7th grade algebra word problem

Question

William gave 4 football cards to each of his 6 friends. Suppose he had 54 cards left.  Write and solve an equation to determine how many cards each friend initially had.

*instructuons at the top of the page says: Solve two-step equations using the distributive property. 

Answer 1

Nope. Can't find how many cards they had until we know how many they have now.

Each friend had 6 less cards than they have now. That's all we can say about that.

BUT

 

William had 54 + 6 x 4 = 54 + 24 = 78