Five first half thoughts:
1. Pick-six on Louisville's first drive was the second-worst start imaginable after avoiding a TY Hilton opening kickoff return for TD
2. Speaking of which, TY Hilton was the fastest man on the field tonight and made Louisville's secondary look very Sun Beltish in the first half
3. The running game had a couple good moments but as the game wore on, FIU all but shut it down
4. Dexter Heyman came to play, so there's that
5. Nice composure by Stein to lead the offense down the field for seven points as the half wound down but overall the offense did not execute well enough to beat anyone left on the schedule
Five second half thoughts:
1. The momentum was there for the taking and Louisville gift-wrapped it back to FIU with a vanilla three-and-out drive after the halftime break; result for each of the first four UofL drives in second half: Punt, punt, turnover on downs, turnover on downs
2. TY Hilton's impressive one-handed diving catch put him over 200 yards receiving on the night...with four minutes left in the third quarter
3. Awful third quarter on offense; FIU had completely contained UofL's running game but yet Sanford wasn't convinced: 10 running plays for 18 yards in the third quarter with four passes mixed in for 43 yards
4. After grabbing some momentum at the start of the fourth quarter through the air, Sanford inexplicably dialed up four straight running plays and the Cards turned the ball over on downs on the FIU seven-yard line (most violence-inducing sequence of the game)
5. Hey, at least this wasn't on ESPN and the only live football game on TV...$(*%)%@)%@_*(%*@(
There weren't many things to praise Friday night, but the Cards' young receiving corps is very talented, the defense only gave up three points in the second half and the next couple years could be very fun. This season, however might be longer than many thought.