Jeff Brohm on 'Disappointing' Loss to Kentucky: Louisville 'Didn't Deserve to Win'

The Cardinals' losing streak to the Wildcats has been extended to five in a row.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Despite having lost their last four matchups against Kentucky, there was very real hope that the Louisville football program could get back to their winning ways this season against their arch rival.

It's one thing that the two teams were trending in two completely different directions, as the No. 9/10 Cardinals were 10-1 with four straight wins while the Wildcats were 6-5 and lost five of their last six. On top of that, their new head coach in Jeff Brohm had struck a different tone than his predecessor as it pertained to the importance of the rivalry and what it meant to him.

However, all that positive momentum came to a screeching halt on Saturday at L&N Stadium. Despite being just over a touchdown favorite, Louisville's losing streak to Kentucky was extended once more courtesy of a 38-31 upset loss. The Cardinals' five losses in a row to the Wildcats is the longest since the rivalry was renewed in 1994.

Afterwards, Brohm didn't shy away from voicing his displeasure with the outcome.

"We didn't do enough to win," he said after the game. "It was a disappointing loss. That is on us. Every loss is disappointing. This is disappointing. I thought we hung in there in the first half. We came out in the second half, take it down and score, give up an untouched kickoff, which is ridiculous. Then take it down and score to answer again and then give up two wide open wheel routes. A two-play drive is ridiculous.

"We are giving up way too many big plays on defense. Special teams need to more consistent. On offense, we can't have two fumbles that really hurt us. So, if you do those things, you are not going to win. So, we didn't deserve to win, they did."

Louisville out-gained Kentucky 403 to 289 in total offensive yardage, and led by as much as 17-7 just a few minutes into the third quarter. However, a bevy of mistakes in the second half afterwards proved to be their undoing.

Kentucky immediately responded with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to make it back to a one-score game. Louisville briefly made it back to a two-score game with a touchdown response of their own, but then the Wildcats needed just two plays to march into the end zone. Back-to-back fumbles by the Cardinals then gifted 10 more points for 17 unanswered by UK.

Brohm took credit for a lot of the mistake committed by his team during this game. That being said, he also called the amount of missed assignments in the third quarter and second half as a whole - on offense, defense and special teams - "ridiculous."

"There was a kickoff return when the guy went untouched," he said. "Obviously, we had too many guys into the boundary. They bounced it to the field, and he was untouched. It's bad. Then we respond again and then give up two wide-open wheel routes. Ridiculous. I don't know, there was a bust here or there.

"There might have been some coaching things we need to do better. There are a lot of things, as I look at it, probably need to be corrected and fixed. So, I am not going to blame it all on the players. I think we need to do a better job coaching and making sure we put our guys in a better position to make those plays."

Even after the third quarter miscues, Louisville still had a chance. Following an opportunistic interception, the Cardinals were able to tie the game up with 2:33 left, with quarterback Jack Plummer finding Ahmari Huggins-Bruce for a fourth down touchdown.

That being said, overtime was not in store. On the next drive, Kentucky got several chunk plays to get down the field, and re-took the lead on a 37-yard rushing score from UK's Ray Davis with just 1:10. Louisville was unable to respond, and Kentucky ended the contest scoring 24 of the game's final 31 points.

"He was untouched, which is ridiculous," Brohm said of Louisville's defensive efforts on the go-ahead score by Davis. "We wanted to push him back because they were almost in field goal range. We pretty much had an all-out blitz called and someone didn't contain their gap and he snuck through. That sometimes happens when you are blitzing and hoping to get a negative play. But if one person does not do their job, it is going to create a crease. I am going to assume that is what happened just from looking at it from the field."

Brohm does credit his team for their ability to stay in the game and try and fight until their very end. But ultimately, he was disappointed by the amount of mistakes that Louisville committed, whether that was in the form of a turnover, busted coverage or otherwise.

"The fact of the matter is we just gave up too many big plays," he said. "You can't give up that many big plays. You can't give up those big plays on special teams. It can't happen and then the two turnovers were costly. So you add those things up and you're going to lose by seven points just like we did. I like our team, I think they want to win and we're going to have to just learn from all the mistakes we made today and try not to repeat them as much as we can."

Even with how much a fifth-straight loss to Kentucky stings for both Brohm and his players alike, Louisville's season is far from over. The Cardinals are still heading to Charlotte next weekend for a matchup in the ACC Championship Game against Florida State, and very likely have a New Year's Six bowl after that.

But Brohm knows that if Louisville plays the way they did against Kentucky, then their final two games of the season will not go the way they want in the slightest.

"We've got to look in the mirror and man up and work hard to fix it, because we have a top-four opponent that we've got to play next week down in Charlotte. We're going to have to play a whole lot more efficient football to have any chance to be in the game."

(Photo of Jeff Brohm: Jeff Faughender - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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