Louisville football has lofty goals. Here's what Cardinals focused on ahead of Duke game
It didn’t take the full bye week for No. 18 Louisville to understand how it lost its first game of the season. No confidence was lost nor are the Cardinals looking to change personnel after the 38-21 defeat at Pitt.
The explanation is simple: turnovers and red zone chances.
Louisville turned the ball over three times (two interceptions and a lost fumble) against the Panthers, who scored 14 points off the miscues. It also reached the red zone five times but scored points on three of the trips. Against Notre Dame, the Cardinals scored 13 points on five turnovers (three interceptions and two fumble recoveries). Louisville went 3-for-3 in the red zone in the 33-20 win against then-No. 11 Notre Dame.
U of L worked on cleaning up turnovers and being more efficient offensively during the bye week in preparation for No. 21 Duke. Kickoff is scheduled at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at L&N Stadium.
“We got to go back and study a lot of fundamental things (during the bye week),” Cardinals receivers coach Garrick McGee said Monday. "Each coach would go on the field for those workouts. We had some technique things to really concentrate, focus on. We spent both days working on certain things that we think that we need to be able to execute to move forward. So, I think it was really good for us in regards to our fundamentals and techniques.”
The Blue Devils have created 10 turnovers this season (four fumble recoveries and six interceptions) and are +3 in turnover margin. Their experienced secondary accounts for 60% of the turnovers, with two interceptions by cornerback Myles Jones. Jones didn’t play in the 38-20 loss to fourth-ranked Florida State on Saturday.
“Winning the turnover battle is vital to success,” U of L coach Jeff Brohm said. “You saw it in the Notre Dame game, it definitely helped us. Of course, in the Pittsburgh game, it hurt us that we turned the ball over so much, especially when you play the game where you have twice as many first downs as the other team. Turnovers were crucial. It really, really hurt us, so that was unfortunate.”
More than turning the ball over, doing so in the red zone was costly for Louisville two weeks ago against Pitt. The Cardinals got down to the 15-yard line in the second quarter before a strip-sack fumble was recovered by the Panthers. Pitt eventually scored on a 10-play, 71-yard drive to tie the game at 14.
“You don't get the win if you turn the ball over like that in the scoring zone, and our guys understand that,” McGee said. “So, we just got back to work (during the bye week) and started trying to clean up some technique things and, really, as a coaching staff, study some of our concepts and see what's best for us, get a lot of our guys back healthy so that we come into this week ready to go grind and prepare for the game.”
Although Louisville’s offense is ranked 18th nationally in total offense, 27th in passing and tied with Air Force for 28th in scoring, the Cardinals are 79th in red zone offense. In 27 trips to the red zone, they’ve scored 16 touchdowns and six field goals for an 81.5% success rate.
Improving in that area will be difficult against Duke, which has the second-best red zone defense in the country. Its opponents have reached the area 18 times, tallying nine touchdowns and two field goals. The Blue Devils’ defense ranks fifth in scoring, allowing 13.9 points per game and 12 total touchdowns against seven opponents. Florida State and Notre Dame are the only teams to score more than 14 points against Duke.
“They play a solid brand of physical football that keeps the ball in front of them,” Brohm said. “They do some really good things up front running games and stunts and creating some havoc for you, for your offensive line. They’ve just been very good. Until the Florida State game, you could hardly score any points on them, and they kept that game extremely close to the very end.”
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Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football vs Duke: Cards aim to cut TOs, improve in red zone
