino's mouth sounds as sincere as bowl of
Life that's been sitting out for 12 minutes.
- It's still early, but Brohm is looking every bit the top pro prospect as
Brady Quinn. He's showing mobility in the pocket, fantastic poise under
pressure, and excellent vision. It's one thing to do that against Middle
Tennessee, it's another to do that in a game like this.
- West Virginia's school promo: "It's a place where dreams can come
true." All the chicks go to class dressed in French maid outfits?
- Kolby Smith does his best Michael Bush impersonation blasting over WVU
CB Antonio Lewis for a 20-yard game.
Second Quarter
- I mean, how many shots can they have of the Louisville Slugger plant?
- West Virginia has done a great job of bending without breaking. If
there aren't any YACs (yards after the catch), UL won't do much.
- That Smith stumble will be bigger than it was made out to be at the
time.
- Field goal. West Virginia 7 ... Louisville 6
West Virginia starts on its own 27 - Louisville isn't respecting White at all. It's bringing everyone
up and daring him to throw deep.
- And there we go. There aren't better open field runners in America
than White and Slaton. The Cardinal linebackers have to be more
disciplined and have to stay up every single play. The secondary has to
handle the Mountaineer receivers on its own. The LBs were nowhere to be
found on the two big runs of the night.
- Drive killer. A dead-ball personal foul followed up by another
mistake. White dropped the ball and was sacked putting the ball back
near midfield. 3rd and 12.
- Perfect defense. The Cardinal LBs stayed in their lanes, moved
laterally with White not giving him an open lane, and forced the throw.
William Gay made a great play on the pass; the Cardinals will take that
all night. White can throw, but WVU can't win this game.
- It's midway through the second quarter, and neither team appears to be
relaxed.
- Ooooh. UL almost really screwed up. It looked like the WVU punt
bounced off a Cardinal and had to battle to get it back. That could've
gone either way.
Louisville starts on its own 25 - Arrrgh! That's a third time the Cardinals had a huge play cut
short by a stumble. Brohm has a wide open Harry Douglas, hits him, and
then the big play stops on the West Virginia 35 on a slip.
- This Mountaineer defense would get its doors blown off by any BCS
caliber offense, and it appears to be on the verge of getting ripped
apart.
- John Holmes (giggle, tee hee)
- Brohm is terrific. He's making every throw in the book, but it helps
that WVU isn't getting to him. Brohm has time to set up, pat the ball,
and fire.
- Touchdown Louisville. Anthony Allen get a hole, makes a great cut, and
cuts it back for a touchdown. Louisville 13 ...West Virginia 6
West Virginia starts on its own 19 - I ripped on the WVU D, but this O is the real deal and can move on
anyone. Darius Reynaud is a gamebreaker of the highest order. He took a
short pass to get out of trouble and into Louisville territory.
- How much fun is Slaton? He gets a little bit in the open, cuts back,
pounds over a defender, and cranks out a big gain.
- I never understand why defenses don't take a time out in moments like
this. WVU is on a run and in a rhythm, and UL is doing nothing to slow
things down. Take a TO, slow things down, give your defense a little
time to regain its composure.
- White runs for the score. I know the spread is a running offense, but
don't tell me that the wishbone wouldn't work at the highest level. Can
you image White, Slaton and Owen Schmitt running the Navy triple option?
- "Everything is on the line" type of comment number two.
- Six plays, 81 yards, touchdown. Yeeeeeeesh. West Virginia 14 ... Louisville 13
Louisville starts on its own 23 - Let's relax on the whole "the Big East is back" thing. This is
a great game against two killer teams, but
- Brohm is earning himself a fortune. He sidestepped the blitz and got
the ball to Urrutia. It wasn't a great throw, but it was fantastic under
the circumstances.
- With 3:40 left, UL might want to try to run some clock.
- We've had Pitino in the booth, Lee Corso on the phone, and Hank
Goldberg in the booth in the first half. Up next ... Willie Tyler and
Lester, with a special, walk-on from the one, the only, Charo!
- Harry Douglas rips up a the right sideline after a short timing pass.
Neither defense is doing anything to slow things down.
- Things are starting to get a little chippy. There have been five
personal fouls.
- "Everything is on the line" type of comment number three.
- Great point by Herbstreit. Louisville's offense is fearless until the
red zone, then it sort of clams up.
- First and goal from the three.
- Ooooh. Big hit from Kevin "Boo" McLee came up with a huge hit on Allen
to stuff run number one.
- And run number two.
- You have a NFL-caliber player in Brohm, and you hand it off twice.
Spread it out, let Brohm do his thing, and score. Yeah, I'm pretentious
enough to question the offensive minds of Bobby Petrino and the
Louisville coaching staff.
- UL spreads it out and runs Brohm to the one. That's a great play on
first down, not third.
- Herbstreit rips on Louisville's play calling without ripping. It's
O.K. to fire in a big game like this.
- Fourth and one. Kick the field goal. You're 0-for-3 and haven't even
been close. With the Mountaineer running game, it can get out of trouble
in a huge hurry.
- Louisville should be up 28-14. Instead, it's not finishing with a
combination of bad breaks and curious play calls. You can't keep WVU in
the game.
