LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – They call these paycheck games because teams like Eastern Kentucky come into a place like Louisville and collect a large sum for playing against the home team.

In Saturday’s season-opener in L&N Stadium, Louisville paid a reported $550,000 to EKU, and got its money’s worth by halftime. Then it endorsed the back, handed the pen to the backups, and told EKU to keep the change.

The final was 51-17. The first team never broke a sweat. The second team got some cardio. And Jeff Brohm’s team looked about like what it’s supposed to look like.

It went like this. Card March. Cards ran.

You didn’t have to wait long to see most of Louisville’s expected stars doing what they were expected to do. Miller Moss was a metronome, sharp and steady, completing 17 of 25 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown. He wasn’t really off target until a high throw was deflected for a pick-six on his next-to-last pass of the first half. Then his last pass bounced of Chris Bell’s chest and was also picked.

We all need something to obsess over.

Isaac Brown, last year’s ACC offensive rookie of the year, ran like a guy who had somewhere better to be. He took used his six carries to pile up 126 yards and TDs of 68 and 39 yards before Louisville coach Jeff Brohm decided he was adequately tuned up.

Caullin Lacy said he was going to be more aggressive returning kicks. He took a punt back 93 yards for a touchdown and had four catches for 62 yards.

“I want to get one on a punt, and a kick and receiving in the same game,” he said after.

He’ll have to wait for a game when he gets to play more than one half. Brohm pulled all of his starters at halftime, content to let his backups – and their backups, get some live reps. Louisville scored on its first five drives, opened a 41-0 lead, and led 41-7 at the break.

“Proud of our football team today,” Brohm said. “I thought we got off to a good start today. We played some pretty good football in the first half. We did what we needed to move the ball and score points and be efficient when we needed to even when we got backed up with a couple silly penalties. The defense played really, really good. They did exactly what we needed to do. We were very physical up front, we were sound in our alignments. The communication was good and did a really good job. The first half was clean until the very end and then we had a couple turnovers that were costly.”

The biggest red flag was Louisville’s yellow flags. Louisville had three quick penalties and ended the game with 12 penalties for 106 yards.

Still, the offense worked through some holding calls and stayed on schedule – which was better than some Cardinal teams have managed in openers. But against better defenses, it might not be the same story.

“The penalties of misalignments and missing assignments and false starts and all that is what’s really frustrating,” Brohm said. “Holding, we weren’t expecting to hold that many times. So, yeah, we got to clean that up. But it’s, it’s something that we can work on and address and clean up.”

Eastern Kentucky steadied itself after a Pick Six late in the first half by Vito Tisdale, a former Kentucky defensive back. In fact, it played Louisville’s reserves to a 10-10 tie in the second half.

“Obviously disappointed in losing the football game,” EKU coach Walt Wells said. “We didn’t come here just to get our check and go home. We’ve got a lot of things we have to improve on. We have a young football team that has to learn from the mistakes they made today, improve this week in practice and get ready for a really good football team coming into our place next Saturday. Disappointed in how we handled a couple of events like the punt return, and the kickoff return on special teams. But I think there’s some bright spots you can find in there too, and that’s what we’re going to have to do. We’re going to have to find the bright spots and then move on to those spots that aren’t so bright and work to improve them.”

Defensively, Louisville didn’t give up a touchdown until the fourth quarter. Clev Lubin, a talented pass rusher from Coastal Carolina, notched one quickly, and wound up with two in the game. After the game, he talked about the atmosphere in L&N Stadium.

“It’s those moments you live for,” he said. “That’s exactly why I came here, to be in those opportunities and those types of plays. Hopefully we can continue as the years go on.”

Moss, an import from USC, said the feel was comfortable.

“It felt great,” he said. “It’s a really, really cool game day atmosphere from Card March all the way through the game to the Joker and the Thief between the third and fourth quarter. A lot of really cool traditions that it was awesome to be a part of for the first time.”

Next up, a bigger test. James Madison visits L&N Stadium on Friday night at 7.