Louisville football showed marked improvement in important areas against Boston College.
Yes, it was Boston College. Yes, Louisville football still has a ways to go. But, damn, the Cards’ dominant win over the Eagles felt like what we expected from Jeff Brohm and company when UofL’s native son made his way back home in December.
Brohm is still driving that 2004 Honda Accord to work. He’s still saying a lot of words without really saying anything at pressers (see: “x guy can really play football”). And he still thinks Roosters is a “fine establishment” (we agree, Jeff). None of that has changed.
But until Saturday, Louisville football fans were not all too sure that this iteration of the Cardinals was primed to take high-powered offensive football to a Brohm-like level.
Toe met leather at 3:33 PM, and by about 5:15, the Cardinals had already put 56 points on the board and surpassed the 500-yard mark on offense.
Louisville football scored all 56 points in less than 35 minutes of gameplay (2 quarters and some change), and cruised to a massive victory over a BC team that just took top-5 Florida State to the wire.
The Cards scored touchdowns on their first seven drives- A feat ESPN says hasn’t happened in 16 years- and took the air out of the ball the rest of the way.
But, just how good was this performance? And where do the Cards go next in pursuit of improvement?
Let’s dive in by looking back at our expectations prior to the game.
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Editor’s note: Before we begin, it must be noted that this author typically gets this work done on a weekly flight home from the Lone Star State. However, he was in the middle row for the entire journey home.
Because of this misfortune, I’ll give you my pregame thoughts and then we can go over how Louisville football handled itself in response.
Pregame Thought: BC QB Thomas Castellanos is an absolute freak
Notes: Boston College has found its QB of the future in Thomas Castellanos, an athletic sophomore who is a multifaceted threat.
As Jeff Brohm would say, Castellanos is a guy that can really play football.
He can really spin it, proving to be effective outside the pocket. But Tommy has been most impactful in the ground game, running for 231 yards and 2 scores in 2.5 games.
Castellanos was a significant reason that BC hung with Florida State last week, and has a chance to really punish Louisville football with his legs.
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Yeah, this is exactly what we saw on Saturday. Castellanos is a problem.
In his third start, Catellanos threw for 265 yards and 3 TD while running for 49 yards and another.
Most impressively, he did so by extending plays with his legs and throwing receivers open downfield.
BC hosts Virginia on Saturday, and I’d be surprised if Castellanos doesn’t have an even better game this time around.
Pregame Thought: Louisville football must get home on the edge
Notes: The Louisville defensive front has been excellent in the middle, but sometimes has struggled to set the edge on the outside.
That will be important against a rushing threat in Castellanos and BC running back Kye Robichaux.
Louisville has had a high pressure rate but has been unable to get to the QB on the ground. That’s led to varied success on broken plays for the opposition.
Boston College will make Louisville pay if it can extend plays outside the pocket.
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The Louisville football defense showed improvement in this area against BC.
Credit Ashton Gillotte with 2 sacks, while Jaylin Alderman picked up a third. Alderman also led the team in tackles.
Gillotte now leads the FBS in total pressures, per PFF.
As a team, Louisville football allowed just 4.3 yards per carry and a 51% completion rate.
Still, it was the inability to keep Castellanos contained on the edge that allowed Boston College to score 28 points and put up 9 “big” plays of 15+ yards.
Credit the Cards though for only allowing Castellanos to escape the pocket for a long run one time.
This will be an area to watch on Friday night against a mobile playmaker in Brendan Armstrong.
Pregame Thought: Louisville football must find other playmakers to take the next step
Notes: Louisville football continued to feed the studs against IU, but we still haven’t seen other pass catchers step up outside of Jamari Thrash and Kevin Coleman.
The Cardinals mixed in some plays to Ahmari Huggins-Bruce and Jimmy Calloway. Jadon Thompson saw his first action as well.
But there’s been a lack of a consistent third playmaker. I’m waiting for Chris Bell to emerge and for a Cardinals tight end to start seeing a higher share of targets.
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Louisville football saw a tight end find the endzone for the second time when Nate Kurisky found paydirt on a third-down pass in the first half.
However, it was Louisville’s other receiving weapons that had massive days.
Ahmari Huggins-Bruce had his breakthrough game with the Jeff Brohm offense, catching not one but two bombs from Plummer. AHB had three total catches on three targets, racking up 110 yards in the process.
That is both the efficiency and the home-run threat that the Cards needed from a weapon other than Thrash and Jordan.
If Huggins-Bruce can be that next guy up while Coleman serves as a do-it-all specialist, it makes this Louisville football offense that much harder to prepare for.
It feels like Louisville has always had these types of playmakers but has never had the ability to utilize them. Going back to the Bobby 2.0 offense, there were countless players who didn’t ever live up to their potential.
Brohm has that ability to scheme players open, and now he has the best arsenal of weapons that he’s ever coached.
Saturday was a culmination of a great play-caller weaponizing a talented group of playmakers and essentially naming his score.
Louisville football had passing plays of 32, 45, 27, 48, 42, 75, and 55 yards in its first 7 drives- 4 of which went for touchdowns.
Final Thoughts
For the first time this season, the Louisville football offense was what we expected it to be under Brohm.
And, while it was “just” Boston College, fans should see it as a positive sign that the Cards took care of business and made strides in areas that were previous concerns.
In the coming weeks, Louisville faces stiffer defensive tests. The Cards travel to NC State (44th in total defense), host Notre Dame (7th), and travel to Pitt (44th).
Boston College moved from 69th in total defense to 111th after its game against the Cardinals.
Will Louisville have the same impact on teams going forward? It feels as promising as ever.
On to NC State!
