FSU football: ‘Noles comeback falls short against Louisville

FSU football gave a valiant effort in the second half, but the comeback came up short in a 31-23 loss. The Louisville offense did whatever they wanted in the first half as the Noles allowed 31 points.

The Cardinals had over 300 total yards and didn’t punt until 39 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Louisville also converted 90 percent of their third-down conversions. The FSU offense couldn’t get much going outside of two drives in the first half.

It was 17-0 before we could blink, but Treshaun Ward scored in a 20-yard scamper to get the Noles on the board, and Andrew Parchment scored on a 23-yard pass to close the gap to 31-13(missed extra point). The only bright spot at halftime was the Noles only had two penalties and zero turnovers.

The Noles found some life early in the third quarter when Jashaun Corbin broke a 75-yard TD run on the second play of the quarter to close the gap to 31-20. The defense played like a different unit in the second half, holding the Cardinals scoreless, but the offense wasted too many opportunities.

There were some questionable fourth-down calls by Mike Norvell as well. He decided to go for a 47-yard field goal in Louisville territory instead of going for it on fourth and five when that still meant they needed a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie the game.

He decided to go for it on fourth down on their side of the field with 11:43 remaining in the game although the defense had been playing well. Luckily, the defense held Louisville again to force a punt.

FSU had one final chance when they got the ball back with 1:45 remaining. The Noles got to mid-field, but McKenzie Milton’s pass deep to Andrew Parchment got intercepted to end the game.

The team played with a good effort despite getting into the large deficit early, but it was too little too late as the offense couldn’t capitalize on the FSU defense forced punts on every Louisville possession in the second half.