WKU Football: Tops Can’t Hold Late Lead, Fall to Cardinals 20–17

For the second straight week, the Hilltoppers lined up for a would-be game-tying field goal as time expired. And, for the second straight week, the Hilltoppers missed a would-be game-tying field goal as time expired, this time to fall to the Louisville Cardinals, 20–17, and fall to 0–3 on the season.

The loss is a tough pill to swallow, which might sound crazy considering the circumstances heading into this week, but the Tops lead the Cardinals throughout the first three quarters and even out played them at times. Or, at least, made the least amount of mistakes.

The game turned with about five and a half minutes left to play in the third quarter, when Hilltopper quarterback Davis Shanley opted not to give the ball to D’Andre Ferby on a read-option from the Louisville 1-yard line, but kept it himself for a loss, ultimately leading to a field goal.

That field goal would be blocked by the Cardinals, and the bounce went all the way back to the WKU 30-yard line. The Toppers defense stood tall, but the Cards finished the drive with their first touchdown of the game from a one-yard run by Dae Williams to cut in to the Topper lead at 14–13.

WKU made up for the block field goal by nailing one on the next drive, to go up 17–13, but the Cardinals stormed 75 yards in eight plays to take their first, and final, lead of the night on another Williams touchdown.

The Tops stalled around midfield with about 100 seconds left and were able to stop the Cardinals but only got 20ish seconds to work down field.

A hook-and-lateral somehow found it’s way into field goal range for the Tops, but Ryan Nuss pushed it wide right to secure the Cardinal victory.

The Hilltoppers opened the scoring in the closing seconds of the first quarter with a Davis Shanley touchdown pass to Kyle Fourtenbary off the heels of a DeAngelo Malone interception against Cardinals’ starter Jawon “Puma” Pass after…well, it was a bunch of stuff — a few questionable flags on a punt return, including a phantom horse collar penalty and an insane targeting call against the Hilltoppers in kick coverage.

I’m rambling. Here’s the touchdown.

The ensuing WKU possession ended in points as well. The Cardinals gifted the Tops a short field after going for it on fourth down (and being unsuccessful) with a new quarterback, Malik Cunningham, and it took the Tops two plays to punch it in.

It looked like Shanley had found Quin Jernighan for a 31-yard touchdown pass, but after it was deemed he had stepped out of bounds (debatable), Shanley said “Fine, I’ll do it myself,” to give the Tops a 14–0 lead.

With the entrance of Cunningham into the game for the Cardinals, UofL began to show signs of life offensively and finished the half with a 12-play, 81-yard drive to put three points on the board before the break.

However, the field goal might not have happened if this Devon Key interception had been upheld (which I still think should have been the case).

Shanley was strong in his first game as “the guy” for the Tops, completing 22 of 33 pass attempts for 240 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for eight yards on 11 carries (sacks are in there, too).

This was the strongest rushing performance since the Brohm era for the Tops, as WKU finished with 168 rushing yards on 43 carries. D’Andre Ferby, Joshua Samuel and Garland LaFrance were the workhorses in the backfield, finishing with 74, 46 and 34 yards, respectively, on the ground.

Despite the loss, there’s a lot to like from this performance for WKU. On the whole, the offensive line was really strong and did a great job in protecting Shanley and Steve Duncan, who started the game. They also did a great job blocking for and creating holes for (though, mostly blocking) the running game.

The defense was once again the star of the show but the youth of this club — on both sides of the ball — once again showed as, potentially, a more veteran team is able to hold the Cardinals off tonight.

But, if there are takeaways to be had here, they’re as follows

• If Sanford follows what happened tonight, the Tops should be just fine. If they play against Marshall, Ball State, UTEP, Charlotte, La Tech, etc. like they did tonight, there’ll be wins that’ll come by the bunches.
• This is Davis Shanley’s team. This is not up for debate. If Sanford attempts to debate it, we’re going to have issues.
• Welcome back to the rushing game, especially to D’Andre Ferby. It was a beautiful thing.

We are on to Ball State and still in search of the first win of the season. I know it’s crazy, but I’m feeling super good. Loss aside.

Tonight’s final stats, courtesy of Chad Bishop.