The op acts like people don’t eyes of their own. It was a combination of 3 things. Brohm already admitted his play calling wasn’t the best at times. Turnovers was the second. And yes, officiating was one sided and hurt Louisville. The op acts like because Chris Bell didn’t finish the play the way he wanted him to that he shouldn’t be granted the first down. What does it matter how he did it he passed the marker and they wouldn’t even review it to correct their mistake. Nobody on X was acting like officiating was the sole reason we lost either.

TheRealVille said:

I think the win for the Cards vanished on that INT that Brooks juggled. He may have scored on that play or at least got to the red zone.

I believe if ND had to come from behind or match the Cards scores, they wouldn't succeed. Same thing on that double pass interference BS. Cards would have had 1st and goal.

Had those two plays went our way, I believe we would have won. Of course anything can happen like fumbling at the goal line, but I think we would have been leading going into the 4th quarter.

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I agree with the sentiment. It became very clear early in the second quarter that it was going to have be Leonard's arm that was going to have to produce yardage for ND, because their ground game got bottled up for every bit of the 2nd and third quarters. Time and score dictated Notre Dame didn't have to force the issue offensively.

The Brooks' drop INT was a 3rd and 7 conversion where the LOS was the Notre Dame 47 and the interception was at the 30 (with 6 minutes left in the half) when the game was 21-14. As you said, you go from what looked like a scoring drive that in 10 seconds had Notre Dame at the Louisville 36 already in FG range giving us the 24-14 halftime deficit. In fact, the defense held throwing a 3rd and 1 for a three yard loss. We looked like we were marching for a tying score.

The Lacy interference came two downs after Lacy's spectacular catch down to the Notre Dame 38 and that interference signaled Notre Dame was having trouble with Lacy; it wouldn't have been goal to go it would have been a first down at the Notre Dame 21 and the drive subsequently fell apart when Shough was sacked for a loss of 6 then a false start by Monroe Mills more or less officially took them out of field goal range on the next snap. That interference was a huge change in momentum in a quarter that didn't have any points.

Love how we're flying under the radar. Bubble team lol. We're going to win over 20 games this year. Mark my words.

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Thecycle27 said:

The only way the other groups should agree to this is limit them to the 2 auto bids. The entire system is built to guarantee those conference 2-6 spots. They can manipulate their scheduling to almost guarantee 4-6 teams. Their problem is they need their brands to play each other every year. They are afraid they will eat their own especially if they go to a 9 game schedule or add a Big Ten team to their non conference. They want Ohio State to play Georgia with no real risk.

A lot of this is going to be schedule based. Indiana has a real shot at playoff. They get their 50-50 games at home. Catch a down Michigan team at home. They could finish 10-2 and not beaten anyone. Similar to Louisville last year. Ole Miss was set up beautifully with their schedule now they botched it with the loss to UK. Missouri is another one that is set up nicely.

The reality is there is no stopping it. Those conference will always have teams to fill spots in the playoff. The SEC/Big Ten has the most talent and it will continue to have the most talent.

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And the NCAA has no power to stop it, football post season is pretty much all based on what the conferences agree to do.

The SEC and Big Ten are the playoff, the ACC, Big 12, and others have 0 bargaining power. That's why I do say it's better for our league if FSU, Clemson, and Miami are all among the elite, because they would have a bargaining chip and "a rising tide lifts all ships" type effect. If fans think those great programs are being left out, then there's leverage. But when those programs sink like FSU has been for a decade & Miami for 20 years, and Clemson is now just OK, the national audience will just tune out the league.

Not saying it's fair or right, but it just is what it is.

The only way the other groups should agree to this is limit them to the 2 auto bids. The entire system is built to guarantee those conference 2-6 spots. They can manipulate their scheduling to almost guarantee 4-6 teams. Their problem is they need their brands to play each other every year. They are afraid they will eat their own especially if they go to a 9 game schedule or add a Big Ten team to their non conference. They want Ohio State to play Georgia with no real risk.

A lot of this is going to be schedule based. Indiana has a real shot at playoff. They get their 50-50 games at home. Catch a down Michigan team at home. They could finish 10-2 and not beaten anyone. Similar to Louisville last year. Ole Miss was set up beautifully with their schedule now they botched it with the loss to UK. Missouri is another one that is set up nicely.

