What may have been most pleasing to Coach Bobby Petrino in the University of Louisville’s 31-13 win over Miami was the performance of his defensive unit, a unit that returned only four starters from last season.
The goals of a defensive unit are pretty straightforward:
- Don’t allow the other team to score.
- Make scoring drives long and hard fought.
- No quick or easy touchdowns.
- Win the turnover battle.
- Win the game.
The first goal is not easily obtainable but allowing only one touchdown and two field goals is a solid effort. The University of Louisville’s new 3-4 defense did everything it was designed to accomplish, giving up rushing yards grudgingly while stifling Miami’s passing game. The Cardinals limited Miami to only 70 yards rushing on 27 carries and 240 yards overall.
The second goal was achieved with Miami unable to sustain drives and, when it did mount a threat, the Hurricanes would hit a wall in the red zone. The Miami punter had a busy night. Give him credit, however, he kept UofL pinned deep for much of the first half, averaging 44.4 yards per kick.
As for the third goal of no easy touchdowns, we can almost forgive Miami’s 31-yard touchdown pass. That was a well-executed play. Louisville was expecting a running play and was clearly caught off guard. Hey, we need something to correct from a near perfect performance.
UofL won the turnover battle even though UofL quarterback Will Gardner had two fumbles. Again, give Miami’s defense credit. The pass rushers are taught to swipe at the ball to cause fumbles. Louisville had three take-aways, including two pass interceptions and the lateral. You could see the pass interceptions happing in slow motion. The Louisville defenders read the quarterback’s eyes and knew where he was going to pass the ball.
The backward pass fumble by Miami was a blown call by an official. If a pass is thrown backward and dropped, it is treated the same as a fumble. It is not a forward pass. An official blew his whistle inadvertently, stopping the play, denying Louisville another touchdown. At least one ACC football official had nightmares after Monday’s game, relieved his mistake did not affect the outcome of the game.
“I thought our defensive staff had a great plan going in and really worked hard at it,” said Petrino. “They got our players to really understand what we were going to see and what they were going to do with their stack sets. It took a lot of work but they had a great plan and they played really fast.
“It was a great win … I’m just proud of our players. They did a great job in their preparation.”