Watch: Louisville HC Jeff Brohm Recaps Stanford, Previews Pitt
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program's momentum generated from their win at Clemson came to a screeching halt this past weekend. Entering as a 20.5-point favorite at Stanford, the Cardinals suffering a stunning 38-35 loss to the Cardinal, getting dealt their fifth-worst loss in school history by point spread.
Next up, Louisville returns to L&N Stadium to wrap up ACC play with their home finale vs. Pitt. Kickoff against the Panthers is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 23 at 4:00 p.m. EST.
Prior to their upcoming matchup, head coach Jeff Brohm took time to meet with the media. He discussed the previous game at Stanford, previewed the upcoming game vs. Pitt, and more.
Below is the partial transcript from Brohm's press conference, as well as the video:
Head Coach Jeff Brohm
(Opening statement)
“It’s back to work. Obviously we’ve got work to do and plenty of things to improve on, and that’s what this week needs to be about is making sure we correct mistakes, become a better football team, get ready to compete, and try to find a win in our last home game here at our field. I think our guys will practice hard this week. We know that every game matters and we want to show improvement and go out there, do all the small things correctly, and come out and play well. This will be a tough opponent we play, they’ve played very good football all year long. Very, very good on defense, very aggressive - [they] get sacks, get tackles for loss. Their offense has played better this year, as well, which has helped them get to seven wins. We will have our hands full, so we’re going to have to play good football [in] all three segments, play together, play efficient if we want to come out with a win.”
(Update on Isaac Brown)
“We’ll see how he progresses this week. He had a little bit with his shoulder. We’re hopeful he can play, but I don’t know yet.”
(On the finish to the season)
“Every game matters for us. We talk about it all year long. We have two regular season games left, two really good teams and we’ll see what we’re made of. We get an opportunity to play a really good football team that’s played really well this year. We’ll measure ourselves against them and I expect our guys to work hard this week and come out with a great attitude and go to work and go out there and compete on gameday. We’ll have to play solid football in all three segments to win.”
(On the penalties Saturday at Stanford)
“Obviously we have to work on not jumping offsides on defense, those were costly. We had numerous of those, so we got to practice the hard count against our defense way more than we have and make sure it doesn’t happen again. After you get a couple in a game, you have to pull back and correct it and we did not. It continued and it cost us. I think we had two interceptions on two offsides penalties and we had two sacks with illegal hands to the face, and a face mask. Unfortunate, but we had a lot of penalties that hurt us, and they were costly. It was a bad day with penalties and every one of them cost us something. It wasn’t just a small penalty. Everyone was a key component to the game and we need to clean that up.”
(On the offensive performance at Stanford)
“I think we started a little slow on offense and on the second play of the game we had a batted ball get intercepted, which gave them three points. Then we got stopped once or twice and we were able to get things rolling and scored 21 points. Did some decent things in the second half, but we were not really able to get many deep shots. We tried at least a handful or more times and we hit zero. We were efficient in the passing game and getting the ball out and getting yards. Popped a couple of runs but the inability to connect over the top hurt us to get more points. It is a combination of a lot of things, we need to protect a little better, pick up late blitzers that were coming late, need to be able to stand in there and be open and make the plays. I think every little play had a nuance but we have had pretty decent success connecting deep up the field on plays and we were not able to do that this game.”
(How do you not let the loss carry over to this week?)
“We want to feel the pain of the loss and there is a lot of pain to feel. I think myself, coaches, and players feel the pain and you need to let it motivate you to want to not let it happen again. At the same time, you cannot let it get you down, you have got to respond and move forward. That’s the great thing about sports and football you are going to have some tough times and this was a game you would like to have back but it is over with and you have to move on. We have two really good opponents to finish the season, and it starts with Pittsburgh, who has played really well this year not only are they great on defense but offensively they have played better. I think we will see what we are made of and we talk about all year long you have to finish the season, play to the end, and compete and that is what you need to do to be a competitive difference-maker football player that wants to win. Everyone across the county has a loss or two and you need to be able to respond and play well the next week and we will have our hands full this week.”
(On Pitt’s defense)
“Well, they’re very aggressive, they don’t give you the easy completions, so they’re going to press you across the board. They're going to blitz you quite a bit. They’re going to get after the quarterback, they’re going to rush up the field. The safeties are going to play low, they’re going to force you to throw the ball deep and complete it, but you don’t see a whole lot of [deep completions], because they’re on you tight. They don’t bust many things, they’re very sound at what they do. They've done this system for a long time. They've tweaked it over the years, they’re much more aggressive in their blitzing approach. Where they are going to blitz six or more guys and play zone behind it, instead of man and knowing you have to get the ball out quick and react and break on [the football] and make the tackle and because of [their system] they land. So, one of the top teams in the country in getting sacks and tackles for loss, so we’ve got to have an answer and a plan. We've got to play good on all three segments if we want to win this game.”
(On Duke Watson)
“Well, we like [Duke Watson], he’s shown great promise, he has some speed like Isaac [Brown] that is hard to teach, he’s got some elusiveness to him. Gaining strength and getting bigger and stronger is something that he’s going to have to do to help him, but he goes hard. He's got some toughness as well and he likes to compete. So, while Isaac has been doing a great job, Duke came in and did very well understanding the whole scope of the offense. He's just got to continue to grow and learn through that, but he gives his great effort, so I thought he did a great job.”
(Photo of Jeff Brohm: Jeff Faughender - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
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