Louisville vs. Notre Dame: Game Grades, Analysis for Cardinals and Irish
It's difficult to take a look at this game and determine whether Notre Dame lost it or Louisville won in. In the end, it's probably little from Column A and a little from Column B.
The end result is that Louisville sneaked out of Notre Dame Stadium with a 31-28 win in the Cardinals' first-ever meeting with the Fighting Irish from Notre Dame. Louisville rode a phenomenal second-half performance from sophomore running back Brandon Radcliff while Notre Dame's kicking game against left points on the field in a close contest.
Let's break down all of the good, the bad and the very ugly in our game grades for Louisville and Notre Dame.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
| Pass Offense | B- | C+ |
| Run Offense | A | A |
| Pass Defense | B+ | B- |
| Run Defense | A+ | A |
| Special Teams | A | B- |
| Coaching | A | A- |
Louisville Pass Offense
It's hard to look at a box score and see numbers like eight-of-21 for 180 yards, one touchdown and one interception and think that you could label the passing game a success. But if you watched the game, you undoubtedly noticed that freshman quarterback Reggie Bonnafon, who started in place of the injured Will Gardner, make the big passes when it mattered most.
No, we're not going to hand out high marks to a guy who completes less than 40 percent of his throws. No, we're not going to hand out high marks to a guy who threw as many interceptions (one) as touchdowns. But we certainly aren't going to fail Bonnafon, either. His performance in the passing game, while not stellar, wasn't anything particularly horrible—and in fact, gave his team ample opportunity to seal the win.
Louisville Run Offense
Here is the real bright spot (as expected) for Louisville. The Cardinals have so many powerful weapons in the run game, it's difficult to know ahead of time who to keep your eye on. Luckily, the Cardinals themselves usually do a nice job of identifying standouts, and tonight was no exception.
After a first half that included two rushing scores and 114 yards, Brandon Radcliff switched it on after the break to lead his team to victory.
Finishing with 136 yards on 17 carries, Radcliff ran over, around and through the Notre Dame defense in the second half, and his touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter gave the Cardinals a lead that turned out to be too large for Notre Dame to overcome.
Reggie Bonnafon also contributed two rushing touchdowns with 35 yards while Michael Dyer contributed 61 yards on 13 carries.
Louisville Pass Defense
When comparing the two quarterbacks, Notre Dame's Everett Golson had the better night statistically. The Irish came away with two receiving touchdowns and amassed 236 yards through the air on a Louisville team that had been giving up just 285.7 total yards all season.
Still, the Cardinals came up with big stops when they needed them, forcing the always shaky Notre Dame field goal unit onto the field three times. Charles Gaines also had a highlight when he stepped in front of a poorly thrown ball from Golson and snagged it to set up a Louisville field goal in the second quarter.
Louisville Run Defense
Louisville doesn't give up a ton of yards on the ground, and tonight wasn't all that different. The Cardinals held the Irish to just 99 rushing yards (helped out by a massive 13-yard loss on a sack-fumble by Everett Golson in the second quarter. Notre Dame recovered the ball, but the Irish finished the play with a loss of 32 yards on the play.
Only two Irish rushers finished with positive numbers on the evening (Cam McDaniel with 22 yards and Tarean Folson with 134 yards). Louisville was successful in getting pressure in the backfield most of the evening, and Golson was sacked to the tune of -48 yards.
Louisville Special Teams
You really can't complain about the Louisville special teams, especially considering who the Cardinals were playing. Notre Dame makes almost every other kicking unit in the nation look like professionals.
Still, we'll mention that John Wallace was one-of-two on field goals this evening, pulling one of his kicks just to the left of the uprights.
So, what's the difference between Wallace's one-of-two and Kyle Brindza's two-of-three? Wallace's miss didn't cost his team the game.
Louisville Coaching
Bobby Petrino seems intent on picking up right where he left off when he departed Louisville for Arkansas. The Cardinals have now won eight games this season, the most of any Petrino-coached Louisville squad since 2006 (his last season before taking the Arkansas job).
Louisville was remarkable well prepared to take on Notre Dame team, ignoring all of the distractions that can come along with a program's first-ever trip to hallowed college football ground like Notre Dame Stadium. The coaching staff also schemed against Notre Dame well, and some in-game adjustments against Notre Dame's defensive attack in the third quarter was instrumental in putting up those much-needed points late in the game to seal the victory.
| Pass Offense | C+ | B |
| Run Offense | D | C |
| Pass Defense | A | B+ |
| Run Defense | C | C |
| Special Teams | A- | C+ |
| Coaching | Incomplete | B- |
Notre Dame Pass Offense
Like the game against Arizona State, this was a tale of two halves for Golson and his teammates. In the first half, Golson tossed an interception and dropped the ball twice (although Notre Dame recovered both of his fumbles).