The reality is there is no stopping it. Those conference will always have teams to fill spots in the playoff. The SEC/Big Ten has the most talent and it will continue to have the most talent.

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TheRealVille said:

I think this SMU game will say a lot. We should be able to score 40+ against their defense.

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We may have to score 40 to win, their offense is pretty good. They probably haven't seen a Defense like ours though..

To me the defense is the biggest disappointment so far. Mainly the back end. They are struggling with basic assignments. A stacked receiver set shouldn’t be an issue. The screen shouldn’t be that wide open. The pass down the seam should be that open. While they are fixable it has happened all year in terms of blowing assignments. Against ND all they had to do was force them into long drives. Instead they blow coverages which led to TD’s.

They have faced good lines the last 2 weeks so lack of pressure isn’t surprising. Still though they have to start getting creative and generate pressures. Too many clean pockets.

I'm not looking to find coaching negatives and maybe this is clear to others but who does the play calling for the offense? Is it 100 percent Jeff? I'm asking because Brian is listed as the offensive coordinator and the QB coach, but I wouldn't think he would need to be in the booth if he didn't have some input on the plays being called. During the game, they showed him a couple of times while we were on offense and it didn't look like he was relaying any information to the sidelines. Maybe Jeff gets too emotional in the tight situations and needs to listen to more input from upstairs?? I don't know, just wondering how it operates between the two and if anyone with knowledge can provide some feedback.

Go Cards!

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2330859 said:

Good points CH! My takeaway on the offensive side of the football, confirms that CJB is not utilizing our 3 TEs as I expected, and as Jeff himself predicted in preseason.

ND is not now, nor were they ever a legitimate candidate to win the NC his season, or for that matter deserving to be in the conversation. However, their defense, and specifically their secondary may be as good as any team in the country. Leonard is as advertised when running their offense, but his limitations in the passing game keeps the Irish as a top 10-15 team.

The reason the right side of our OL’s performance was so poor, had a lot to do with a combination of the Irish defensive scheme and their talented personnel.

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IF the issues on the right side persist--and I think we're talking about RT more than anything--you'd almost expect more two TE sets to leverage the edge better but that depends on personnel. Chaney is definitely a better runner out of a Pistol look where he hits between the tackles with his shoulders parallel to the LOS, whereas the Browns and Turner are more effective at running out of the halfback with Shough in the shotgun.

...the downside of course to having Chaney in the Pistol is you already have basically lifted a WR for Duane Martin and I can't be the only person who thinks that our offense at it's peak has Brooks, Lacy and Bell on the field at the same time and I keep coming back to this but Jamari Johnson is creeping up into a category we haven't seen at Louisville at TE. We've had some great tight ends going back to Jamie Asher and Ibn Green, but outside of Gary Barnidge's emergence late in his career at Louisville never had that big TE who went into the NFL and stuck. I thought Cole Hikutini was going to play in the NFL for a couple contracts. Through the air as we saw Saturday, a personnel group of Isaac Brown at RB, Johnson at TE and Brooks, Lacy and Bell at WR is a lethal group to cover if Shough is given time. I was sort of shocked to hear Brohm's confession after the ND game that they were setting up the TE on one of their 4th downs.

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shadow force said:

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You only need auto bids if you can't make it on merit AND, as we already see today, completely biased, in your pocket media.

2330859 said:

Good points CH! My takeaway on the offensive side of the football, confirms that CJB is not utilizing our 3 TEs as I expected, and as Jeff himself predicted in preseason.

ND is not now, nor were they ever a legitimate candidate to win the NC his season, or for that matter deserving to be in the conversation. However, their defense, and specifically their secondary may be as good as any team in the country. Leonard is as advertised when running their offense, but his limitations in the passing game keeps the Irish as a top 10-15 team.

The reason the right side of our OL’s performance was so poor, had a lot to do with a combination of the Irish defensive scheme and their talented personnel.

Click to expand...

I think Turner being out is a big loss for us. He is quick through the line AND has shown an ability to be able to leap over the line in short yardage situations.

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