Final Thoughts and Observations on Louisville vs. Notre Dame

The No. 25 Cardinals toppled the No. 10 Fighting Irish to match their best start to a season in a decade.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Playing in front of the largest crowd in L&N Stadium history, the Louisville football program was able to pull off the upset over Notre Dame, leaning on their defense and rushing attack to capture a 33-20 win and match their best start to a season in a decade.

Before we close the book on the game and transition to the matchup at Pitt, I wanted to provide some closing thoughts and observations from the game against the Fighting Irish:

• First of all, what an enormous statement made by the program. Louisville was presented with their biggest opportunity since the 2016 season to make some noise on the national stage, and they took full advantage of it. This was not a win that came as a product of getting extremely lucky, or one where they needed a handful of trick plays to get their yardage and points. Louisville lined up toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the nation, against arguably the biggest brand in all of college football, and dominated them from start to finish. 
• The fans in attendance absolutely deserve credit here. Not only was this the biggest crowd in L&N Stadium history, it was the loudest that I have ever heard it since the 2016 Florida State game, and it might have been louder than that. Brohm said it himself that the team fed off the energy of the crowd, and the crowd certainly brought the juice.
• What a fantastic game plan called by Ron English, Mark Hagen and the defensive staff. I wrote ahead of the game that Louisville was going to have to continue to bring the pressure against Sam Hartman and that elite Notre Dame offensive line, and that is exactly what they did. English and Co. did a great job of scheming for players to have free rushing lanes after the ballcarrier in short spaces. The Irish's offense runs through their ground game, specifically power back Audric Estime, and they did not let him - or any other back - get going at all. Additionally, there were very few drop backs in which Hartman was not harassed. Granted, Notre Dame's offense has been sputtering in recent weeks, but they still put together a game plan that didn't allow them to have anywhere close to a "get-right" game on that side of the ball. For a team that many identify as one where you have to look out for their offense, the defense has really elevated this team to the next level.
• On top of a great game plan, the defensive line executed the plan to near perfection. Notre Dame has one of the best offensive lines in all of college football, and the Louisville D-Line was winning at the point of attack with regularity. One-on-ones, stunts and twists, it didn't matter. Ashton Gillotte was again a nuisance all night long (and should have been credited with a forced fumble), Mason Reiger finally had his post-injury breakout game and notched a sack against arguably the best tackle in college football, Ramon Puryear continues to be an underrated playmaker. This unit has made tremendous strides since the start of the season, especially over the last couple of weeks.
• As good as the line has been and continues to get, the production that Louisville is getting out of their linebacking corps is arguably the biggest development of the season - at least on defense. T.J. Quinn, once again, was all over the field making plays and helping limit Estime to short runs. Jaylin Alderman, while he was up and down in this game, made a huge play on third down after Louisville tied the game in the third quarter. Benjamin Perry was good in coverage and had a pair of PBUs, including one that directly led to a turnover on downs. Gilbert Frierson, despite not logging any stats, even played a role in the front seven's success bringing pressure. For a unit that many viewed as the weak link on the defense heading into the season, they have been fantastic over the first half of the season.
• Of course, like last week at NC State, the pressure generated up front was aided greatly by the secondary. Save for a few blown coverages, the Cardinals made it difficult for Hartman to find an open for most of the night. Quincy Riley had great concentration of his interception to open the game, and that helped set the tone early. Devin Neal came through when Louisville needed it the most with a pair of fourth quarter interceptions. Jarvis Brownlee, while he did get cooked by a walk-on for Notre Dame's first touchdown, actually played a solid game for the most part.
• Now onto the offense. As far as the play calling goes, Jeff Brohm and the rest of the offensive staff called a pretty good game. My biggest complaint was that they started to abandon the run in the second quarter and wanted to test a really good Notre Dame secondary, but they did make the proper halftime adjustments and had a more run-centric focus where they were having more success. Running multiple speed option plays on that first drive was certainly interesting, too.
• One last note on the offensive play calling: it's time to put to bed the Evan Conley QB draw. Teams can see it coming from a mile away now any time he takes the field.
• It might be time to start the Jawhar Jordan Heisman Trophy campaign. Not only did he rebound from his unproductive outing against NC State, he ran all over Notre Dame. Him, Leonard Fournette and Ezekiel Elliott are the only backs in the last 10 years to run for 140 yards and two touchdowns against the Irish. That's pretty good company. Not only was his blazing open field speed on display, his ability to force defenders to take wrong pursuit angles and take contact is not talked about enough.
• With the emphasis on the running game, quarterback Jack Plummer was more so designated as a game manager in this matchup, and he did a good job of it. He didn't take a lot of unnecessary risks, made good decisions with the football, was a factor in the run game early with those option plays, picked up on the pressure that ND was sending more often than not, and even had a couple instances in the pocket where he was able to navigate and avoid the sack. Plus, while Jamari Thrash was certainly a focal point in this game, Plummer made sure to spread the ball around and keep the ND secondary honest. Nine different players caught a pass, and Thrash and Jordan were the only ones to log multiple receptions.
• Speaking of Thrash, he's lucky that his fumble only led to a field goal and not a touchdown. For as good as he is, and he is very good, something he needs to fix is his tendency to switch hands with the ball mid-juke. Also, while there were only two drops in this game - one by Chris Bell and another by Ahmari Huggins-Bruce - each one played a role in Louisville going three-and-out. That can't happen.
• It's good to see the tight ends slowly get more involved in the game plan. Not only are they getting better at blocking (see Jordan's 45-yard score), Nate Kurisky, Josh Lifson and Joey Gatewood are getting sprinkled into the passing attack as well. While it would help to have a bona fide TE1, this is better than nothing.
• The offensive line deserves a lot of praise for this performance. A lot of the headlines will be focused on Jordan, and deservedly so, but the line has consistently bulldozed open holes for him all season long. The pass protection was a little hit-or-miss at times, but they were able to take advantage of a Notre Dame front seven that had been slipping in recent weeks when it came to their run defense. Bryan Hudson and Austin Collins in particular deserve a shoutout. Hudson has missed a lot of practice recently due to injury but it still playing the games, and Collins stepped in and performed well after Renato Brown struggled.
• Brock Travelstead continues to play a crucial and unsung role on this team. He not only did a solid job punting the ball and pinning the Irish back, but he was able to rebound from his first missed field goal to kick four in the second half and help Louisville supplant their second half lead.
• A good sight to see was that Louisville didn't have an influx of back-breaking penalties like they had in games prior. Sure, they had six, which isn't great, but two of them came in the fourth quarter when the game was starting to get out of hand.
• A storyline that might not get as much attention as it should is that this was another game in which Louisville established themselves as a second half team. With the score tied at halftime, this could have been a game that went in any number of ways, especially after Thrash fumble to open the second half. But this team kept their composure like they have so many times already this season, and they made sure that Notre Dame wasn't escaping with a win.
• I'll close with this thought: This was exactly the kind of game, and the kind of performance, that Louisville hired Jeff Brohm to put on. Not only were they competitive with one of the best teams in college football, they were flat out better than them. With how the rest of the schedule is shaping up, Louisville could be in line for a very special season. They just have to continue with their "one-game season" mentality.

(Photo via Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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