Louisville football will close its season against Air Force on Tuesday at the First Responder Bowl in Dallas. 

The Cardinals (6-6, 4-4 ACC) and Falcons (9-3, 6-2 Mountain West) will kick off at 3:15 p.m. in Louisville's first bowl game since 2019. 

More: Despite lack of receiver depth, Louisville football confident going into First Responder Bowl

The Cardinals couldn’t get key stops when they had to have them, and the Falcons held on to win the First Responder Bowl. 

Air Force QB Haaziq Daniels completed 9 of 10 passes for a career-high 252 yards. He threw for three touchdowns and rushed for two. 

Malik Cunningham was 13 of 21 passing for 207 yards and a touchdown. He ran for 66 yards and a score on 12 carries. 

The difference in the game: Air Force was 3 for 3 in red zone conversions. Louisville scored once in three red zone trips. And the Falcons held the ball for 35:38 to Louisville’s 24:22, limiting the Cards’ chances.

Air Force couldn't keep Malik Cunningham bottled up in the run game all day, right? Cunningham engineered a crucial six-play, 70-yard drive and capped it with a 22-yard rushing TD to pull Louisville within a score, 31-28. 

Cunningham has 12 carries for 66 yards and that TD. He's completed 13 of 21 passes for 207 yards and another scored. 

Louisville held Air Force to a field goal, and that's a win for the Cardinals. But Air Force's three points came at the end of a 17-play, 66-yard drive that ate up 9:36. More importantly, Matthew Dapore's field goal put the Falcons in front 31-21. 

That means Louisville will need a pair of scores to tie or take the lead in the game's closing minutes. 

The Cardinals finally connected on a potential game-changing play, with QB Malik Cunningham hitting Tyler Harrell for a 34-yard touchdown. Cunningham also made a critical fourth-down completion on the drive, hitting Ahmari Huggins-Bruce for 14 yards on fourth and 7 at the Air Force 34. His TD pass to Harrell came on the next play. 

Through three quarters, Cunningham has completed 10 of 18 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown. 

Louisville's first second-half drive looked pretty good. Until it didn't. 

The Cards marched 78 yards in 14 plays, but that wasn't enough to put points on the board. Air Force stuffed running back Trevion Cooley on fourth and goal at the 2, and Louisville came up empty. The drive used 6:49, easily Louisville's longest of the day. 

The first words out of Falcons coach Troy Calhoun's mouth in his halftime interview with ESPN? "We do have to run the ball better." 

Louisville did outgain Air Force 137-93 on the ground in the first half. 

But for most of the first half Air Force was effective without its killer ground game. Instead, it leaned into the passing of QB Haaziq Daniels, who completed 6 of 7 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two more scores. 

Cardinals QB Malik Cunningham has been quiet by comparison, completing 4 of 11 passes for 61 yards. Cunningham did run for 51 yards on seven carries. 

But the key has been Air Force's passing game. Daniels entered the game averaging 9.9 yards per pass attempt. He's at 28.4 through two quarters today. 

Air Force scored with less than a minute to play on a 1-yard run from quarterback Haaziq Daniels, who's picking apart the Louisville defense. Daniels has completed 6 of 7 passes for 199 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and he's carried five times for 10 yards and two more scores. 

Daniels scored the TD that put Air Force in front 28-14, but his biggest play of the drive was a fourth-down pass completion to keep the Falcons moving. 

The First Responder bowl is showing us a whole different kind of response. Louisville, which just gave up a huge play, answered with one of its own, a 100-yard kick return by Jawhar Jordan that cut the Air Force lead back to a single touchdown. It looked like Louisville might have been done in by a flag, but the penalty was on Air Force. 

If we didn't just see the play of the game, this one's going to get really exciting. Air Force is living up to its name if not its reputation with a potent passing attack against Louisville, and the Falcons just got a spectacular TD on a completion from QB Haaziq Daniels to WR Brandon Lewis, who made vicious cuts on a pair of Cardinals before finding the end zone.  

