Louisville Football Blows Late Lead, Stunned by Stanford

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Two weeks ago, the Louisville football program pulled off a monumental victory against Clemson in Death Valley. Fast forward to the present and they have now suffered one of their worst losses in modern program history.

Coming off their bye week for a trip out to the West Coast, Louisville choked off a late double-digit lead at Stanford and suffered a stunning 38-35 loss Saturday at Stanford Stadium.

The No. 19 Cardinals (6-4, 4-3 ACC), who entered the game as a 20.5-point favorite, led by 14 points with just under ten minutes remaining. Down the stretch, the Cardinal (3-7, 2-5 ACC), who were on a six-game losing streak, scored 17 unanswered points.

Stanford wide receiver Emmett Mosley V, who finished with 13 receptions for 168 yards and three touchdowns, had back-to-back scores in the final quarter — with his last one coming with 45 seconds left.

Louisville turned it over on downs on their ensuing drive around midfield, giving Stanford four seconds to try to get into position. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by Tayon Holloway and an offside call on Quincy Riley allowed the Cardinal to get into better position and kick a game-winning 52-yard field goal with just one second left.

Those two penalties summed up Louisville’s afternoon, as they committed a whopping 13 — including nine on the defensive end alone. That, along with shaky efforts in coverage, allowed Stanford to rack up 406 yards of offense — their most against a Power Conference opponent this season.

Despite Louisville having six sacks and eight tackles for loss, Stanford QB Ashton Daniels still went 22-of-33 for a season-high 298 yards, plus three touchdowns and an interception to CB Corey Thornton. Backup QB Justin Lamson also threw a touchdown on his only pass attempt of the game

Offensively, Louisville had an up-and-down performance on that side of the ball. They put up 432 yards to Stanford’s 406, with QB Tyler Shough going 26-of-39 for 270 yards, a touchdown to WR Chris Bell and an interception. Bell had nine catches for 112 yards, while WR Ja’Corey Brooks had nine for 104.

Louisville’s star true freshman Isaac Brown left in the first quarter with a shoulder injury, paving the way for Duke Watson to have a monster game. He had 11 carries for 117 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the first true freshman to have 100+ rushing yards and three touchdowns in school history.

It’s hard to get off to a worse start on both sides of the ball than Louisville had. They put up just 12 yards on their first three drives while allowing 88 yards to Stanford on their first three drives and were down 10-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game.

The Cardinal kicked a 41-yard field goal on their second drive, and after Shoough threw an interception on Louisville’s second play of the game, Stanford turned it into a one-play, 62-yard touchdown run by Mosley.

After that, Louisville was able to fire off three straight touchdown drives to go up 21-13 at halftime. A Thornton interception late in the first quarter turned into a one-yard rushing score by Chaney, Watson punched it in from five yards after Stanford was held to a 24-yard field goal, then Bell hauled in a 10-yard touchdown in last minute of the half.

Like in the first half, Louisville’s offense was a bit clumsy to start the second, turning over on downs and then punts on their first two drives of the period. They eventually found pay dirt again on their third drive after halftime, with Watson scoring touchdown No. 2 on a 68-yard run.

But Stanford wasn’t about to topple. After having to punt it twice to start the half, the Cardinal were able to come back with a scoring drive in the final seconds of the third quarter. Not only did Elic Ayomanor catch a 13-yard touchdown, but they added a two-point conversion to make it a seven-point game.

Louisville answered with a five-yard touchdown run by Watson for his third score of the game, but this set up a 17-point run by Stanford. In all, the Cardinal scored 28 of their points in the final 15:07 of the game.

Next, Louisville returns to L&N Stadium to wrap up ACC play with their home finale against Pitt. Kickoff against the Panthers is scheduled for Saturday, November 23 at 3:30 PM EST.

(Photo by D’Angelo Hutchinson: Bob Kupbens – Imagn Images)

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