Louisville football fans had extremely high expectations for the Louisville Cardinals' 2025 season after learning they had the third-best odds to win the ACC Title. The Cardinals have hit the Transfer Portal hard, and fans are already seeing an immediate impact from key players like Clev Lubin.
However, Louisville returned many elite players from last season, especially on offense, and it is one of the key reasons why many thought this team could be the best Jeff Brohm team. Through three weeks of football, the Cardinals are 3-0 for the third straight season under Brohm, and the team's head coach is not yet thoroughly impressed.
Brohm made it clear on Saturday that there is still one glaring area holding this team back from being the most complete he has had since becoming the Cardinals' head coach.
Related: 5 immediate observations from Louisville football's win over Bowling Green
Louisville football must improve in one key area before ACC schedule
Louisville has outscored its opponents by a combined score of 119-48, but the offense still isn't clicking just yet. While Miller Moss has struggled at times, the fans and Brohm are making it clear that it is the penalties and negative plays that are killing this offense and holding this group back from pure greatness through three weeks.
"Being consistent on offense," Brohm stated after the Cardinals' win on Saturday. "Not having penalties that really kill our drive, not having negative plays show up a little too much, and we've got to make sure we get better at that."
The Cardinals, through three games, have accumulated a total of 23 penalties for 210 yards, including the most recent game against Bowling Green, where they were assessed six penalties for 55 yards.
The Cardinals' worst outing was Week 1 when they had 12 penalties for 105 yards against Eastern Kentucky. The offense has shown at times that a first-year quarterback leads them in the system, but also sometimes it is just undisciplined mistakes that they should not be making in Week 4
The fans have made it clear that the playmakers are there for this Brohm team, and this could be one of the best Louisville football teams in a long time. However, for that to happen, the Cardinals must stop committing so many penalties and limiting their offensive drives because of them.
Brohm has expressed multiple times that the penalties are frustrating and something they have to keep working on. Brohm denies that this isn't his best team through three games because the offense's inconsistency proves that this team must improve in terms of penalties if Louisville wants not only to beat Pitt this weekend but also make a run towards ACC glory.
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Louisville will kickoff against Pitt this Saturday at noon local time.