Running Diary | Notre Dame vs Louisville
I’m back in the press box for Notre Dame vs. Louisville and as is custom when I attend the game, I will provide a running diary of thoughts, observations, and analysis throughout pregame and the game itself.
Pregame
File this under “I’m just making an observation”, but Riley Leonard looks good throwing the ball in warmups. The ball pops out of his hand, and has really good velocity. Also, he was very sharp accuracy wise. The receivers ran through the entire route tree and the only misfire was on a slightly overthrown go ball to Micah Gilbert. If you knew nothing about the team and only watched the warmup, you’d never guess there were accuracy issues with him. Of course, we do know about the team, so we’ll monitor how he plays today.
Another quarterback observation, CJ Carr did not take any reps in the initial warmup session. I don’t know if its practical with three quarterbacks, but 4 quarterbacks throwing warmup is not an unusual thing. Not sure if there is some kind of ailment with him, will have to monitor during full padded warmups.
Carr is now throwing left-handed passes to walk-on QB Anthony Rezac. Yeah, something is up with his arm.
Defensive end Josh Burnham is dressed out on going through warm-ups, still a tad ginger on the ankle though. Just commented to Jamie, not very spry. Wouldn’t expect a ton from him in this game.
It was clear all day and just prior to kickoff the rain started to come down. The wind is still down, which is always the biggest concern with regard to an actual effect on the game, but it’s a variable.
To be honest, pretty subdued crowd for a game between two ranked teams.
1st quarter
15:00- Let’s go with “worst start imaginable” for $400, Alex. Devyn Ford fumbles the opening kickoff, recovered by Louisville. This isn’t really helping the “subdued crowd” situation.
13:30, Notre Dame 0- Louisville 7- Louisville takes 3 plays to go the 24 yards for the touchdown after a couple of busts in the secondary leaving players open. I was somewhat joking earlier when I said it was the worst start imaginable, but now that Louisville has scored, it pretty much is.
7:22- Notre Dame 7- Louisville 7- Notre Dame with an emphatic answer to Louisville's opening touchdown with a touchdown of their own on a Jeremiyah Love six-yard run to cap a 12-play, 75-yard drive. Leonard and Love combined to run 6 times on that drive for 44 yards and Leonard was 5-6 passing, including a crucial 4th down conversion after a Beaux Collins drop. Maybe the best he has looked passing in the short game all season.
7:04- Notre Dame 7- Louisville 7- Great zone read keep by Shough springs him into the secondary, and an incredible hustle play by Leonard Moore at corner to force a fumble and Jaiden Ausberry recovers. This was the second play in a row the Cardinals put the ball on the ground and Notre Dame finally gets a recovery.
4:59- Notre Dame 14- Louisville 7- Folks, we have explosive passing game liftoff. Mike Denbrock puts the safety in the blender and he’s stuck between Collins on the crossing route and Jaden Greathouse on the seam, he chooses no one, and Leonard fires a strike to Greathouse for the 34-yard touchdown. Slow start, disengaged. People are happier now.
4:00- Notre Dame 14- Louisville 7- Hey so Louisville hasn’t run a bad play yet. Another explosive in the running game gets them to midfield on the first play of their drive.
3:26- Notre Dame 21- Louisville 7- Finally some poor plays from Louisville on offense forces a punt and woooooooooah it’s over the punters head. The ball is then fumbled backward and ultimately recovered by Kennedy Urlacher, and Riley Leonard takes it in for a 21-7 lead. Things have shifted.
End first quarter- Notre Dame 21- Louisville 7- Boubacar Traore goes down with a noncontact injury chasing a running play and grabs his knee. Very poor development for Notre Dame’s defensive line.
2nd Quarter
14:00- Notre Dame 21- Louisville 14- Jadarian Price puts the ball on the ground again for Notre Dame following a punt and the Cardinals are again set up in prime scoring position at the Notre Dame 9. Three plays later, Louisville is in the end zone on an incredible pass from Tyler Shough rolling to his left and throwing back over the middle to Ja’Corey Brooks. Both teams putting their defenses in tough spots so far in this one. Can’t emphasize enough how good of a throw that was from Shough. Across his body and a little sidearm. Very nice.
10:16- Notre Dame 21- Louisville 14- Riley Leonard is briefly injured on a late-ish hit from Louisville that goes uncalled and Notre Dame is later forced to punt. On the third down play Notre Dame had multiple receivers in the same throwing window, which makes neither of them an option. Irish have to get that cleaned up.
