Louisville's Defense Starting to Hit Their Collective Stride

Over the last couple weeks, the defensive side of the ball for the Cardinals has taken a dramatic upward turn in terms of efficiency.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program is off to an incredibly hot start to their 2023 campaign. The 6-0 Cardinals have won their first six games in a season for the first time since doing the same in 2013, are up to their highest standing in the AP Top 25 Poll since 2017 at No. 14, and have a signature win against No. 10 Notre Dame.

Of course, part of this has been because of their prolific offense. Quarterback Jack Plummer has had a very efficient start, wide receiver Jamari Thrash has lived up to his offseason billing, and running back Jawhar Jordan is starting to build a case for the Heisman Trophy.

But a large factor that plays into Louisville's undefeated start to 2023 has been the production they have gotten out of their defense. Specifically, that side of the ball has dramatically elevated their play over the last couple weeks.

Over the first month of the season, Louisville had been playing solid, albeit inconsistent defense. In their first four games, the Cardinals were averaging 19.0 points and 359.5 yards allowed per game. The former came in at 39th in the FBS, but the latter was 64th. While their run defense was a respectable 114.8 rushing yards allowed per game, which was 44th nationally, their 244.8 passing yards allowed was 94th. 

There were moments where the Louisville's defense was excelling, such as the second half against Georgia Tech and the fourth quarter against Indiana. Conversely, there were times where they couldn't seem to get on the same page, like the second quarter against the Yellow Jackets.

But in the last two weeks, the defense has collectively taken off.

Facing NC State on the road and hosting No. 10 Notre Dame, with both coming in primetime, the Cardinals have been dominant on the defensive side of the ball. In this two-game stretch, Louisville has allowed an average of just 15.0 points, 249.5 total yards, 183.0 passing yards and 66.5 rushing yards. That's a difference of four points, 110 total yards, 61.8 passing yards and 48.3 rushing yards.

A big reason for this development has been because of the front seven, and specifically the defensive line, doing a much better job at getting home when applying pressure. Over Louisville's first four games, they had only seven sacks and 16 tackles for loss to their name. They were doing a solid job at the line of scrimmage, but their pressure generated kept coming up just short of their intended backfield target.

Against NC State and Notre Dame, said pressure was getting home with much, much more regularity. The Cardinals had seven combined sacks against the Wolfpack and Fighting Irish, matching what they had accomplished in the previous four games, and very nearly matched their tackle for loss mark with 16 tackles for loss in this two game stretch.

Defensive end Ashton Gillotte, one of Louisville's top defenders entering the season, is now tied for third in the nation in sacks with 6.5. Inside linebacker Jaylin Alderman has 4.5 tackles for loss, with defensive tackle Ramon Puryear has 4.0. Inside linebacker T.J. Quinn is 74th nationally in tackles with 43.

"The defensive line, you have seen them a lot the past couple weeks and they have been lights out," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "They play hard, they play aggressive, and we play a bunch of guys. They work hard in practice. If someone came and watched them practice, (defensive line) Coach (Mark) Hagan and his guys do a great job and they work extremely hard."

Of course, this elevation in execution in the front seven is also aided greatly by a more efficient showing from the secondary. There have been considerably less missed assignments from the defensive backs over the last two weeks, while also playing much tighter coverage.

This has led to cornerback Quincy Riley being tied for fifth nationally in pass defenses with eight, while safety Devin Neal is right behind him seven (tied for 15th). Cornerback Jarvis Brownlee also has Pro Football Focus' fourth-highest coverage grade in the ACC among defensive backs at 81.1.

"We ask them to challenge routes – no matter what the coverage is, we're going to challenge routes, and they do a good job of understanding that," Brohm said. "Yet, we don't want to get beat over the top, but we do want to be aggressive. So when that happens and you're able to take away the outside receivers and really box things in from there, you can do more things."

On top of that, the defense as a whole has done a much better job as generating turnovers. Over their first four games, Louisville has six turnovers forced: three interceptions and three recovered fumbles. Against NC State and Notre Dame alone, the Cardinals had eight: five interceptions and three recovered fumbles.

Some may attribute this to the fact that NC State's offense had been so anemic up to that point that they wound up benching their starting quarterback after that game. This notion was put to bed immediately with their showing against Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish allowed only two combined sacks in their previous games against No. 3 Ohio State and at No. 17 Duke, while rushing for 130 yards against the Buckeyes while putting up 160 rushing yards at the Blue Devils. Louisville not only sacked Sam Hartman five times, they allowed only 40 total rushing yards, and just 20 to the nation's then-leading rusher in Audric Estime.

"We were going to scheme them to stop the run," Brohm said after Louisville's 33-20 win over Notre Dame. "You have to do that or they’re going to run you over. They’re big up front, they’ve got a big running back, big tight ends and we were aggressive in our packages against their personnel looks. We were going to make them beat us throwing the football, make them throw it over our head."

Following their statement win over Notre Dame, Louisville now ranks No. 29 in total defense at 322.8 yards allowed per game, and No. 22 in scoring defense at 17.7 points allowed per game.

Louisville has a good chance to continue this defensive surge when they travel to Pitt this weekend. While the Panthers are coming off of their bye week, Pitt has one of the worst offenses in the Power Five. Their 308.2 yards per game is just 120th out of 133 FBS teams, their 23.4 points per game is 96th, and they recently benched starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec.

Kickoff at the Panthers is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Devin Neal: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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