Louisville's Defense Produces 'Dominant' Outing, Offense Has 'Dismal' Day in Final Scrimmage

The Cardinals ended their fall camp with a very one-sided scrimmage.

The Louisville defense takes to the field during practice on April 12, 2024 before the Red-White scrimmage game. / Matt Stone/The Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As quickly as fall camp started for the Louisville football program, their preseason is now in the rear view mirror. With UofL set to start classes this upcoming Monday, the Cardinals held their final practice of fall camp on Saturday.

For their final practice, Louisville conducted their third scrimmage of fall camp. As is the case any year, you want to end you preseason on a strong note before officially preparing for you first opponent. According to head coach Jeff Brohm, the defensive side of the ball is the one that made the most of their last preseason practice.

"Today was a good day overall from a scrimmage standpoint," he said. "We learned a lot about our team today. Defense was dominant, without question. Really played well, made plays, got turnovers and disrupted the offense."

Unfortunately, this dominant outing by the defense came as a detriment to the offensive side of the ball. Brohm even went as far to say that it was a "dismal" performance for the offense, and that it was a "butt-kicking" from start to finish.

"Offense had a really bad day," he said. "It was a really dismal day on offense. They had bad, negative plays and turnovers, and a lot of things to work on. Hopefully we'll regroup and understand what it takes to win against good opponents.

"The defense, without question, got after the offense. It was a butt-kicking from play one to the end."

While the third and final scrimmage of fall camp was closed to the public and media, Brohm pulled back the curtain a little as to what went wrong for the day - which happened to be a lot. Unfortunately, it wasn't a byproduct of good offense being bested by great defense - the offense just didn't come prepared.

According to Brohm, the defensive line got near-constant pressure on the quarterback. Quarterback Tyler Shough had a rough day at the office, and let his aggressive nature get the better of him with too many forced throws. The various pass catchers, regardless of positions, had too many drops. While Brohm says there were a few explosive runs, overall, they barely got any thing going in run the run game.

While players certainly need to step up with more consistency, especially with the 2024 season being so close, Brohm says he blames himself and the coaching staff for not having the offense more prepared for the final scrimmage.

"It's not all on the players, it's coaching, too," he said. "You got to have a plan for looks you get, that give your players an opportunity to do the best against the look. Not just call plays to call plays. There has to be a rhyme and reason, has to be the ability to get one to the other quickly, so that you put yourself in a better place to make plays. I put the blame one myself, all the way down, where things need to be planned more strategically and give our players a chance.

Fortunately, this poor outing from the offense does not appear to be a microcosm for the offense as a whole. It appeared to be just part of the ebb and flow of fall camp, where some days the offense does a better job, and others the defense is the unit who is more crisp.

"We probably had two outstanding days on offense this week where we were really sharp," Brohm said. "The last scrimmage on Wednesday, we were as good on offense as I've seen. Then today, we're as bad as we've been.

"Like I said, we got to coach better and make sure we figure out, 'Hey, these are the things that we got to really hang our hat on.' Not get too aggressive, not take too many risks, but at the same time, you got to create big plays. It was dysfunctional today."

In fact, there has been one silver lining over the last week of fall camp. Following Louisville's first scrimmage of fall camp, Brohm was critical of the non-starting players, saying that he wanted more playmakers to emerge beyond the usual suspects.

While the final practice of fall camp was decidedly one sided, it seems that some players on the roster did answer the call in the scrimmage and in the last week overall. It just a matter of maintaining that consistency.

"I think so," Brohm said when asked if playmakers began to emerge over the last two scrimmages. "I think at times, some of our receivers have looked really well, and played well. At times, our tight ends, they've stepped up and done well. But it's got to be consistent. Certain guys are consistent, others need to just be consistent more, so that's important. ... It's a good wake up call for us, and we've got to refocus."

The Cardinals will kick off the 2024 season against Austin Peay at L&N Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 31.

(Photo of Louisville players: Matt Stone - The Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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