Live Blog: West Virginia @ Louisville

Ron and I will be running a live blog in this thread where we post our thoughts as the game progresses. 7:07pm - Mark May picks WVU while Lou Holtz takes Louisville. Holtz says that Brohm picked Louisville over ND when he was choosing schools because he wanted to win the game. Way to get a ND plug in there Louie, and thanks for the great insight. 7:15pm - First Lee Corso sighting. Says Louisville has to throw deep on WVU. Says Louisville defense is quick and WVU should run misdirection. Corso picks West Virginia 37-34 wins and a bold prediction that WVU will knock out Brohm and Hunter Cantwell will bring Louisville back but not far enough to win. So Corso not only predicts games he now predicts injuries. Is there anything this guy can't do?? 7:30pm - Fowler messes up already by calling WVU the Neer's not the Eers. But correctly calls his color partner Kirk. 7:35pm - Mark May continues his man crush on WVU while Lou Holtz drools all over Louisville. They both are trying to remind everyone that the Big East is in the BCS. May also flashes his bling bling!! 7:45pm - We had to go through another terrible rap song by ESPN telling us there is a showdown in the 'Ville. WVU wins the toss and defers. Studies shows that 60% of the time, that works all the time. 1st Qtr 10:48 - The Cards get on the board first with a FG. Louisville drives and once inside the red zone WVU finally decides to bring some pressure and frustrates Brohm. Brohm skips two balls to the WR, which makes me think the thumb is not allowing him to grip the ball properly. Louisville 3 West Virginia 0. 1st Qtr 9:12 - First turnover of the game as the WVU FB Owen Schmitt fumbles and Louisville recovers. Louisville is stacking the box with 8 and 9 guys. WVU needs to use some play action. 1st Qtr 4:18 - Slaton shows his speed and scores on a 42 yard touchdown run. Play before Pat White shows he can throw. I was just about to comment on how fast Louisville's defense looks when Steve Slaton left that defense in his dust. West Virginia 7 Louisville 3 1st Qtr 3:33 - Kolby Smith takes a Brohm screen pass for a big gain then trips over a blade of grass while running towards the endzone. I bet someone on the grounds crew gets fired for not mowing the turf. Rick Pitino is in the booth trying to remind everyone that Louisville is still a basketball school. End of 1Qtr - Kolby Smith runs over a WVU defender like a dump truck! Louisville ends the quarter on the WVU 15. 2nd Qtr 13:34 - Eeer's hold the Cards to another FG. And we learn why Louisville is cursed, Corso use to be their coach. I wonder if he wore the Cardinals mascot head during practice? West Virginia 7 Louisville 6 2nd Qtr 9:55- (Ron here) WVU forced to punt from near mid field after a drive that featured big runs by Slaton and Pat White, butalso featurd three personal fouls, the last one on WVU and killed the momentum, Louisville ball on the 25. ESPN will interview a horse now. 2nd Qtr 7:04- Louisville marches it 75 yards on six plays to pull ahead. Brohm is throwing at will, and when they went to the run, Anthony Allen found the seam, including the score. Louisville 13 West Virginia 7 2nd Qtr 4:42- With lightning precision, West Virginia fast breaks down the field to go back ahead. The key play was the first. Pat White hit Darius Reynaud in the flat and Reynaud went 41 yards inside the Cardinal 30. Slaton and White then finished it off, the score coming on a 2 yard run for White along the far side. West Virginia 14 Louisville 13 2nd Qtr 1:36- Ater blowing down to back inside the West Virginia 10, Louisville goes from fast break to 3 feet and a cloud of tire dust. They try a quarterback draw on3rd and goal and fall a yard short. WVU holds them to three. There was a fumble on the kickoff, but....Louisville 16 West Virginia 14 Half- Slaton gets them 25 yards to midfield, but the hail mary falls short. Halftime Thoughts - (Swaggs here) Some quick thoughts while listening to Lou Holtz spit his way through the halftime show. As we expected, Louisville is passing the ball with ease (Brian Brohm is 12-18 for 207) and West Virginia's ground game is picking up huge chunks of yardage (Patrick White and Steve Slaton have combined to rush 19 times for 154 yards and 2 TDs). Two observations from my vantage point are that both defenses are missing a ton of tackles and West Virginia is having a lot of trouble holding onto the ball as they have four fumbles. The teams are putting on a pretty good show for the national audience, but I have a feeling both Rich Rodriguez and Bobby Petrino are laying into their teams right now. My second half keys for Louisville are to establish the run, convert in the redzone, and continue to avoid turning the ball over. The Cardinals offense, despite scoring "only" 16 points in the first half, has had its way. For the Mountaineers to win, West Virginia needs to come out and score on their first drive and then force Louisville into a short series. The Mountaineer offense strives on moving quickly, getting quick turnarounds from its defense, and then getting its offense back on the field, moving, quickly. So far, they have not been able to do that and have had choppy momentum. Should be a tight game until the final whistle. 