Louisville football: 3 delayed takeaways from Cards loss to Pittsburgh

Louisville football went down and went down hard against Pittsburgh.

My two year old daughter and I woke up this morning, just shy of 18 hours removed from Louisville football’s loss to no. 21 Pittsburgh, and asked each other what the best way was to break down the game.

After devouring multiple mini glazed and chocolate sprinkled donuts from Krispy Kreme, Ruby and I dove into the game against Pittsburgh looking to find just what caused so much of the trouble.

At two years old it’s hard to grasp the concepts of football (or anything really), yet as Ruby watched the tape she saw what everyone else saw.

“Why are those men so angry, daddy?” she asked about the defensive line of Pittsburgh, who got into the backfield of Louisville at will, probably thanks to my unsound questioning of their statistics leading up to the game.

She was right. Pittsburgh’s defensive line, arguably the second best in the ACC and one of the best in the country, did everything they wanted up front against Louisville, not only on offense but also  on defense. It started in the trenches, where their power, athleticism, and sheer size was on full display from the start and caused Louisville and Malik Cunningham so many problems.

She noticed more as we continued watching. “He’s fast,” she said of Louisville star running back  Javian Hawkins, who was absolutely bottled for the entirety of the game, except for on his 75-yard touchdown that gave life to the Cards in the second quarter.

“Why they not get him?,” she asked on multiple occasions about Louisville’s defensive line as they worked non-stop to get pressure on Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett, but struggled for the most part to do so. I told her I was glad to see progress there, especially after they were dominated at the point of attack last against Miami, and that it appeared they were getting closer and closer each time. Three sacks, two more quarterback hurries, and three fumbles forced on Pickett was huge, and while they didn’t bring him down as many times as you’d like, I think they caused enough pressure to make him uncomfortable.

Ruby got tired of watching in the second quarter, and honestly I couldn’t blame her. After scoring 17 straight points, Louisville’s offense took a major step back and it cost them a chance at a big win.

I tried to get her to sit back down and break down the rest of the game, but in her eyes she had seen enough. That’s where we disagreed. The game ended in a loss, sending Louisville to 1-2 with a subsequent tumble out of the top 25 on the horizon, but the sky isn’t falling.

Here are my takeaways from Saturday’s loss to Pittsburgh.