Yes, Louisville’s defense is very suspect and it was entering yesterday’s game against Syracuse. Yet the Cardinals were 36 1/2 point favorites playing at home, so it was a major surprise to see them go down as they did. The Orange offense had been wildly ineffective, but scored on 79-, 60- and 42-yard touchdown passes plus a 93-yard kickoff return. Andrew Robinson threw for 423 yards and four touchdowns. Andrew Robinson had thrown for 486 yard and one touchdown his first three games.

Allow the Louisville Courier-Journal to provide today’s ice breaker with this headline.

There is no joy, but there are a lot of problems.

Perhaps the most troubling thing about these Cardinals, other than the porous defense, is their tendency to hurt themselves with mental errors. That was never more apparent than during yesterday’s 38-35 upset loss to Syracuse.

The Cards had four turnovers and continued to commit penalties at an alarming rate. They came into the game as the 13th most-penalized team (of 119) in the Football Bowl Subdivision, then drew 12 more flags for 105 yards. Coach Steve Kragthorpe has been harping on it since the opener against Murray State, but to no avail.

With WVU and ECU playing at the same time, it was difficult to kep up with what was going on in Louisville, but the penalties, the benching of Mario Urrutia, the missed tackles, the blown defensive assignments and even the miserable onside kick at the end of the game made a lot of people question coaching. Kragthorpe is ready to dodge the bullets, though some player comments suggest friendly fire.

Clearly, though, all is not friendly in Louisville…