3rd Qtr 13:54- Slaton fumbles around midfield. Louisville recovers then gets a personal foul on WVU, late hit. They are on the WVU 30 with the lights flickering. 3rd Qtr 12:45 - As the lights continue to go out, Louisville WR Jimmy Riley fumbles inside the 20. WVU ball. 3rd Qtr 12:08- Steve Slaton fumbles at the 12. Louisville returns it for six. Three turnovers in four plays. Oy. Louisville 23 West Virginia 14 3rd Qtr 9:48- Slaton is on the sidelines with a hurt wrist. Pat White limps off the field after a draw on 3rd and 24. WVU punts, Gay returns it from 49 for 6. Louisville 30 West Virginia 14 3rd Qtr 2:29- After losing Steve Slaton to a hand injury. Pat White wills his team to a 14 play 92 yard drive. White just rushes at sheer will, capping it with a five yard score. WVU's O-Line has risen to the challenge. White nears 100 yards and two scores, but the trail by 9. Louisville 30 West Virginia 21 4th Qth 15:00 - (Dr. Sak back) I will echo the thoughts of Mr. Herbstreit, if Mr. Slaton can hold the ball with one arm he needs to be in the game. Pat White cannot do this all himself. Can WVU pull a huge comeback again? We will see. 4th Qtr 14:55 - Brohm throws a great pass to the 6 foot 6 inch sophomore Urrutia who looks like Shaq compared to the WVU DB's. Louisville 37 West Virginia 21 4th Qtr 12:41 - Slaton comes back, I think someone at WVU is reading the blog and didn't want to piss us off. If anyone is looking for a preview of the Breeder Cup this Saturday should be watching this track meet. After Slaton takes the Eeer's down to the red zone, his buddy Pat White puts it in the endzone with a nice second effort. I better put on another pot of coffee, this game isn't over. Good call going for two by Rich Rod, but the snap is fumbled and it is no good. WVU keeps shooting themselves in the foot and can't take advantage of Louisville only having 10 men on the field. Louisville 37 West Virginia 27 4th Qtr 11:06 - I tuned into a Big East game on ESPN and a Pac 10 game broke out. Where is the defense? I am not sure if I should be impressed with the offenses or let down with the fact that neither defense can tackle. Brohm hits Shaq again wfor another long gain into WVU territory. Brohm has 312 yds passing. 4th Qtr 10:19 - Michael Bush's clone Anthony Allen makes WVU miss their 50th tackle of the game and scores from 5 yards out. I think I see smoke coming from the turf from these teams running up and down the field. Louisville 44 West Virginia 27 4th Qtr 7:23 - WVU goes for it on fourth down and completes a pass short of the first down and turns the ball over on downs. Pat White needs to throw the ball past the sticks, a little bit of inexperience there. If it wasn't enough to have Pitino in the booth now ESPN is plugging their NFL coverage by bringing in Tom Jackson to the booth. Gotta love when the announcers forget there is a game going on to chat with their guest. Please don't bring in Michael Irvin! Turn out the lights (again), the party is over. 4 Qtr 2:18 - West Virginia won't give up. Pat White makes some time by scrambling around and makes some nice throws to get the Eeers down the field. White runs in from a few yards out and gives WVU their 4th rushing TD of the night and Fowler gets all excited over the 1000 yards of offense in the game. Chris you need to get out more, maybe go watch a movie...by yourself. Louisville 44 West Virginia 34 End of Game - Game over. Slaton fumbled his Heisman away and Louisville is now the cream of the crop in the Big East, but they cannot enjoy it for too long as they travel to the great (garbage) state of New Jersey to play Rutgers next Thursday night. Yawn, the students rush the field but the last laugh is on them since the goalposts are collapsible. Brohm throws for 354 yards, while West Virginia shot themselves in the foot all night. Both these teams better find some defense and learn how to tackle. At least in Morgantown all of the couches will be safe tonight. It was good to hear Fowler and Herbstreit laugh it up at the end of the game. Maybe Kirk let Chris have a little taste of E.A. to smooth things over from last week. Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as we had fun writing this. The final score Louisville 44 West Virginia 34.