Louisville football: 5 final thoughts after loss to Miami

Louisville was too cute with the game plan

Calling the Louisville game plan on both offense and defense “conservative” is a compliment almost if you ask me. After the first drive that saw a fast and aggressive Louisville defense force their way off the field, things from there wen’t downhill.

Offensively, Louisville relied on short zone runs to Javian Hawkins, which were mostly effective, while using Tutu Atwell as primarily an “orbiting” decoy rather than using him to challenge the short-handed secondary of Miami.

While the offense was able to move the ball without much issue, it compounded the defensive struggles when they weren’t able to capitalize on long drives and score touchdowns, instead opting to either kick field goals or punt.

A lot just didn’t make sense to me. Whether it be hand offs on third and long, misdirection calls on short yardage plays, or simply rolling Malik Cunningham out in a way that didn’t allow him time to throw.

Defensively, Louisville played it safe both in coverage and when it came to attacking the backfield via pass rush and run blitzes. Following that first drive where they allowed only one first down before getting off the field, Louisville continually rushed three defenders on obvious pass rush situations and rarely forced any sort of pressure.

https://twitter.com/RJ_Writes/status/1307650139281141762?s=20

I told Harry Douglas this week on the Big Red Louie Podcast that the defensive line getting no push against Western last weekend worried me, and after the Miami game I am even less confident in the Cards ability to push at the first level. Time and time again with an opportunity to get off the field, Bryan Brown decided to drop back in coverage and only send the front three (resulting in no sacks) which gave D’Eriq King all day to throw or find a crease to run.

Big plays were the norm especially in the second half, and while the majority of it was because of simple mistakes made by the defense (which we’ll discuss momentarily), the game plan wasn’t one that put Louisville in a position to win.

I get that Brown and co-defensive coordinator Cort Dennison don’t have the guys necessarily that will execute this defense at the highest level. But what happened last night was simply inexcusable.

Miscommunications and breakdowns prevent Louisville’s offense from having any chance at making it a more competitive game.