Last night the Cards sprinted toward the end zone at Nippert Stadium like kids at Christmas. Sitting idly on the turf was the coveted Keg of Nails, awarded annually to the winner of the Cincinnati/Louisville football game. For the second time in five years, the Cards laid their claws on the prize.
Not since October 14, 2006 and October 13, 2007 had UofL beaten the Bearcats in back-to-back years. The series between these schools now stands at 23-30-1 with the Bearcats having the all-time lead; but last night the Cardinals tasted victory, winning in overtime 31-24 on a cold, rainy, windswept evening in Cincinnati. The “Keg of Nails” will now be in the Cardinal trophy case for the foreseeable future until hopefully this great rivalry is renewed someday.
Over the last few weeks of the Louisville football season, we had not seen any of those magical moments that we had been accustomed to. The passing game had been on idle and the offense as a whole lacked consistency.
And while last night wasn’t a blitzkrieg of scoring it provided many of those big plays that we had all been waiting to see. These teams traded blow for blow like great rivals should but it was the Cards who dealt the knock-out punch in overtime when Dominique Brown ran 2 yards for a touchdown.
The running game with Perry (81 yards) and Brown (79 yards, 1 touchdown) did its part last night and kept enough pressure on the Bearcats to keep the passing game open and that is where Louisville had those big-play moments.
Teddy Bridgewater in what is probably his last game of the regular season as a Louisville Cardinals was part QB and part escape artist last night scrambling and breaking tackles. It was Mr. Clutch, who would throw two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to give Louisville a chance to win in overtime.
The play of the night by Teddy was when he escaped three tackles for a 14-yard scramble on fourth-and-12 to keep one touchdown drive going, and finished it by scrambling away from defenders and throwing an off-balance pass for a 22-yard score to Damian Copeland.
Copeland (35 yards, 1 touchdown) and Parker (104 yards, 2 touchdowns) both came up big in the receiving game like they have so many times in big games for the Cardinals. You couldn’t have scripted this last regular season performance as a Louisville Cardinal for Teddy Bridgewater any better. His 255 passing yards put him over 3,500 passing yards (3,523) for the second year in a row. He now has 9,370 career yards. I’m going to miss number 5.
I had a great time at the game last night and have had many great memories made in these “Keg of Nails” games. If last night was the last one we ever get to be a part of then it was a fitting end to one of the better rivals in the country.
After this big win last night the Cards accepted an invitation to play in Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, Fla., the Cardinals’ fourth bowl game in as many years. Kickoff is slated for Saturday, Dec. 28, at 6:45 p.m. from the Florida Citrus Bowl.
