Louisville’s trip into this matchup comes with the same two problems that keep showing up on tape: the pass rush isn’t bothering anybody, and the mistakes keep piling up.
The staff spent the offseason trying to upgrade the edge by adding Tyler Thompson and Jarod Smith while keeping Clev Lubin, AJ Green and Micah Carter in the fold. That gave Louisville five edge players with real quarterback-hunting ability, but the production has not followed. The Cards have only five sacks off the edge this season, which puts them on pace to finish almost exactly where last year’s starters landed.
That lack of disruption has left the defense exposed in the passing game. Ben Perry is the only other Louisville defender with a sack this year, and the defensive tackles have produced just one quarterback hit.
The blitzes haven’t consistently hit home either, even if the linebackers have managed to force quarterbacks off their spots or into throwaways a few times. Still, this defense needs negative plays, and it hasn’t generated enough of them.
NC State, meanwhile, has a chance to attack a Louisville secondary that has been giving up huge chunks through the air. The Wolfpack were flattened in their opener when Virginia ran the ball at them all game, and they also struggled badly on offense because they couldn’t throw it. A major reason was the lack of separation at receiver, which made life difficult for CJ Bailey as he tried to find open targets.
Since then, State has leaned more on intermediate timing throws to create easier completions. That approach may change again this week, because Louisville has been especially vulnerable on the back end.
The Cards have allowed four passing plays of 60 yards or more, the worst mark in the country. NC State, on the other hand, has just one pass play of 30 yards or more against FBS competition.
If the Wolfpack are going to clean up that part of their offense, this feels like the best chance they’ll get.
The issues aren’t limited to defense for Louisville. The offensive line was another major offseason focus, with the staff trying to fix a unit that hurt the offense last year.
So far, the rebuilt front hasn’t delivered. The run game has had little room to operate, and without Lincoln Kienholz’s scrambling ability, the sacks could have been even worse in the loss to Wake Forest last weekend.
The group is healthy now. Anwar O’Neal has started the last two games, Lance Robinson has moved to center, and he has said that is his preferred spot.
Cason Henry has played against top SEC talent, and Eryx Daughtery was a top lineman in the ACC. That explains why the staff believed this group could raise the floor.
Now it has to show it.
The bigger concern is that the problems keep repeating. Louisville ranks fourth in the country in penalty yardage after four games, and the team has also blown at least one coverage in every contest this season. Jeff Brohm has been asked about the penalties every week, and his answer has been the same: they need to fix it.
That’s not enough at this point, especially with the mistakes stretching beyond flags. Brohm has said the fixes he’s tried haven’t worked, and that suggests a disconnect that is hard to ignore.
The mental errors, the penalties, the lack of discipline - it all points to something deeper. Brohm does not usually spend much time talking publicly about culture, but the numbers and the breakdowns are starting to raise that question for him anyway.
In Other News...
Louisvilles Must-Win NC State Trip Suddenly Comes Down To Kienholz
Louisville heads into its Week 5 trip to North Carolina State with the kind of injury report that can reshape a season in a hurry. The Cardinals already have multiple players either ruled out or listed as questionable, but the biggest concern is at quarterback, where Lincoln Kienholz is the name everyone will be watching before kickoff. In a game that already carries must-win weight, his status looms over everything Louisville wants to do on offense.
The challenge is obvious if Kienholz cannot go. Louisville would have to turn to depth that has barely been tested in live action, making the margin for error against NC State even thinner. For a team trying to stay afloat in a game it badly needs, the quarterback situation is no longer just a subplot. It is the whole story, and it may come down to whether Louisville can get enough stability under center to survive the trip. [Read more 🡒]