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Cardinals
Salvage Some Pride for C-USA
By
TERESA M. WALKER
AP Sports Writer
 MEMPHIS,
TN (AP) � The Louisville Cardinals thought they would have to use offense to
beat Brigham Young. The defense made that plan unnecessary.
Dave Ragone threw for 228 yards and three touchdowns, and the defense
came up with five sacks and three interceptions as No. 23 Louisville beat
No. 19 Brigham Young 28-10 Monday in the Liberty Bowl.
The Cards' win kept Conference USA from being shut out in four
post-season appearances by members of the league. In prior games, East
Carolina lost to Marshall in the GMAC Bowl, Texas Christian was dumped by
Texas A&M in the galleryfurniture.com Bowl and Cincinnati was defeated by
Toledo in the Motor City Bowl.
Ragone described the defensive play as unbelievable.
"They shut down one of the best offenses I've ever seen," he said of the
Cougars, who own the nation's top unit.
For BYU (12-2), the loss marked yet another disappointing end to a season
that held the promise of an undefeated season just a month ago.
The Cougars lost their third straight bowl game and 10th in their last 14
despite an offense that averaged 542.8 yards per game and set a school
record by averaging 46.7 points a game. But All-American running back Luke
Staley, the nation's leading scorer, was out because of ankle surgery.
Louisville kept the Cougars from finding a rhythm.
The defense held BYU quarterback Brandon Doman to 18-of-37 for 192 yards.
The defense repeatedly gave the Louisville offense a short field, and three
of the Cardinals' TD drives were 54 yards or shorter.
"They were kind of pushing up and waiting for me to run around and do
some things," Doman said. "I wish I could go back and play that game again
because we had some other plays in mind, and we just simply had some
miscues."
Defensive tackle Bobby Leffew and his teammates hoped they could keep the
Cougars to 25 points. They wound up limiting BYU to its lowest point total
of the season and a season-low 276 yards.
"We knew we had to hold them down, so our offense could outscore them,
and that's what we did," Leffew said.
The victory allowed the Cardinals to finish off the best season in school
history.
The Cardinals hadn't won a bowl game since the 1993 Liberty Bowl, a
three-game skid that included a loss to Colorado State here last year. They
improved to 11-2 for the most victories in a season, topping the 1990 mark
of 10-1-1, their only other year with double-digit wins.
"This is something we needed," Louisville senior receiver Deion Branch
said. "We've been dying to get it. It was just something that was there for
us, and we haven't taken it. There was an opportunity today, and we took
advantage of it."
Ragone, C-USA's offensive player of the year, tossed TD passes of 1, 34
and 27 yards. He was 19-of-28, and Branch had six catches for 88 yards and a
touchdown.
Everyone expected a high-scoring game, and it looked like the teams would
oblige as Zek Parker took the opening kickoff 70 yards for Louisville, and
Henry Miller scored from 1 yard out four plays later for a 7-0 lead.
But Louisville kept BYU scoreless through the first quarter for only the
third time this season, and the Cougars needed some trickery to finally
reach the end zone. Doman lateralled to left tackle Dustin Rykert, and he
ran 10 yards for the score and a 7-7 tie with 7:56 left in the second
quarter.
The Cougars tried another trick play late in the first half, lining up
for a punt on fourth-and-5 and snapping the ball short to Ned Stearns. But
Rod Day stopped him for no gain, turning the ball over at the BYU 40 with
2:16 left.
Ragone moved the Cardinals 40 yards over nine plays, tossing a 1-yarder
to tight end Chip Mattingly just before halftime for a 14-7 lead.
Cougars coach Gary Crowton said that gave the Cardinals momentum going
into halftime.
"At that time, I felt like they wouldn't be expecting it, but we didn't
execute it well, and they did a good job defensively. But I was hoping to
get a big play in the last two minutes so that we would have momentum
because we got the ball in the second half ... It just didn't work, and my
hat's off to them," he said.
BYU had chances to keep the game close, but the Cardinals came up with an
interception in each half to end drives in their own territory. The second
came at the end of the third quarter when Curry Burns picked off Doman's
pass at the Louisville 17 and the Cardinals up 21-10.
Ragone needed only five plays to score, finding Ronnie Ghent for a
27-yard TD and a 28-10 lead.
Copyright 2001
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bonesville.net
contributed to this report.
02/23/2007 10:47:25 AM
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