Final Thoughts and Observations on Louisville vs. Notre Dame

The Cardinals suffered their first loss of the season with a mistake-riddled performance against the Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard, center, flies through the air while being tackled during a NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Louisville at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in South Bend. / MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program's first road game of the 2024 season didn't go according to plan, with the Cardinals dropping a ranked matchup at Notre Dame 31-24 this past Saturday.

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

• First of all, if you're a Louisville fan, this might have been one of the most frustrating games you'll ever watch in your life. The Cardinals didn't just shoot themselves in the foot, they blasted their leg clean off. After such a promising first couple minutes, Louisville simply could not get out of their own way the rest of the afternoon. Considering that there was still a chance for Louisville to tie things up in the late stages of the games, had they not spent the majority of the contest stepping on rakes, they could have won pretty handily and made a massive statement to the college football world. What I'm about to say sounds like a huge excuse, but it's the truth: Louisville lost this game more so than Notre Dame won it.
• Since I've already led into it, might as well talk about what did in Louisville first: the miscues. So, so many mistakes were committed in this game. For starters, every one of Louisville's three turnovers were avoidable, and they lead directly to 17 of Notre Dame's points. Tyler Shough should know better and protect the football after such a massive run. Ja'Corey Brooks' tip-drill pick hit him right in the hands, and he should have caught it. Shai Kochav, for as good as he has been in his career, chose an awful time to have a bad snap. There were a handful of really bad coverage busts that allowed Riley Leonard - a mediocre passer - to make huge plays with his arm, most notably the touchdown to Jaden Greathouse that gave the Irish the lead. Also, penalties came up yet again after they were an issue last week, including an absolutely brutal delay of game penalty on 4th and 1 in the final two minutes of the game. Time after time after time, Louisville just kept making stupid and easily avoidable mistakes, and that was the single-biggest factor as to why they lost despite out-gaining Notre Dame by over 100 yards.
• While the actual players on the field do bear some responsibility in how they performed, if you ask me, Jeff Brohm takes the bulk of the blame. After three games of relatively vanilla play calling, I expected Brohm to open up the playbook some and really dive deep into his bag of tricks for such a massive game... and that didn't really happen. The reliance on the option play early in the first quarter even gave me some Scott Satterfield-esque vibes. Not to mention some of the personnel decisions were questionable at times. Their final play of the first half might have been the worst call I've ever seen from Brohm during his time at Louisville. Why are you trying to stretch the edges when you need just one yard? And if that's the call, why is Don Chaney Jr. - a power back - the guy to go to in that situation? Even better... why don't you just take the points and make it a one-score game? On top of that, Brohm was way, way too aggressive given that he seemingly had a low-risk approach to the offense. Louisville's defense, while they struggled mightily in the first quarter, played lights out the rest of the way. There was simply no need for you to go for it on fourth down not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, but five times. Even Dan Campbell thinks that's aggressive. Punt the ball, pin Notre Dame back, and let the defense do their job. Yes, the players made on-field mistakes that should not happened. But if you ask me, Brohm and his coaching staff failed them in this one. Which is stunning considering Brohm usually gets up for big time games.
• Alright, now onto the offense. What sucks for QB Tyler Shough is that his bone-headed fumble and interception that wasn't his fault will overshadow what was otherwise a very good game. The veteran signal caller had mostly great pocket awareness (more on that in bit), was able to extend a handful of plays with his legs and found guys downfield, and completed several high level throws in this game. This feels like a super tired comparison in regards to difficult sidearm throws, but his first touchdown to Brooks had Patrick Mahomes vibes to it.
• Speaking of Brooks, he's kinda in the same boat as Shough is in that his one really bad play (the drop for a Notre Dame tip-drill pick) will overshadow what was otherwise a good game. On both of his touchdown catches, he displayed both good concentration and exceptional body control/awareness. Even with Caullin Lacy back, who he himself had a great game in his first appearance coming back from injury, he still has a stranglehold on WR1 right now.
