Jeff Brohm Shoulders Blame for Louisville's Stunning Upset Loss at Pitt
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A week removed from dominating Notre Dame for a statement win in year one under Jeff Brohm, the Louisville football program found themselves on the opposite end of an equally as stunning outcome.
Despite being favored by a touchdown heading into their road matchup against a reeling Pitt, the No. 14 Cardinals (6-1, 3-1 ACC) wound up losing by three scores, getting upset by the Panthers (2-4, 1-2 ACC) on Saturday night to the tune 38-21.
Off to their best start since 2013, Louisville's first loss of the season came to a Pitt squad who was off to their worst start since 2005. After the game, Brohm took full responsibility for the shocking upset loss.
"Well, we got beat today. I'll take the blame for it, I'm the head coach," he said. "You think you have your team ready to play, you think you've covered all the bases, make sure they understood what's happened before in the past. You talk about it, you address it, but obviously it wasn't enough. I gotta do a better job of getting us ready to play every week."
All week long, the threat of falling victim to a trap game was one of the biggest storylines surrounding the matchup. Brohm's struggles following the big wins while at Purdue was something that had been well documented, and Louisville was riding the emotional highs of a decisive win over the Fighting Irish.
Throw in the fact that Pitt was coming off of their bye week, had changed quarterbacks in hopes of getting an offensive spark, and the game itself was played in a near-constant rainfall, and this game was picked by many nationally as a trendy upset pick.
That being said, Brohm didn't think that his guys weren't as locked in as they needed to be. He believes they were focused at the task at hand, and attributes the loss to the play on the field rather than their approach or mental state.
"You know what, actually, I thought we were locked in," Brohm said. "I thought we were ready to go. I'm gonna stand up here and say obviously we got to do better at that, and we will. But I do think the juncture in the game, when we started to get sloppy with the ball, we're starting to put the ball on the ground and turn the ball over, that was the difference."
The aforementioned difference that Brohm is referring to were three red zone turnovers committed by the Cardinals, two of which led directly to Pitt touchdowns.
All three Louisville turnovers were committed by quarterback Jack Plummer. The first was a second quarter fumble that allowed Pitt to march down the field and tie the game at 14 a piece. The second was an 86-yard pick six in the third quarter to turn the Louisville deficit from three points to 10, and the third was a pick on the very next drive that bounced out of wide receiver Jimmy Calloway's hands and right to a Pitt defender.
While Brohm does believe that Plummer needs to do a better job taking care of the football, he also mainly faults himself for not putting Plummer, or the offense as a whole, in better positions to succeed.
"Well, it's disappointing to turn the ball over that much," he said. "I think, obviously, I gotta put our quarterback in a better position to not turn it over, but he can't hold it that long and take a sack when you're in field goal range. That can't happen. We can't put the ball on the ground like those times before, and we can't throw interceptions. Can we make some safer calls? I guess we'll try.
"But, I think not being as consistent in the running game as we would like to, I just think we need probably more balance. It takes the pressure off the quarterback. It wasn't just him. We weren't able to make contested catches. We had plenty of chances one-on-one for big plays, and we didn't make contested catches. It was just a combination of a lot of things, but like I said, that's my fault. I didn't us ready to go."
Brohm's play calling also had an impact on the game. On the first drive of the second half and facing 4th and 1 from their own 34-yard line, Brohm opted to be aggressive and go for it. Louisville was unable to convert, which in turn led to a Pitt field goal that was the first of 24 unanswered Panthers points in the second half.
"Well, I thought we could get a half yard. So obviously, I was wrong, or obviously the play calling wasn't right," he said. "We've ran that play numerous times. You'd like to be able to bang it up in there with two tight ends on that side, and just come off the ball. ... So obviously, it was a bad play call and it was bad decision, because it gave them a field goal."
Louisville also seemed to abandon the run midway through the third quarter and opt to throw deep ball after deep ball. The Cardinals ran the ball 33 times, while Plummer's 52 attempts were they most by a Cardinal since 2018.
Regardless, the Cardinals now head into a much needed bye week. With tough games against Duke, Miami and Kentucky still left to play, Louisville will have to find a way to mentally refocus from Saturday night's letdown.
"We got to regroup," he said. "Understand that, from here on out, the schedule gets tougher every week. Every team will be ready to play, and we've got to get better. Disappointing day, give the other team credit. They won, we lost."
(Photo of Jeff Brohm: Charles LeClaire - USA TODAY Sports)
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