Final Thoughts and Observations on Louisville vs. Indiana

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville football program had to fight off a furious comeback attempt by Indiana after a hot start, but the Cardinals were able to hold on long enough, capturing a 21-14 win over the Hoosiers at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Before we close the book on the game and transition to the matchup vs. Boston College, I wanted to provide some closing thoughts and observations from the game:

First of all, some credit is due to Louisville for their ability to dig deep and find a way to pull out a win in the end. Momentum was clearly in favor of Indiana heading into that final drive, and while the Cardinals certainly were bending defensively leading up to that goal line stand, they did not break and were able to come up big when they absolutely had to. Plus on the other side of the line of scrimmage, Louisville was able to get just enough offensively to run out the clock and secure the win. But that being said, in two FBS games played so far this season, Louisville has been incredibly inconsistent. The offense looked like they were en route to putting up 40 or 50 points by game's end, but then couldn't do hardly anything in the second half. While the defense had a great first half and were able to stand IU up on the goal line, that third quarter allowed the Hoosiers to get back in the game. It's only two games against FBS opponents, but so far, Louisville hasn't demonstrated the ability to play good football for a full 60 minutes.
I'm actually going to start with the special teams in this game, because it was... not great. Head coach Jeff Brohm mentioned that Louisville knew an onside kick was coming to start the second half, but they still let Indiana recover the kick with relative ease. That's just poor execution, and it arguably served as the spark for Indiana's comeback attempt. Plus, Brock Travelstead didn't have a good day at all kicking the football. He not only missed a very make-able 38-yard field goal, but brutally shanked one of his three punts on the day. IU ultimately couldn't capitalize on either miscue by Louisville, but this is something that absolutely has to be cleaned up moving forward.
Now onto the offense. Instead of breaking down the quarterback or the skill position players first, I'm going to start with the offensive line, because it seemed like this is where Louisville's offensive ineptitude in the second half began. To their credit, the boys up front did a good job in the first half at the point of attack. Quarterback Jack Plummer was given sufficient time to deliver the football, and their efforts in the run game were not too shabby as well. But in the second half, Indiana's defensive line was having a lot more success at getting in the backfield. Sure, the offensive skill position players didn't have clean second halves either, but they weren't provided a lot of opportunities to make plays in thois half because of the pressure the OL was allowing. Not to mention that this unit committed two brutal penalties: Willie Tyler's holding call that wiped out a 57-yard touchdown to Jamari Thrash in the third quarter, and a boneheaded unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by Renato Brown on Louisville's final drive when they were trying to kill clock and get out of Dodge. Considering how physical and dominant this unit was over the first two games of the season, this was one of the most surprising developments in this game.
Speaking of Plummer, he had another game where he had good moments and... left-to-be-desired moments. His first deep ball to Thrash would have gone for a touchdown had he not delivered an absolute moonball and put more behind the throw, but his second long strike to Thrash was a beauty, and his called-back pass to Thrash was an insanely difficult throw to make with pressure in his face. Plus, he continued to demonstrate an underrated ability to run the football, especially on that final drive when he ran for a pair of first downs. But something he has to work on is his situational awareness when it comes to keeping the football. He held the ball for too long on the first drive and was sacked. His lone interception (while this was mostly on Kevin Coleman Jr.) shouldn't have been heaved into double coverage, and should have been kept for a likely first down run. An intentional grounding call to on the first drive of the fourth quarter derailed said drive. You would think a sixth-year player would be more keenly aware of these things at this point.
What a phenomenal day from Thrash. He continues to show why he is one of the most explosive players in all of football. I honestly thought he had a real chance to obliterate Louisville's single-game receiving record based on the first half that he had. It's a shame he only got two targets (the penalty and a PBU) in the second half.
The rest of the receiving corps was... meh. Ahmari Huggins-Bruce had a couple catches for first downs in the fourth quarter, but no one else here had a great impact. Coleman and Chris Bell had crucial drops in this game, with Coleman's bouncing right off his chest and into the arms of an IU defender, and Bell likely scoring a touchdown had he secured the ball. I get that Thrash commands a lot of targets, and the offensive line didn't give Plummer a ton of second half opportunities to make throws happen, but I would have liked to see more guys get involved (or simply make plays).
Even with the offensive line's struggles in the second half, the running backs were still able to have a lot of success in this game. I was a little confused with Jawhar Jordan only getting a pair of rushes in the first half, but it was good to see him get way more involved as the game went on. Isaac Guerendo and Maurice Turner certainly have roles on this team, but in my opinion, Jordan needs to be the clear leader in rushing attempts on a weekly basis.
Now onto the defense. First with this side of the ball, I want to highlight the fantastic play by the safety duo of Cam'Ron Kelly and Devin Neal. With M.J. Griffin out for the season and Josh Minkins dealing with a hamstring issue, these two needed to step up, and they did so in a big way against IU. They combined for 20 tackles, four for loss and an interceptions against the Hoosiers. A fantastic effort by these two.
While the downfield coverage was very hit-or-miss in this game at times, it was mostly efficient against Indiana QB Tayven Jackson (outside of the third quarter). Quincy Riley continues to look the part of the Cardinals' best cover corner, and while Jarvis Brownlee did allow a big time gain through the air on IU's final drive, he came up clutch a couple times as well.
Speaking of Jackson, one of the biggest reasons that Indiana was able to mount any sort of comeback at all was because the defensive line got very little pressure in the backfield after halftime. They bottled up the run game extremely well in the first half, and forced Jackson to settle for short throws that more often than not went nowhere. But in the second half, while IU still struggled to get the ground game going, Jackson was much more comfortable in the pocket, and was able to deliver the ball down the field with consistency. It's early, but so far this season, the defensive line has been a major disappointment given the amount of depth and talent Louisville has here.
Lastly on the defense, a shout out to linebacker T.J. Quinn for his game-saving tackle on the goal line stand, and linebacker Stanquan Clark for the assist. Both have looked very good to start out this season.
As a team, Louisville has to get better when it comes to untimely penalties. Both sides of the ball had brutal drive-killing or drive-extending infractions that could have easily lost them the game. This has been a recurring theme in all three of Louisville's games up to this point.
I'll close with this thought: While Louisville did wind up escaping Lucas Oil Stadium with a victory, they very easily could have blown this game. The Cardinals, for as efficient as they have been on both sides of the ball at times, have yet to demonstrate consistency throughout an entire game. With conference play now ramping up, Louisville has to be better at playing efficient football for 60 minutes, or their shot at potentially reaching the ACC Championship will not happen.

(Photo of Jawhar Jordan: Trevor Ruszkowski - USA TODAY Sports)

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