Heading into halftime, Golson was six-of-nine for 121 yards and a pick. The fumbles also raised some legitimate questions about Golson's ability to lead his team back into the game, especially after watching his body language on the sidelines. Slumping shoulders and a facial expression that can only be described as a combination of frustration and defeat led to speculation that perhaps Brian Kelly would opt to turn the ball over to Malik Zaire in the second half.
That didn't happen and Golson finished with a 16-of-24 performance with 236 yards and two touchdowns.
Golson clearly has the skills to do what he need to in order to win games. But we are still questioning his decision-making and mental fortitude. Is he the right quarterback to lead Notre Dame to national prominence? While in this game he wasn't the turnover machine he has been, there were so many close calls that the question about his future as the offensive field marshal has to be called into question.
Notre Dame Run Offense
Louisville doesn't give up a ton of yards on the ground this season. The Cardinals entered tonight's game allowing just 87.4 rushing yards per game, second int he FBS behind only Penn State.
So when Tarean Folston puts up 134 rushing yards on Louisville, you should sit up and take notice.
Overall, Notre Dame finished with 99 yards as a team, thanks in large part to sacks and fumbles and a whole lot of negative plays. Still, if ever there was an opportunity to give out a solid grade to both a rushing offense and its opposing defense, this is probably it.
Besides Folston, Cam McDaniel was the only other Notre Dame player to finish with positive rushing yards, accounting for 22 yards on just two carries.
Notre Dame Pass Defense
Statistically, Notre Dame's pass defense had a great outing. Limiting Louisville to just 180 yards on eight-of-21 passing will make any coach happy.
But the down side is that so many of those eight completions went for big yardage right when Louisville needed the big yardage the most. Additionally, Notre Dame's lone interception by Drue Tranquill came so late in the first half as to essentially be meaningless (other than for statistical purposes).
We'll hand out high marks for what amounted to a solid performance by the secondary, but we can't quite call it perfect, given the two passing plays of over 35 yards given up on third downs.
Notre Dame Run Defense
A couple of seasons ago, Notre Dame had the kind of run defense that, well, Louisville has this season. Those happy days are a long distant memory now.
The Irish gave up more rushing yards (114) to Louisville in the first half than the Cardinals gave up against the Irish over the course of the entire game (99). Additionally, the front seven had no real answer for Brandon Radcliff in the second half.
Notre Dame was so focused on bottling up Bonnafon (who had 35 yards and two rushing touchdowns, which came in the first half) that they were unable to keep Radcliff in check.
In the end, Notre Dame surrendered 229 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. So, no, we won't be heaping much praise on the run defense here and the grade will reflect that.
We are, however, willing to acknowledge that Notre Dame's injury situation continues to be a problem. While that's not an excuse, we're at least saying we understand why things aren't going so well.
Notre Dame Special Teams
What's left to say? If you only know about Notre Dame based on its 2014, you'd laugh at the idea that Kyle Brindza is Notre Dame's all-time field goal record holder. But he is. No, really! Look it up!
In actuality, Notre Dame didn't have that bad of a night against Louisville from a special teams stand point. Greg Bryant had a 61-yard punt return to the Louisville three that set up a touchdown. Brindza averaged nearly 47 yards on his four punts. Amir Carlisle had 151 yards on his six kick returns (with a long of 36). Notre Dame also converted on its lone two-point conversion attempt.
Heck, even Kyle Brindza was even a better-than-expected two-of-three on field goals.
But it was that one miss that will be sending Notre Dame fans running for the Excedrin and Alka-Seltzer. Like last week, this missed field goal cost Notre Dame an opportunity to win the football game. While overall it was one small hiccup in an otherwise pretty solid special teams performance, it was such a massive hiccup that we simply can't let it slide.
Notre Dame Coaching
Well, on one hand, Brian Kelly didn't give a game away by inexplicably going for two in the second half when it was completely unnecessary. But Notre Dame still lost the game, and the coaches are going to have to take a measure of responsibility for that.
Being big believers in the theory that players have to execute the plays the coaches call in order to be successful, we're not going to lay a ton of the blame at Kelly's feet tonight. Unlike last week against Northwestern, there weren't any glaring tactical errors from Kelly and his staff against Louisville.
We were, however, disappointed to see a lack of adjustment from Brian VanGorder's defense. Granted, the injuries have piled up to a point where the defensive players on the field are mostly underclassmen (and most of those are freshmen), but we're not in the business of making excuses for coaching staffs.
The long and short of the matter is Notre Dame must get better before heading out to take on USC next week. If Not, the Irish are looking at a middling 7-5 finish and an invitation to a bowl game few college football fans—and few college football recruits—will be watching.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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