The trends don't look promising. The Cardinals enter the finale on a four-game losing streak, the longest since going 1-10 in 1997. It faces one of the hottest passing attacks in the country with a freshman cornerback and walk-on safeties as two of its starters. Its offense keeps turning the ball over, and its special teams has been anything but.

On the other hand, Louisville has a lot more talent than most 5-6 teams. It knocked off then-No. 16 South Florida, and has an early-season win over Kansas State that was impressive at the time.

But even in a year with eight home games, the Cardinals haven't been able to get over the hump. Its only road victory is a seven-point win over Memphis, and among its losses is a perplexing defeat at last-place Syracuse.

When the Cardinals took the trip to play the Orange, the team was 5-2 and looking like a dark horse in the Big East race. The 28-21 defeat shocked the squad into the four-game tailspin it's in now. Unless it spent the bye week learning what exactly happened to turn it from contender to also-ran, it'll have a tough time reversing the downward slide against the team that's playing the best football in the conference right now.