3 takeaways: Offense folds, Louisville football collapses in ACC-opening loss to Syracuse

SYRACUSE, New York — The JMA Wireless Dome was, at times, deafening on Saturday night.

Louisville football once tried to huddle and did all it could to overcome the noise level. Between the crowd and the Cardinals’ self-inflicted struggles, U of L opened the season with a 31-7 loss to Syracuse.

"You just gotta adjust," Louisville offensive lineman Caleb Chandler said of the crowd noise. "We actually went to a silent count to fix all that and it was just hard to hear for the clap. At one point we thought T Huddy (Tyler Hudson) jumped offsides, but everybody ran the play but the offensive line and we didn't even hear the call. So, it was very loud, and props to their fans for coming out and showing out tonight."

It’s the first time the two teams have played in New York since 2018 when the Orange also recorded a lopsided victory 54-23. The loss also ends a three-game winning streak for U of L against Syracuse.

It goes without saying it was not a good night all around for head coach Scott Satterfield, senior quarterback Malik Cunningham and the rest of the Cardinals.

"We did not get into good (offensive) rhythm," Satterfield said, "not having the ball enough really just to get in that rhythm, get it going and never could get anything going like we're used to doing and I give them (Syracuse) credit. They had a lot to do with that."

Here are three takeaways from the game:

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What is the offense’s identity?

Syracuse’s defensive line may be relatively young, but it clearly arrived ready Saturday night.

The group, and the defense as a whole, challenged Louisville’s veteran offensive line and made life difficult for Cunningham, who rarely had enough time to throw.

The group also stymied U of L’s rushing attack, which was led by newcomer Tiyon Evans, who finished with a team-best 89 rushing yards. The Tennessee transfer had the team’s only touchdown of the night on a 36-yard run with 1:10 left in the first, putting U of L within a field goal at 10-7.

It’s the closest the Cardinals would get to the Orange, who posted a three-quarter shutout the rest of the way.

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Louisville showed flashes for big plays in the passing game with some trickeration when wide receiver Braden Smith threw a 45-yard pass to Tyler Hudson. And Cunningham also had a nice 45-yard pass to Ahmari Huggins-Bruce. Each time, however, the Cardinals couldn’t build on the big plays and came up empty.

Shortly after Huggins-Bruce’s catch in the third quarter, Cunningham threw an interception in the end zone. Louisville’s next two drives ended in similar fashion with Cunningham throwing another INT then losing the ball on a fumble.

Cunningham finished with just 152 passing yards on 16 of 22 passing with two interceptions, three sacks and two fumbles (one lost). He ran for 34 yards on 13 carries. Hudson was about the only bright spot in the passing game with 102 yards on eight receptions in his Football Bowl Subdivision debut.

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Syracuse’s Shrader shreds Cardinals

For a third straight year, Louisville was able to hold Syracuse running back Sean Tucker to under 100 rushing yards — barely, he came out in the final two minutes with 98 yards.

The same could not be said, however, about Tucker’s quarterback. What was supposed to be a rebuilt and improved passing defense was picked apart at times. And the Cardinals' front struggled to bring down Garrett Shrader and gave up several big plays in the process. The veteran QB presented a challenge running, too, eluding Cardinals defenders for 16 carries and 95 yards on the ground, while helping the team convert on 6 of 11 third downs. He finished the night 18 of 25 for 237 passing yards and two touchdowns. Shrader had no turnovers and was sacked just twice.

"He's a tough guy to tackle in space. He's a big guy," Satterfield said. "We came in not wrapping up several times, and I thought he was able to break those tackles and extend those drives. Those are huge plays on those third downs to be able to get our defense off the field. We just gotta do a better job tackling."

On the Orange’s second drive of the game, Shrader completed a 55-yard pass to Tucker to put the team up 10-0 at the 5:11 mark of the first quarter.

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By the end of the half with the Orange up 17-7, Syracuse had 117 yards of total offense with Shrader completing three passes for at least 20 yards.

Louisville’s biggest advantage was Syracuse’s propensity for penalties. The Orange had 10 at halftime and finished with 17 for 102 yards.

Cardinals defensive lineman Ashton Gillotte had some success against the Orange o-line and Shrader, coming up with 1 ½ sacks, one of which ended up taking the QB out of the game for a play when his helmet came off on second down in the first quarter. The next play with Shrader on the bench was unproductive, and the Orange were forced to punt.

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What it means

Louisville was focused on putting last season behind it and starting the season off on a high note.

Though the Cardinals were a 4 ½-point favorite to beat Syracuse heading into Saturday night’s contest, winners of three straight in the series, Satterfield warned against feeling too confident because of how different each team is this year compared to their last meeting. He was right.

Satterfield, whose job security was questioned after a 6-7 season a year ago, has one of the nation’s top recruiting classes for 2023 but hasn’t coached a winning season since his first at Louisville.

The first half of Louisville’s schedule seemed favorable to a hot start for a team that really would have liked one, and it was crucial for the team to pick up as many wins as possible as early as possible.

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The Cardinals, however, opened ACC action with a third straight loss, dating back to the Governor’s Cup defeat on Nov. 27. Between missed tackles and struggling with consistency on offense, the Cardinals have plenty to work on to bounce back and get a conference win sooner than later.

U of L’s next ACC game will be its home opener against a Florida State team that opened the season with a 47-7 win over Duquesne and faces LSU in Week 2.

Up next

Louisville (0-1, 0-1 ACC) has a quick turnaround and will stay on the road to play UCF at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: 3 takeaways: How Louisville football collapsed against Syracuse