3:47- Notre Dame 24- Louisville 14- Ja’Corey Brooks is wide open on a crosser, drops it, bobbles it, and fumbles the ball into the hands of safety Xavier Watts for the interception. Louisville had a lot going for them on that drive, but the mistake cost them the ball. Notre Dame cashes in with a field goal after trying to run wide on third and a foot. Notable, Notre Dame hasn’t run Leonard since he left the game with his shoulder injury.
End of half- Notre Dame 24- Louisville 14- Louisville again moved the ball down the field to the Notre Dame 15, but on 4th and 1 got stopped by an Xavier Watts and Donovan Hinish tackle that stopped the running back inches short. Fantastic play by KVA to string out the play for Watts and Hinish to clean up. Removing the fumbled snap on the punt from the equation, Louisville had 257 yards and averaged 7.3 yards per play on offense. To only manage 14 points is a major disappointment for them.
3rd quarter
8:32- Notre Dame 24- Louisville 14 - Really good start for Notre Dame’s defense in the second half, which was unfortunately met with poor play from the Notre Dame offense that couldn’t capitalize on a 4th down stop just prior to midfield. Feels like it’s been a while since the Notre Dame offense has done anything positive, and they sit at 164 yards of total offense.
4:51- Notre Dame 24-Louisville 14- KVA single-handedly ended a good Louisville drive with an incredible dip move on the running back to sack Tyler Shough. The press box literally gasped while it was happening.
4th quarter
14:14- Notre Dame 24- Louisville 17- Notre Dame again has an opportunity to take control of the football game on offense and again they fail, this time on failed 4th down quarterback power on 4th and 3 near midfield. It’s been a while since Notre Dame did anything on offense and they are sitting on just 204 yards and 4.6 yards per play. Louisville takes advantage of the field position and controversial review on a fumble return by Loghan Thomas that went for a touchdown, but was overturned on replay, with a 56-yard field goal. The offense will once again have their chance to take control of this game.
9:16- Notre Dame 31-17- The Notre Dame offense and Mike Denbrock come to life on a five-play 75-yard drive that is capped by a 32-yard screen pass touchdown to Jeremiyah Love, after a big 35-yard slot wheel to Jayden Harrison on third down, one of the biggest calls of the season from Denbrock. Have to give Denbrock credit for not going conservative on that drive and it puts Notre Dame in control.
5:17- Notre Dame 31- Louisville 24- If nothing else, Louisville is the real deal at quarterback and on offense. Another fabulous throw and catch from Tyler Shough to Ja’Cory Brooks has the Cardinal back within 7 points with five minutes left. Freshman Leonard Moore was beaten on the play, but Brooks initially brought the ball in one-handed before getting his second hand on the ball while falling to the ground. Just a terrific football play.
2:44- Notre Dame 31-Louisville 24- There was a debate in the press box about how many first downs it would take for Notre Dame to ice the game. Never mind that, the Irish go three and out after three Leonard runs and now they have to hang on for dear life on defense.
0:47- Notre Dame 31- Louisville 24- The defense saves the day. Louisville fails to convert after an inexplicable delay of game penalty on 4th and 1 moves it to 4th and 6, and Jordan Clark’s tight coverage allowed Xavier Watts to move in front of the Shough deep ball and end the game for Notre Dame.
Postgame
In many ways it’s incredible the Irish were able to hold up as well as they did in this game, especially on defense. They were without Jordan Botelho, Boubacar Traore, Christian Gray, and then Ben Morrison for several series on defense. Those four are among the most important players not just on defense, but the entire team. They held Louisville to just seven points in the second half, and won the game with a 4th down stop. Jeff Brohm absolutely had their number in the first half, but they rebounded very well in the second half and Brohm himself lost his rhythm at times calling plays. We again must credit Al Golden for what he was able to do in the second half.
Notre Dame showed some of their best offense in that first half, but once Riley Leonard went out for a play late in the second quarter, things really bogged down from there before a tremendous drive early in the 4th quarter provided the ultimate difference in the game. The offense clearly became uncomfortable and reverted back to times when they looked for ways to move the ball. They ended up with just the 280 yards of offense and 5.2 yards per play, identical to Louisville. They were again abysmal on third down, going 2-10, but their last conversion was the most important, the 35-yard wheel route to Jayden Harrison. It was the second straight game Leonard hit a deep ball, this time to Jaden Greathouse, and there were moments of really good football. But, similar to other games, it was unsustained.
In all, a huge and necessary win for Notre Dame as their season moves forward, and they go into the bye desperately needing some of their most key players to find a way to health. On to Stanford.
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