Louisville Makes a Resounding Statement With Decisive Win Over Notre Dame

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On Saturday night, the Louisville football program was presented with what head coach Jeff Brohm described earlier in the week as a "tremendous opportunity." One of the premier powers in college football in Notre Dame was marching into town, and the undefeated Cardinals were given the national spotlight to try and show what they were made of.

Louisville took this "tremendous opportunity," and they ran with it.

Hosting the Fighting Irish in front of a record L&N Stadium crowd, Louisville established themselves as the dominant team from the very jump, claiming the top-25 matchup with a convincing 33-20 victory.

"This was a huge victory for this team," Brohm said following the game. "A huge victory for this fan base. A huge victory for this university and all the leadership that does such a tremendous job of directing us in the right direction."

All week long, the national narrative heading into this matchup wasn't if Notre Dame could win this game, but by how much. The Fighting Irish had just taken down a ranked Duke squad in Durham, N.C. to preserve their College Football Playoff hopes, and many questioned the validity of Louisville's undefeated start due to their strength of schedule, especially after just squeaking by NC State - a team that ND had throttled earlier in the season.

On Saturday night, it looked like it was Louisville - now 6-0 for the first time since 2013 - who was the one on a collision course with the national championship.

This wasn't a game where Louisville got incredibly lucky, nor was it one where they relied on trick plays to gain large chunks of yardage or the majority of their points. Quite simply, the Cardinals dominated the Irish at the point of attack on both sides of the ball, and the rest of the game unfurled from there.

The Louisville defensive front, which was coming off of an impressive performance at NC State, parlayed that momentum into their matchup with Notre Dame. All night long, the Cardinals were in the backfield. Irish QB Sam Hartman saw pressure on nearly every drop back, getting sacked four times by game's end. This pressure also played a huge role in him committing five turnover: three interceptions and two fumbles. He came into the game with just two fumbles and no interceptions on the season.

Even more impressive was the Cardinals' play against the run. RB Audric Estime came into the matchup with 672 rushing yards, good for No. 1 in all of college football. Not only was he held to 20 yards, a Fighting Irish rushing attack that had been averaging 192.2 yards per game on the ground was held to 44. Additionally, this came against one of the best offensive lines in all of college football.

What Notre Dame couldn't get going is where Louisville thrived in. Conversely, the not only did the Cardinals have success running the ball, they were able to run in down Notre Dame's throat. The Louisville offensive line pushed around the Irish defensive line with regularity, allowing Jawhar Jordan to have a fantastic primetime performance. The star running back not only finished with 143 rushing yards and two touchdowns, Louisville as a whole ran for 185 yards.

That in turn allowed quarterback Jack Plummer, who has been up-and-down this season, to not have to make too many risks throwing the football against an ND secondary that entered the game at No. 4 nationally in passing yards allowed. Plummer only had 145 passing yards, but it came from an efficient 17-of-24 completion rate, along with a touchdown to Jamari Thrash.

On top of that, like Louisville has done multiple times this season already, they finished the game strong. The Cardinals and Fighting Irish were deadlocked at seven points a piece heading into the locker room for halftime, then found themselves in a hole after a rocky start to the second half that led to a go-ahead ND field goal.

After that, Louisville proceeded to score 10 unanswered to take the lead, and 23 of the next 26 points to lead the No. 10 team in the nation by as much a 20 before a garbage time touchdown. Finishing strong against teams like Georgia Tech and Indiana is one thing. Doing it against a program with a pedigree like Notre Dame is much more difficult.

"We were pretty calm at halftime," Plummer said. "We had a feeling we could move the ball on them but there were a couple of times in the first half where we shot ourselves in the foot. We stayed calm and knew that we could break out for an explosive play and put some drives together. So, nothing crazy coming out of halftime; we just talked about the plays we were going to run and just go out and execute them."

When put altogether, it produced an undeniable statement victory for Louisville. The Cardinals' undefeated start to the season was no fluke, and they have to ability to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the nation.

"The statement we made tonight is that we can compete with anybody and, no matter who we play, we give our best effort every time," linebacker T.J. Quinn said. "We showed the nation what we can do and we're just going to keep going from here."

It was a statement that many in the fanbase swore would come if the program were to hire Brohm as their next head coach. Not only has that segment of the fanbase been vindicated, Brohm - just six games into his tenure at his alma mater - already looks like he is positioning the Cardinals to make the jump to the next echelon in the college football world.

Of course, as Brohm has reiterated multiple times this season already, it's a one-game season. It's important to not get too high on yourself, no matter how big of a victory you pull off. Now that the bar has been raised for Louisville, it will be imperative for them to maintain that level of play moving forward of they are to have a truly special season.

"Once you win a game like that the bar goes from here up to here," Brohm said, positioning his hand from face level to over his head. "We want to enjoy it and relax and be around family and friends. Eventually we will have to get back to work and understand that people can say what they want after winning the game.

"But every week in college football, if you don’t come ready to play you are not going to win. We are going to have to get back to work over 24 hours. It was a great atmosphere for our team and our fans to win that game."

(Photo via Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)

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