- ESPN might be a monster, but as big as this game it, it's Louisville 16 ... West Virginia 14
- That has to be one of the weirdest kickoff plays of the year.
Reynaud dropped the ball, got an opening, dropped the ball, and got WVU
got it back. West Virginia starts on its own 23 - Slaton rips off 24 yards, but you have to throw it in a
situation like this and the Mountaineers can't/won't do it.
- One second to play. The Mountaineer offense needs to be better in
hurry up, two-minute mode.
- Hail Mary falls incomplete.
- Fun first half with lots of offense and lots of big plays, but has
either looked like a possible national champion? Uhhhh ... FIRST HALF SCORE: Louisville 16 ... West Virginia 14
Third Quarter - "Everything is on the line" type of comment number four. West Virginia starts on its own 20 - WHY IS HERBSTREIT YELLING
- Slaton rips off 20 with his first run and 15 with the second run. Nice
halftime adjustment, Louisville. - Fumble by Slaton, personal foul call, Louisville ball.
Louisville starts on the WVU 44 - Kolby Smith runs for 13. One the first play, the lights go out
in part of the stadium. - Brohm is so slippery, and he doesn't panic and try to force
something that isn't there when he's being sacks. - Uhhhhh, that has to be reviewed. On 2nd and 20, Brohm throws a
strike, but his receiver, Jimmy Riley, fumbled it. It didn't look like
he had possession in live action.
- This could go either way, but it looked like he never had it. Chris
and Kirk disagree, and the call stands, but I rewound this a few times
and I'm still not completely sold.
West Virginia starts on its own 13 - The Louisville defenders are in position to make plays and not
getting it done. Of course, as I type that ...
- Aw Steve .... Slaton fumbles again, picked up by Malik Jackson, and
touchdown. It'll be reviewed because he might be down.
- Nope, pure fumble. The UL coaches must have seen something because the
Cardinal defenders are going hard after the ball.
- Jackson is on the list for having the best dreds in college football. Louisville 23 ... West Virginia 14
West Virginia starts on its own 20 - The Cardinal defenders are getting fantastic penetration. I'll
lose it if I have to write that about John Holmes (giggle, tee hee)
- Slaton is on the sideline. He appears to have a problem with his arm.
- Like I mentioned before about defenses taking a time out to disrupt
the rhythm, West Virginia should take a little break just to catch its
breath. The UL defense is frothing at the mouth. It doesn't respect the
WVU attack, or White, with Slaton out. Now it's 3rd and 24.
- Now White is limping. This has the potential to get ugly in a hurry if
the Mountaineer stars aren't right.
- Flags all over the place, but UL's Trent Guy takes it for a score.
- West Virginia is melting down. It looked like the WVU punter kicked it
to the wrong side of the field.
- Great minds think alike. Herbstreit just mentioned the same thing. He
dogged the Mountaineer punter for the shank. Louisville 30 ... West Virginia 14
- Never question how tough football players are. Most normal humans
would probably miss a week of work if they had the foot injury White
probably just suffered or the arm injury Slaton just got hit with. With
that said, if Slaton can hold the ball in his other hand, he needs to be
out there. West Virginia starts on its own 9 - Here we go with White right, White left, White up the middle.
- This is where the WVU offensive line has to dominate. It has to create
room for White to run.
- Herbstreit called out Slaton without calling him out. The average fan
probably wouldn't catch it, but he basically just told Slaton to suck it
up.
- "Everything is on the line" comment number five.
- If White pulls this win off without Slaton, it'll be time to crank up
the Heisman talk.
- White is single-handedly keeping this game alive with a fantastic
drive. Remember, he hurt his foot.
- With the defensive score and the punt return, the UL defense hasn't
had a lot of time to rest. I go back to this; call a time out. They're
starting to look a bit gassed.
- Darius Reynaud needs to be a key playmaker at this point.
- Breathtaking, absolutely breathtaking. White has so much confidence in
his mobility that he retreated about 25 yards to elude a UL defender,
and then he got the first down on third and six.
- No matter what Slaton does the rest of his college career, or how
badly he's hurt, every NFL scout has now filed away in the back of his
mind that No. 10 isn't out there in the biggest game of the season.
- White gets in for a touchdown. This was one of the most amazing
drives, considering the circumstances, I've seen all year long.
- I despise the idea of going for two when you don't need to, but it'll
be interesting if WVU thinks about it a little bit. Eventually, it'll
have to go for two.
- Nope, they kick the extra point. Louisville 30 ... West Virginia 21
- Fowler just called out Slaton: "He's got a right hand." Louisville starts on its own 20 - Fantastic play call on the first play and a great play by
Brohm and catch from Douglas. UL can't go conservative now.
- WVU's defense needs to step up its play and do a far better job on the
line of pressuring Brohm. If the linebackers have to keep being the main
blitzers, Brohm will pick the secondary apart.
- And there we go. WVU brought the linebackers, didn't get to Brohm, and
Jimmy Riley ripped off a big play.
- Now in the red zone, UL has to try throwing it into the end zone and
has to stop going horizontal.