Trevion Cooley is carrying the Cards' offense, so it's only fitting he'd be the one to get Louisville on the scoreboard. His 1-yard run and the ensuing Brock Travelstead kick, pulled Louisville back within a touchdown at 14-7.

It was a strong end to a drive that took an unfortunate turn for the Cards, who saw offensive lineman Cole Bentley leave the game with an injury. No update yet on his status. 

You had to see it coming, right? A non-passing offense using two big pass plays to generate points. In the first quarter, a 40-yard toss set Air Force up for its first touchdown. And on the first play of the second quarter, the Falcons' passing game strikes again with a 61-yard scoring toss. Now, U of L's depleted secondary is looking like a major weakness. 

The defense hasn't looked bad, but the offense is sort of anemic. Around 70 total yards of offense in that first quarter, but 34 of them came on one Malik Cunningham run. The Cardinals just punted the ball away after a 3-and-out just before the first quarter ended. Louisville's going to have to utilize some down-field passing, it seems, to get its offense untracked. 

Ten plays, 74 yards, one big pass play — the first in 94 offensive snaps — and a 5-yard rushing score to give the Falcons a 7-0 lead. It's the kind of methodical drive that defines Air Force football. It's the kind of drive that, if Louisville can't adjust, will be what we'll likely see over and over again throughout the game. 

After Louisville's offense nearly turned the ball over on two consecutive plays, Malik Cunningham showed us another reason why he's one of the best in the country. A 34-yard, zig-zagging run on 3rd and 15 not only put Louisville in a position to score, but it catapulted Cunningham over 1,000 yards rushing for the season. 

Unfortunately, a missed field goal means U of L walks away with zero points on that drive.

Assignment football is the name of the game for Louisville's defense against Air Force's option attack, and so far, so good. The Cardinals held Air Force to a 3-and-out on its first possession. The Cards looked quick off the ball and disciplined, and they'll need that to continue against a team that hasn't attempted a pass in 93 offensive plays. 

Louisville will be without one of its key cogs in the defensive backfield. 

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound safety figured to be an important part of Louisville's run support on defense against Air Force's option attack. A former standout at Georgia Southern, Duncan played in all 12 games during the 2021 season, registering 76 total tackles, 4 for loss. Josh Minkins figures to step up and get the start at free safety in Duncan's place.

Several members of the Cardinals team are getting their bearings about them on the turf at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas — the place where Louisville (6-6) will face Air Force (9-3) in the SERVPRO First Repsonder Bowl. The game is slated for a 3:15 p.m. kickoff and will feature one of the most electrifying quarterbacks in college football, none other than Louisville's Malik Cunningham, and the top rushing attack in the country in Air Force. 

See below how you can watch today's game, and take some time to find out more about the unique challenges Air Force will bring to coach Scott Satterfield's bunch. 

The game will be aired on ESPN and streamed on WatchESPN. On the radio, Paul Rogers (play-by-play), Craig Swabeck (analyst) and Jody Demling (sideline) will have the call on Louisville Sports Radio.

More: What to know about the Air Force football team, Louisville's First Responder Bowl opponent

To prep you for Tuesday's game, our own Cameron Teague has a good read on the 2022 launchpad the game could be for Cards QB Malik Cuningham.

Malik Cunningham has already announced he plans to return to Louisville for his final season. 

A premier quarterback in a conference loaded with talent at the position, Cunningham isn't coming back just to add to his career statistics. Although, he's just 2,730 yards from Lamar Jackson's career total yardage record. 

He wants to leave Louisville with a better record than the 6-6 one it has entering Tuesday's First Responder Bowl. The first step to doing that, though, is to end the season with a win against a good Air Force team. 

And if Cunningham can help Louisville do that, he'll have a good chance of adding to his legacy, as well. The Alabama native enters Tuesday's game just one rushing touchdown and two passing touchdowns away from being a 20/20 quarterback, a feat not shared by many.

Check out the whole story here.