Defensive Effort Fuels Louisville's Road Win Over UCF

After a poor defensive showing in their season-opener, the Cardinals flipped the script in a big way against the Knights, with that side of the ball willing Louisville to a hard fought victory.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After an offseason full of hype and palpable buzz regarding the various defensive improvements for the Louisville football program, that side of the ball got off to an extremely poor start to begin the 2022 season.

While the Cardinals' offense played just as big of a role in their 31-7 season-opening loss at Syracuse, the defense looked just as disjointed. A clear lack of energy, coupled with an abysmal tackling effort from nearly every defensive player, led to the Orange getting nearly anything they wanted offensively and putting up 449 yards in the process.

Less than a week later, the script completely turned on its head.

Taking on UCF in the Bounce House, a place where the Knights carried a 31-2 record since 2017, the Louisville defense put together an incredible performance on the road, and was the primary catalyst for a 20-14 upset victory on Friday night.

"Tonight, the guys came out and they played their freaking butts off," defensive coordinator Bryan Brown said. "They tackled well, executed to a tee, and we settled down after the first drive. I think the guys were on point. They played hard, and I'm just excited for them."

At first, the defense did struggle a bit with UCF's high-tempo offense. The Knights were able to easily march down the field on two of their first three drives of the game, putting up a pair of early touchdowns to take a 14-7 lead through the first 20 minutes of the game.

But after that, the defense locked in and was lights out for the remainder of the game. After UCF scored those two early touchdowns, Louisville then forced ten consecutive defensive stops. A Knights offense that had put up 605 yards of offense against South Carolina State the week before, was held to just 337 by the Cardinals.

Louisville was particularly dominant in the second half of the game. UCF put up just 96 yards of offense during this time, with their first four drives after halftime all going just 10 yards or less. Not only did the Cardinals hold the Knights to under 100 yards in the second half, but they became the first team to shut out UCF in a half of football since Temple did so on Oct. 15, 2016.

"I think once we settled down after that first drive, once we got used to the tempo, they were fine from that point on," Brown said. "I just think in the locker room, they were still geeked up and understood what was at stake. That we played an okay first half and not a great one. During the second half, we had some things in our bag that we held back, that we started to hit those guys with and they couldn't adjust to that at that time. We were just excited to just go out there and play the game."

Defensive adjustments played a key role in how Louisville was able to respond to UCF's early scoring efforts. Early on, the Cardinals' defensive plan of attack was to get more pressure up the middle, which didn't bode well for them against the Knights' rushing attack. Dual-threat quarterback John Rhys Plumlee, and the running back duo of Isaiah Bowser and Johnny Richardson helped UCF put up 163 rushing yards in the first half alone.

Then as the game progressed, Louisville opted to try and counter UCF's zone read scheme by bringing the pressure off the edges, and it worked to near perfection. Not only did UCF only get 43 rushing yards in the second half, but the Cardinals were able to consistently get in the backfield and put pressure on Plumlee, both disrupting his timing when passing and getting sacks.

"Early on in the game, we were bringing more pressure up through the middle, and then Plumlee and the guys were getting more outside," head coach Scott Satterfield said. "We made an adjustment to bring a little bit more - let's try the edge, let's see if we can kind of go out here, and hem them inside. That seemed to work a lot better. ... They hit a few screens early in the game on us, the quick throws, that's why we had to tighten up the coverage out there. Just try to take some of those quick throws away."

It would be one thing if a one-man wrecking crew was the reason that Louisville had so much success defensively. Instead, it was a complete team effort, with multiple players contributing to the cause.

Safety Kenderick Duncan tallied a game-best 13 tackles. Safety Josh Minkins and cornerback Quincy Riley each had a pair of pass breakups, with latter nearly picking off both PBUs. Defensive end YaYa Diaby was disruptive and had 1.5 sacks. Cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr. had a clutch fourth quarter interception.

Even guys who didn't have great statistical games, like linebackers Ben Perry and Yasir Abdullah, impacted the game with their presence and physicality. In total, Louisville had four sacks and six tackles for loss in the game.

"From the time we lost and left Syracuse, that next day practice, you couldn't tell we lost the game because guys came out and practiced their butt off," Brown said. "They were flying around the whole week, and I saw it in their eyes that they were ready to play. They were excited to get that bad taste out of their mouth. Coming into a hostile environment to do so, nothing more gratifying to see the guys celebrate in the locker room."

To add icing on the cake, the defense took a big step forward in terms of erasing some narratives from last season, and came up with a pair of late fourth quarter stops.

After a surprising move by Louisville to go for on on fourth down didn't pay off, UCF took over at midfield with just under six minutes to go and trailing buy six. The Knights were able to march down to the goal line, but were stood up by the defensive front and forced fourth-and-goal. The Knights went for it, with Plumlee's pass in the back of the end zone getting picked off by Brownlee.

Louisville drained as much clock as they could, but had to punt it away with under two minutes to go, which give UCF one last chance. The Knights weren't nearly as successful this time around, with the Cardinals forcing a turnover on downs just past midfield, and handing them the win.

"You think about last year with how many games we lost in the fourth quarter. We preached that all offseason," Brown said. "We talked to our guys on the sideline after Brownlee's pick in the end zone, I called on them to calm down and said, 'hey, we'll have to go back and make another stop to win the football game.' The guys were confident that they could go out there and do it.

"I think one thing that Coach Satterfield has done is create situations like that. Four down scenarios or two minutes scenarios, all spring ball and all the fall camp. It gives those guys confidence to go out there and execute. I was just so happy that we were able to go out there and do it, because they've been put in those situations already."

With the dramatic turnaround on that side of the ball, plus several steps forward on offense as well, it gives Louisville a heightened level of confidence as they prepare to host Florida State in their home opener next Friday.

"The good thing is, we get a normal week even though it's Friday night," Satterfield said. "We get a normal seven day turnaround, not a short week, it's gonna be big for us as well. And we get to stay at home and get to play in Cardinal Stadium. That's another huge thing for us."

(Photo via Mike Watters - USA TODAY Sports)

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