- Petrino has forgotten about the running game in close.
Fouth Quarter - Domino's Brooklyn Style Pizza. You had me at hello. (Booooooo)
Shut up. Stupid arteries.
- Sorry to let my non-sexual man crush on Brohm show through, but what a
pretty pass to Mario Urrutia for a score. He put up a perfect fade to
his 6-6 target. It looked easy, but it was a fantastic throw.
- Once again, I hate going for two unnecessarily, but why not try that
same play and look to go up three scores? Being up 15 is a nice cushion
if it doesn't work out, but if you hit it and are up 17, that's three
possessions the Mountaineers will have to go on in the fourth. Louisville 37 ... West Virginia 21
West Virginia starts on its own 49 - Slaton is back in the game and makes a huge catch to get down
to the 32.
- He's hanging on to the ball with both hands.
- Fantastic job by the perfectly-breasted Erin Andrews reporting that
Slaton slammed down the football and yelled, "I'm in" after the Cardinal
score.
- "Everything is on the line" type of comment number six.
- How slippery is White? On a simple running play to the left, the line
got a nice push and White got into the end zone. Now you have to go for
two.
- Yup. Going for two ...
- ... WVU fumbled the snap. Louisville 37 ... West Virginia 27
- Fowler mentioned that a spot in the national title game is
possibly still on the line. SEC fans watching this game and these two
defense might have something to say about that.
- Herbstreit: "Bobby Petrino ... he wants to win this game." Louisville starts on its own 24 - Louisville is staying aggressive and the WVU linebackers are
falling for everything. Troy Smith and the Ohio State offense has to be
on their knees praying to the BCS gods to get the Mountaineers into
Glendale.
- How close is Brohm to 400 yards? He's unbelievable. (I know, get a
room).
- Thanks graphics people. Right on cue, he has 354 yards.
- To a certain group of Louisville fans who wrote in nasty e-mail after
nasty e-mail about my suggestion that the Cardinals are way overrated:
Um, uh, um. Duhhhhhhh.
- Touchdown Louisville. Now the Cardinals are just showing off powering
in for a score with the running game. Louisville 44 ... West Virginia 27
West Virginia starts on its own 29 - Tom Jackson is in the booth. I'm not kidding. I really do want
the Merv Griffin music when all these guests come on. If Tony Kornheiser
did more than just talk about his fantasy team on Monday Night, it would
be the type of thing he'd demand for his broadcasts.
- Here's where the WVU offense, even though it scores in a hurry,
doesn't work. The runs are great, but the clock keeps on rolling.
- However, WVU could score in less than two minutes.
- It's going to be lost in the likely loss, but hopefully the average
fan comes away from this game realizing how special White is.
- Stop calling the Big East a power conference. It's better, but come
on.
- It's not that West Virginia doesn't have the talent to throw; it's
simply not sharp enough since that's not what it practices.
- Fourth and ten, WVU should go back to the running game. Slaton and
White running in the open field are the best weapons.
- UL comes up with the stop at midfield. With 7:16 to play, UL should
stay aggressive and do what's been working. Brohm's good enough to not
make a critical mistake. Don't forget what happened last year.
Louisville stars at the 50 - UL starts out with the run.
- Is John L. Smith watching this? There has to be a part of him
wondering, "what if?"
- Would this be different if it was played in Morgantown? Louisville is
so much better at home.
- Does Fowler get a free steak every time he mentions how wonderful the
Big East is? South Florida and Pitt aren't that great.
- Fourth and one for Louisville with five minutes to play. They're going
for it? Why not? Field position really doesn't mean much considering how
fast WVU can score.
- The big winner tonight might be Rutgers. The buzz will be out there
now for the Cardinals giving Rutgers a shot to make a big statement next
week.
- UL punts. Dork on me for the field position call; WVU is on the nine
with 4:28 to play. That's why I'm writing a dumb column and not about to
get doused with Gatorade.
West Virginia starts on its own 9 - Why isn't WVU running its normal offense? The passing game is
taking up just as much time and is hardly as effective.
- The offense wasn't crisp in hurry up mode at the end of the first
half, but it's more effective now.
- How is Slaton getting so open on pass plays? You have to know where
Slaton and Reynaud are on every play.
- This drive is going way too fast. There's 2:30 to play and WVU is on
the five.
- White has thrown well on this drive. The offense has been solid all
game long, but there simply weren't enough big plays to overcome the
fumble return and punt return.
- Another White touchdown run. Wow. 535 WVU yards to 466. Louisville 44 ... West Virginia 34
- I'll ask the question. Considering UL's offense was struggling
over the last few weeks, is the attack really this good or does the WVU
defense really, really, really suck?
- The onside kick goes out of bounds. Louisville starts on the WVU 46 - 1:39 to play.
- Fowler's going to the Breeder's Cup instead of doing the GameDay show?
People really care about the ponies?
- UL just runs the ball to burn clock. The offense doesn't go anywhere..
:45 to play.
West Virginia starts on its own 20 - White keeps firing. Throws a strike that's dropped.
- UL did it. The offense really showed up, but I still want to see what
the team can do against someone with a pulse on the road. Even so, it
was a great, great win.
