Louisville rebounds against Virginia, 24-20

It wasn’t pretty. But the cards survived.

In a game that was arguably a worst-case scenario, where a win did little for UofL but a loss meant rock bottom was completely broken, the Cards battled their way to a difficult but beneficial 24th :20 win over UVA’s Hoos.

We tried a few formats to group games together. So this time, why don’t we try out a “good” and a “bad” layout?

I’m more of a “good news” sandwich kind of guy, so let’s get the bad out of the way…

BAD

· This opening ride was exactly what we all feared most. We wanted the defense to come out with simpler sets and not be so reliant on waiting for the offensive formation first before searching the sideline for a quick play call, but the defense was still put in trouble by an impressive and clearly calculated opening attack. It looked like the defense was in for another long day of letting a rushing QB blow them up all over the field, but luckily they dropped after the first touchdown of the third quarter only six additional points.

· Offensive play calling. There were a few rumors, but now it’s actually become a thing where I think it’s fair to ask where in the world was Brohm’s typical crazy offense on which he built his reputation at WKU and Purdue has built? Did he leave his playbook in West Lafayette? Did he find Satterfield’s in a box in his office? I feel like Brohm fell victim to the same problems as Satt. Now that he has the talent he never had before, he thinks he can make simpler plays and lean on that talent and skill, but that still isn’t happening. One can only hope that he can recognize this and, most importantly, make adjustments after the last two weeks and really open up the spread offense for a guy like Tyler Shough spread the ball around and create more space.

· Chris Bell. I know the old saying goes that people don’t want to talk badly about individual players because at the end of the day they’re just young college students, but now that NIL is involved, I really don’t have a problem with shaming guys , who are paid to play the game. Chris Bell was a disappointing player with potentially wasted talent. The guy shows flashes and brilliance in training and warmups, he’s built like a hunk, but when the game is played he does practically nothing except stupid/hot-headed plays that cost the team dearly. He messed up against Great Britain last year and the same stupid incidents keep cropping up. It was difficult to be happy for him after he made a much-needed charge in the fourth quarter when he felt like he had no business being on the field after committing multiple penalties. They hope the staff can sort this out. The guy has so much potential. Do something with it.

GOOD

· Isaac Brown

20 carries, 146 yards, 2 touchdowns. Powerful, powerfully impressive. I think we all had a feeling when we saw his breakthrough against Austin Peay in Week 1, and it’s beyond exciting to see him continue to have great success week after week. We clearly have talent. Keep feeding him. The only negative is why on earth we didn’t go to him sooner in the last few weeks when most fans were screaming for this guy to be RB1.

· Find a way to win. For the fourth straight time, the Cards found themselves in a dog fight. While I’m not sure many of us viewed UVA as a major hurdle early in the season, it can’t be ignored that the Hoos were 4-1 entering this game and that Anthony Colandrea was ready to set us on fire once again set, especially after the way the last three QBs Louisville has faced have been. He got off to a hot start and most (including me) were calling for Ron English’s head. But the defense turned things around and got enough stops for the offense to do its thing. And when it mattered most, the defense got the stop UofL needed most and the offense got the score it needed most. This is something we just haven’t had in the last two weeks and I’m very happy it’s back.

There are, of course, more little things we could criticize and celebrate over the next week, but there’s still something to be said about making the plays you needed when you needed them most to ultimately win win. A loss here could have derailed the season, but now the Cards are back with a winning record in conference play and have everything to win in front of them, especially with what looks like a winnable top-10 Miami team ( FL) looks like it’s coming to town next week.

There is still a lot to tighten up, and I’m not sure at this point if that will be the case. I fear that this may just be an under-coached and undisciplined bunch, but the flashes keep appearing and I remain confident that at some point we can see this team put together a perfect game like we saw in Week 1 . If we can do that, or even come close, then there really isn’t anyone unbeatable on this schedule.

Let’s get home safely, improve what’s working, and prepare for a potentially huge win next weekend that could restart this season in the back half of the schedule.