Third Down: Keys to victory; Louisville football vs. Notre Dame

On third down this week, we examine three keys for Louisville football to come out victorious in South Bend.

Check it.

Make Notre Dame throw the ball

Riley Leonard is not necessarily a bad quarterback.

In fact, his performance against this Notre Dame team last season has to be a major reason he was on the Irish’s radar.

However, for whatever reason, Leonard has been just flat out bad as a passer.

Leonard is an accomplished runner of the football and has gone over 100 yards on the ground his last two games.

Still, in the passing game, he’s left a lot to be desired. Leonard has more interceptions (2) than touchdown passes (1).

As a power-five QB who has had success in the past, this is a dude who is capable of making downfield throws. However, after an abysmal performance against Northern Illinois, the staff has reigned him in quite a bit and asked Leonard to lead the Irish rushing attack.

If you want to increase your odds of beating this Notre Dame team, you slow the run and force the Irish into passing situations.

Establish a run game

If Louisville football can establish a semblance of a running game in this one, you have to like their chances.

Notre Dame is 44th in the country in run defense, allowing 121 yards per game.

However, they have shown that they can be susceptible to the run in some instances- Namely in an upset loss to Northern Illinois.

The Salukis ran the ball 45 times, averaging 4.2 yards per carry.

NIU utilized pulling guards and overloaded blockers to the run side a few times in that game, but for the most part, the Salukis just game planned to dominate the run game and win the TOP.

When a lower-level team (who just lost to Buffalo, mind you) just lines up “our guys vs. your guys” style, that’s a team that’s confident in its players to simply get the job done. And they did, against a Notre Dame defense that has top tier talent.

Outside of the NIU game, Notre Dame had been pretty solid in its run defense.

It allowed just 3.8 yards per carry to Texas A&M, 3.9 yards per carry to Miami of Ohio, and jumped out to a massive lead against a bad Purdue squad.

Still, part of me wonders if Louisville football can’t get the run game going against this squad.

Look, the Georgia Tech showing was bad from a run-blocking standpoint. But the Yellow Jacket’s defense is stout up front and the Cards kept the run play-calling super vanilla.

The Brohms should have something up their sleeves this week.

Limit penalties and turnovers

The one thing that kept Georgia Tech in the game last week was penalties from Louisville football.

Multiple big plays were called back due to holds, chop blocks, or illegal man downfield.

Louisville has to limit these sorts of costly mistakes if it wants to come out victorious.

The Cards have yet to turn the ball over this season. However, as Jeff Brohm suggested on the Jim Rome show Thursday, “the ball isn’t always going to bounce our way.”

In its first road game of the season, Louisville football needs to correct the small mistakes that could open up a lot on both sides of the ball.

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See Also:

First Down: What to Know