Jeff Brohm Calls Out Louisville's Toughness Following Overtime Loss to Cal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Heading into the game against Cal, the Louisville football program's lofty aspirations were still within reach. The Cardinals were ranked No. 15 in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season, and with Virginia falling to Wake Forest, all they had to do was take down the Golden Bears, and they would be tied for first place in the ACC standings.

But over the course of roughly four hours on Saturday night, Louisville's chances to clinch their second ACC Championship Game berth and their first ever College Football Playoff appearance were dealt a crushing and perhaps fatal blow.

A team that has developed a reputation for slow starts but strong second halves simply could not make winning plays when they needed to be made. Despite being a 20.5-point favorite, Louisville wound up suffering a 29-26 overtime loss at home to Cal.

After the game, head coach Jeff Brohm - who normally sports a fairly strong poker face when speaking to the media - was very clearly agitated with his team. What drew his ire the most in the postgame press conference was the toughness that both the players and coaches - including himself - displayed against Cal.

"We have to stick in there and play tougher. We need to make catches when your number is called and block when you are supposed to – all those things. We need to coach better. We have to be tougher coaches. If something is not working, we have to figure it out and get it fixed and make it work. We need to demand that our players work hard to get it done.

"On defense, we let them throw all over us. One receiver got open whenever he wanted to and that was not a good plan to cover him. ... We had a chance at the end to win, and we have to be the tougher team and buckle down and find a way to win. Mental toughness and physical toughness and we have to be tougher as coaches, so that is disappointing.”

The biggest thing holding Louisville back from a victory was the play of quarterback Miller Moss. He went 20-of-38 for just 203 yards and no touchdowns, as well as an interception - though he should have had one or two more.

While Moss doesn't exactly have a cannon of an arm, his inability to stretch the field was on full display. Of his 38 pass attempts, just 14 of them traveled at least 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. In the fourth quarter when Louisville needed to make a winning play, it was clear that Brohm did not trust Moss to make a downfield throw. Not to mention that he took two brutal sacks towards the end of the fourth quarter and in overtime.

"I don’t know, I’ve got to watch it," Moss said when asked what the biggest issue from the offense was. "I know coming into halftime, that was the emphasis. We were moving the ball pretty well and just had to finish drives. We felt like if we were able to do that, we’d be pretty successful, but we obviously weren’t able to do that enough to ultimately come out with the win.”

Then on defense, a unit that has been stout all season long put together their worst game of the year against a Cal offense that is the very definition of one dimensional.

True freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele picked them apart, going 30-of-47 for 323 yards and two scores. Wide receiver Jacob De Jesus looked like prime Jerry Rice, catching a whopping 16 passes for 158 yards and the game-winning score in OT. The 427 yards of offense by the Golden Bears was the most surrendered by Louisville all season.

“I thought 'the quarterback can throw the ball', we knew that," Brohm said. "When I saw him warming up, I said ‘yep, we’re finally going to face a really good quarterback’. And he threw all over us. The disappointment is when they throw to one guy that much and you don’t have a plan to cover him better, and you don’t cover him better, even at the end to allow their best player to be one-on-one for an easy throw in the corner. We need to coach better; we need to play better.”

In terms of the mental toughness, while penalties were mot a massive overall problem against Cal, Louisville committed two major one. The first was a holding call on Trevonte Sylvester that killed a fourth quarter drive that started on their own 40, and the second was a chop block penalty on Nate Kurisky on the second play of overtime - eventually forcing Louisville to have to settle for a field goal.

That being said, Brohm played a role in this result as well. It was was evident as the game went on that Moss was not going to make winning plays for Louisville, but he kept calling passing plays. This came despite that fact that running back Keyjuan Brown put up 136 rushing yards on just 14 carries. Plus, the end-of-half clock management, once again, left a lot to be desired.

Put it all together, and it's hard for Louisville to have a much more disappointing performance - both on the field and on the sideline - than they did against Cal. They'll have to put all of it behind them quickly, as they have a short turnaround, hosting Clemson this upcoming Friday at 7:00 p.m. EST.

"Between penalties, and all the things I mentioned, we have to be better, and we have to be consistent with it. We're going to face a good team with a lot of talent, and we have to show up and do it on Friday night next week, and not wait any longer."

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