Louisville defeats Mississippi State in Music City Bowl to complete turnaround season

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Louisville football team saved its best performance of the season for its last game.  

A month after losing by 32 points to Kentucky, the Cardinals faced another SEC-foe in Mississippi State. This time the Cardinals controlled the game, winning 38-28.

Louisville improves to 8-5 on the season, winning eight games for the fifth time in six years. It also ends the Cardinals' two-game losing streak in bowl games.

All of the talk entering the game was about how a Louisville defense that gave up 517 rushing yards against Kentucky would fare against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs, led by the SEC’s leading rusher in Kylin Hill, struggled to get anything going offensively. Louisville held Mississippi State to 331 total yards, 145 rushing yards and set a season-high in tackles for a loss with 10.  

Louisville’s offense didn’t miss a beat after a month off, either. After going down 14-0 Louisville scored 31 straight points and tallied 511 total yards in the game. Quarterback Micale Cunningham, named the game's MVP, capped his strong season, throwing for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Tutu Atwell had 147 yards receiving and running back Javian Hawkins had 105 yards anfd 

Before we look to the offseason, here’s three things we learned from Louisville’s 38-21 win over Mississippi State.  

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A month off didn’t seem to bother Atwell 

Atwell had a stellar season. The first-team All-ACC honoree came into the Music City Bowl needing 140 yards to pass Harry Douglas as the team’s single-season receiving leader. The sophomore caught nine passes for 147 yards.

But he did much more than catch passes and run through the Mississippi State defense. He also went back to his quarterback roots.  

Louisville’s first touchdown of the game came on a fake wide receiver screen that ended in a 24-yard touchdown pass from Atwell to freshman tight end Marshon Ford. Louisville tried another Atwell pass before the end of the first half, but it fell incomplete.  

He also carried the ball once for nine yards.

After a breakout year, Atwell will enter next season as one of the most dangerous slot receivers, and all-purpose weapons, in the country.  

Louisville’s defense takes step forward after Kentucky performance

The Music City Bowl was an important game for Louisville for numerous reasons. A win would give the team eight wins, but just as notable, the defense had a chance to bounce back after the Kentucky loss.  

It did that in a major way.   

The Cardinals put together their best defensive performance since beating Virginia 28-21 on Oct. 26. They held Hill, who ran for 1,347 yards this season, to just three yards on seven carries. They also held the Bulldogs to four yards per carry.  

Louisville’s defense still has major problems to fix next year, depth being the biggest, but Monday’s performance will erase a sour taste from the loss to Kentucky. It should give defensive coordinator Bryan Brown and his staff something to build on. 

Louisville still adding wrinkles to its offense 

In the Music City Bowl press conference Sunday, Scott Satterfield looked at Mississippi State coach Joe Moorehead and said “I’m not going to tell you what we’ve added right now.”  

Well, he added a lot. Louisville’s offense showed a variety of new looks Monday.  

Atwell threw two passes. He'd thrown two passes all season, with the last one coming against Wake Forest, but both fell incomplete. But Satterfield went to Atwell as a passer early against the Bulldogs, and he completed one of his two attempts.

Satterfield also went into a Wildcat offense for the first time this season, moving Atwell to quarterback. He’s always trying to find new ways to get the ball in his playmaker’s hands and found a way on that 9-yard run.  

Louisville is far from a finished product offensively and will still add to the playbook in the spring. With the experience the Cardinals return offensively, you can expect those plays and more to be added before the 2020 season begins.  

Cameron Teague Robinson CTeagueRob@gannett.com; Twitter: @cj_teague; Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.