Jeff Brohm 'Proud' of Louisville's Effort, Resiliency in Comeback at Boston College

The Cardinals trailed by as much as 20 before mounting a rally and capturing a win against the Eagles.

Oct 25, 2024; Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA; Louisville Cardinals running back Isaac Brown (25) dives for a touchdown against the Boston College Eagles during the first half at Alumni Stadium. / Eric Canha-Imagn Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As the old saying goes: "It's not how you start, but how you finish." Well, the Louisville football program certainly was a testament to that adage on Friday night against Boston College.

The Cardinals marched into Chestnut Hill having lost three of their last four, and based on how their first half against the Eagles panned out, seemed to be careening towards another defeat. Louisville fell behind 20-0 roughly a quarter and a half into the contest, and any signs of life on the UofL sideline were hard to come by.

Louisville might have been down, but they were far from out.

Despite giving up 20 unanswered points right out of the gates, despite trailing 27-10 halfway through the third quarter, Louisville pulled off an exceedingly improbable comeback, storming back to claim a 31-27 win at Alumni Stadium.

"Really proud of our football team," head coach Jeff Brohm said. "Obviously, things weren't going our way early on, and it was disappointing, I'm sure, for everybody. But to withstand that, and to just continue to play to the end, and find a way to win against a good team, on the road, I couldn't be prouder. It's one of the toughest wins I think I've ever had as far as things don't look good, man, and it just continues to steamroll the opposite direction.

"To finally get it back going our way, and play to the end, I'm proud of the team. Are there things to work on? Sure. Are there things are correct? Yes. But we just got to continue to grind away, and figure out ways to get better."

Just how unlikely was Louisville's comeback? Following Boston College's kickoff to go up 27-10 with 7:58 left in the third quarter, according to ESPN Analytics, the Eagles had a 93.0 percent to win.

What then came to pass was a Cardinals rally that hadn't been seen since the Lamar Jackson era. This was the largest comeback by Louisville since the eventual Heisman Trophy winner led a 21-point comeback against Kentucky to win 38-24 on Nov. 28, 2015 as a freshman.

A variety of factors came into play as to why Louisville dug themselves into that hole in the first place. The Cardinals' offense, which had been marching down gridirons with ease up to that point, was an unmitigated disaster to start the game. Louisville's first five drives ended with: a turnover on downs, an interception, a three-and-out, a missed field goal and a fumble.

The defense had actually performed much better right out of the gates than expected, but eventually began to lag behind. Louisville forced Boston College to go three-and-out on three of their first four drives, with the lone exception being a busted fourth down play that resulted in a touchdown, then proceeded to give up 107 yards on the next two drives - both of which resulted in the Eagles finding the end zone.

Louisville was able to find the end zone themselves just before halftime, but still trailed 20-7 at the half. When players and coaches reconvened in the locker room, for halftime, Brohm, while clearly displeased, said that conversation that he had with he players and fellow coaches was actually a calm one.

"Well, believe it or not, the conversation we had was kind of calm," he said. "You can sit there and think, 'My gosh, what more could go wrong?' But it did, it went wrong. So you just kind of have to hang in there. We've had some adversity already that's helped us along the way. We've had some things not go our way, but we played to the end in those games we lost. I just think that carries over.

"The mentality of the team is exactly what you want. Our coaches aren't perfect, either, but they coached to the end. Our players gave us great effort."

When Louisville returned to action, they played like a completely different team than the one that had taken the field int he first half. Offensively, they looked much more poised, and operated with more decisiveness, allowing themselves to get into a rhythm.

While they still weren't perfect per see, the Cardinals were still able to put up 274 yards of offense in the second half compared to 188 in the first. After not scoring until their sixth drive of the game, Louisville scored on four of their first five drives of the second half - with three of them going for touchdowns.

"I think we just increased the tempo," quarterback Tyler Shough said, who finished 28-of-38 passing for 333 yards and two touchdowns to two picks. "We got them on their heels a little bit. Was kind of upping the tempo a little bit, mixing it up with huddling and going fast, wide receivers were making plays all over the field."

On the other side of the line of scrimmage, Louisville's defensive efficiency was cranked to 11 in the final stages of the game.

While they did allow Boston College to score a touchdown on their first drive of the second half to put them down 27-10, the Cardinals allowed just 68 combined yards of offense on the Eagles' final six drives of the game. They gave up 270 yards through three quarters, but just 48 in the fourth.

'It's just being accountable," defensive end Ashton Gillotte said in regards to how the defense was able to bounce back after being down 20. "Having guys be able to call each other out for assignments, or eyes, and just stuff like that. That's something we are working on, we've been working on.

"I think we just did a good job of calling people out, everyone owning up to their own missed assignments, and just getting back on the ball and playing football. It's long game."

In the days since the loss to Miami last Saturday, a lot has been called into question about this Louisville team. One of the primary areas of questions (other than the defense), has been their ability to finish games after being so good at it last season, as well as their overall toughness.

Brohm believes that their performance at Boston College is a testament to how tough and resilient this team truly is, and that they truly care about putting their maximum effort out on the field.

"That's the great part about the team," he said. "I know there's some flaws and some things we all got to work on, but they play hard. They want to win. When things aren't going well, it disappoints all of us. It disappoints our team. They get angry, and they get upset, and they want to do something about it. But in order to do that, you got to keep your poise. You got to keep the belief in yourself. You got to keep your confidence, and that's not easy to do.

"The fact that we did it on the road, in a night game, that really looked dismal there for a while, says a lot about our team. We got to build on it. It's a big win. It's a conference win on the road. We've got plenty of tough games left."

(Photo of Isaac Brown: Eric Canha-Imagn Images)

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