• In real time, it seemed like guys not named Brooks and Lacy - with the exception of a handful of plays - struggled at time to get consistent separation. But... I went back and re-watched the film and checked the advanced stats, and found out one massive reason why: the pass protection in this game was absolutely atrocious. I knew watching in real time that the Notre Dame defensive line was winning at the point of attack, but I didn't realize just how badly Louisville was getting whipped up front on passing plays. Giving up two sacks doesn't sound super back, but Shough was hit or pressured on 16 additional plays. Three of Louisville's starters on the offensive line had a PFF pass blocking grade of 41 or under. Pete Nygra's grade was a 14.3! Not to mention that Notre Dame's pass rush has been average if not a touch underwhelming to start the season. An absolutely inexcusable performance by the line in pass protection after having such a good start in this area.
• When it comes to the ground game, it might be time to hand the RB1 reigns over the Isaac Brown, even when Maurice Turner comes back. Chaney usually is good at what he does (i.e. short yardage north-south situations), but he's got slow feet and isn't a threat as a pass catcher. Meanwhile, Brown - a true freshman - looks like he has star written all over him later on down the line.
• Now onto the defense. Yes, there certainly were a handful of mistakes by this side of the line of scrimmage, and giving up 31 points doesn't help in terms of shaking the notion that this unit played poorly But in actuality, Louisville's defense had a good overall game. In fact, the Cardinals held the Irish to just 280 yards overall and a 28 percent success rate. The biggest factor behind the inflated point total is that Notre Dame's offense took over at the Louisville 40 or better in five of their first nine drives of the game - mainly thanks to the three turnovers and a couple of turnovers on downs. The defense, thanks partially to lack of execution by the offensive players and coaches, was put in an extremely bad situation.
• The defensive line and front seven as a whole, at least when it came to bottling up the run, did a very good job. Facing a team whose entire offensive identity is to run the ball, Notre Dame was still only able to run for 117 total yards. There were a couple questionable defensive calls that allowed Riley Leonard to run for chunks and firsts, but he was largely a non-factor with his legs. Stanquan Clark deserves a ton of credit for helping contain ND's rushing attack.
• The issue is that Notre Dame, who has struggled mightily to throw the football all season long, was able to generate just enough success/momentum to have to be accounted for. Louisville was thin on cornerback depth after Quincy Riley was banged up Tahveon Nicholson was (reportedly) not at 100 percent, plus the linebacking corps has not performed well when dropping back into coverage. Riley Leonard not only took advantage of some of these coverage issues with a dink-and-dunk approach when throwing, but also made Louisville pay with various wide open coverage busts. The touchdown to Jaden Greathouse, as well as the last two play on Notre Dame's final scoring drive, encapsulate this issue perfectly. I really thought, because of Leonard's inhibitions as a passer, missing Quincy Riley for this game would not be a huge deal. I was wrong.
• Something that is worth monitoring moving forward: this is now two games in which Louisville has played power conference competition, and both times they looked sloppy in one regard. Against Georgia Tech, is was penalties and just general disjointedness, vs. Notre Dame it was impactful mistakes (mainly turnovers). Can this team play a clean game? The SMU game will be a telling game for a lot of reasons.
• The only reason I'm even mentioning this is because I'm tired of this discourse popping up every game: the refs did not cause Louisville to lose. Were there some questionable calls and post-play spots? Sure. But you know what would have helped? Not making a myriad of mistakes. I'll put it like this: this was an ACC officiating crew... what the hell did you expect? Did you watch how officials botched the end of the Miami-Virginia Tech game the day prior? It's not like officiating crews are uniquely awful, we've known for years that ACC refs are awful. You'd think the ACC would fix this, but that's a different discussion entirely. Point being is that officiating did not cause Louisville to lose this game, so stop trying to use it as a coping mechanism.
• I'll close with this thought: Even with this result, there is still a lot to accomplish if you're Louisville. They played an incredibly sloppy game, had questionable play calling from the coaches, and still had a chance to beat a top-15 team on the road even until the very end. Now, is there a lot to clean up if they are to achieve some of their loftier goals? No questions. But an ACC Championship, plus a potential berth in the College Football Playoff, is still within the realm of possiblity. Louisville just has to get a lot of things fixed/adjusted if they are to get there.

(Photo via Michael Clubb - South Bend Tribune / USA TODAY Network)

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