5 takeaways from Louisville football’s win over Western Kentucky
The defense has a dog mentality
Let’s show the defense some love. They deserve all the love after their performance against Western Kentucky. All three levels of the field looked fantastic against a veteran Western Kentucky team.
The defense had three sacks and ten tackles for loss on the night. They were swarming to the ball early and often at all three levels. The linebackers, however, impressed me the most of all on a night where every position group on defense deserved praise.
The veterans inside linebackers are back and looking healthy. Dorian Etheridge and C.J. Avery are two seniors that were set up for a nice jump in the second year of being in the Bryan Brown defensive scheme.
I came away very impressed. All of the inside linebackers showed confidence in what they were doing as they diagnosed quickly to create short gains at a high level. When the two seniors were not in, it was Monty Montgomery stealing the show.
Montgomery was tasked with spying Western Kentucky quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome all night as Pigrome is quite the athlete for his position.Montgomery proved to be the picture perfect spy.
He had two sacks on one possession spying Pigrome where he contained and then shot out of a cannon with closing speed on both sacks. He is a real treat to watch and I would put my money on him being an All-ACC type of performer if he did not have the seniors Avery and Etheridge behind him. Montgomery is not just a backup piece; he is a huge part of the Louisville defense and will be vital for their success this season.
Other standouts in the front seven were newcomer and junior college transfer defensive end Yaya Diaby (who got his first start as a Cardinal) as well as defensive tackle Jared Goldwire. I thought both guys got a lot of push at the defensive line position on running and passing downs that made life very hard for Pigrome and crew.
In the defensive backfield, corners Kei’Trel Clark and Chandler Jones looked the most comfortable and in position (despite Anthony Johnson earning a start over Jones). Clark shut down whoever he was covering all game long.
Both safeties looked good in Isaiah Hayes and Russ Yeast. Hayes, a former Arizona transfer, was unhealthy much of last season but was around the football a lot in Week one. Yeast is coming off a leg injury in the latter stages of the 2019 season and the game was apparently the first time Russ Yeast tackled live since his injury, according to Scott Satterfield.
Scott Satterfield said today was the first day Russ Yeast tackled since returning from injury.
— Cameron Teague (@cj_teague) September 13, 2020
The staff held him back a bit in camp to keep him healthy.
Yeast ended up delivering a blow that forced a fumble in what was going to be a huge play for Western Kentucky. Yeast will make even more impact as he gets more settled in with live tackling.
This defense has a lot to build on heading into Week 2 against Miami. However, D’Eriq King is one of the best college quarterbacks in the country and possibly the most dangerous as a runner. Montgomery, I would imagine, would be a rather large X-factor in this one.