Louisville football: 5 things to take from Notre Dame into EKU
Fumbles kill
Fumbling the football against a team who’s better than you is just not a winning formula. Louisville not only fumbled a lot on Monday night, but they also fumbled at the most inopportune times.
The two that absolutely killed the Cards: a botched snap deep in our own territory right before the 1st half ended that basically gifted Notre Dame seven points, and a momentum destroying fumble after starting the third quarter with a solid drive down the field with a chance to tie the game.
Both of these fumbles came from Jawon Pass, who as previously stated, doesn’t have the most experience when it comes to rushing the football. Ball security is so important at this level, especially when your room for error is way smaller than the teams you’re playing. That is going to be something that’s almost always the case for our Cardinals this year considering this hellacious schedule.
On average in 2018, the worst team when it came to fumbles lost was UMass, they only lost 1.2 fumbles per game. The Cardinals lost three on Monday night and it could’ve been worse, they lost control the ball five times and were lucky enough to only lose three. This has to be a focal point moving forward if we’re going to win some of these games where we’re going to be severe underdogs.
In 2018, Scott Satterfield’s Appalachian State lost five fumbles all season. Their 10 fumbles were tied for third fewest in the nation.
— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) September 3, 2019
In 2018, Louisville fumbled 23 times and lost 10.
This issue is not one that Coach Satterfield dealt with at Appalachian State, so hopefully, he’s the man to help at UofL. If we are talking about more turnovers after EKU, then we could be potentially looking at a bigger issue.