Louisville Cardinals at Notre Dame Fighting Irish
· NCAA - FootballNo. 16 Notre Dame holds off No. 15 Louisville comeback for 31-24 victory
Notre Dame (4-1) relied on a last-minute defensive stand to hand the Cardinals their first loss of the season. Louisville (3-1) had a delay-of-game penalty on a fourth-and-1 at the Notre Dame 46. After the five-yard penalty, an incomplete pass ended the Louisville comeback attempt.
"I give the crowd the credit,” Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said. “It got loud. They couldn’t hear the call from me. That can’t happen. We have to have a better way in a situation with no timeouts and we have to get a first down. That’s on me.”
In addition to the three forced turnovers, Notre Dame held Louisville to 1-of-5 on fourth-down conversion attempts.
“I know the game gets close, but we have a lot of confidence in our defense,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “It’s why I’m so aggressive as a coach on fourth down. You got a lot of confidence in your defense.”
Leonard was 17 for 23 for 163 yards. Louisville's Tyler Shough was 24 for 41 for 264 yards and three touchdowns, but was intercepted once. Shough had thrown 88 passes without an interception this season before getting picked off on a deflected pass.
Louisville committed its three turnovers in the first half and trailed 24-14 at halftime.
“It wasn’t a clean day for us,” Brohm said. “Unfortunately, that’s not good enough to win, having to go on the road, especially at Notre Dame. We had some critical mistakes in key situations.”
After a 56-yard field goal by Brock Travelstead with 11:25 left in the game pulled Louisville within 24-17, Notre Dame surged back to regain a two-touchdown lead.
Leonard's screen pass to Jeremiyah Love turned into a 32-yard scoring play, and the Fighting Irish were in front 31-17 lead with 9:16 remaining.
Louisville fought back with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Shough to Ja’Corey Brooks with 5:17 left to trim the Notre Dame lead to 31-24.
Louisville grabbed the early advantage in a rainy start at Notre Dame Stadium. T.J. Capers forced a fumble by Notre Dame returner Devyn Ford on the opening kickoff. Tamarion McDonald pounced on the ball at the Fighting Irish 24.
The Cardinals only needed three plays to cash in. Shough threw a 10-yard strike to Isaac Brown for the touchdown and Travelstead’s kick gave Louisville a 7-0 lead.
Notre Dame then went ahead 21-7 in a span of 5 minutes, 42 seconds.
“We played lights out of the first half, especially offensively,” Freeman said.
Notre Dame answered Louisville's opening touchdown on its next possession, driving 75 yards on 12 plays. Love bulled his way into the end zone from the 6.
What looked like a huge gain for Louisville turned into the Cardinals' first turnover of the season. Shough bolted out of the backfield on a misdirection play and raced 43 yards, but Notre Dame’s Leonard Moore caught up to Shough and forced a fumble. Jaiden Ausberry recovered for Notre Dame at its 47. Leonard put the Irish ahead with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Greathouse.
Leonard raced up the middle for the touchdown after another turnover and the Fighting Irish were up 21-7.
“I thought we did a great job on offense of emphasizing having the urgency to start really fast,” Leonard said. “Even though (the early Louisville touchdown) happened, we had all the confidence in the world that we were going to start fast on offense because we did it every single day in practice.”
Notre Dame’s second fumble, on a run by Jadarian Price, led to the Cardinals closing to 21-14 with 12:28 left in the second quarter when Shough hit Brooks for a 5-yard TD pass.
Louisville’s third turnover came when Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts, who led the nation last season with seven interceptions, picked off a pass and returned it 34 yards to the Louisville 36.
Watts said that the victory was particularly meaningful for the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame avenged a 33-20 loss at Louisville last season that knocked the Fighting Irish out of playoff contention.
“This was a big win for us, especially with last year’s loss,” Watts said. “We came into this game ready to go.”
Louisville: The Cardinals will have to work on eliminating the mistakes that didn't haunt them in the first three games of the season. Louisville had three turnovers and the Cardinals were 1-of-5 on fourth-down attempts, one that included a crucial delay-of-game penalty.
Louisville: Expect the Cardinals to drop a few notches, but a road loss to a ranked opponent may not knock Louisville out of the Top 25.
Louisville hosts Southern Methodist on Oct. 5
How To Watch
How can I watch Louisville Cardinals vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish?
- TV Channel: Cardinals at Fighting Irish 2021 College Football, week 5, is broadcasted on Peacock.
- Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.
Matchup Prediction
Scoring Summary
TD | 1st Period 13:30 | Isaac Brown 10 Yd pass from Tyler Shough (Brock Travelstead Kick) | |
TD | 1st Period 7:22 | Jeremiyah Love 6 Yd Run (Mitch Jeter Kick) | |
TD | 1st Period 4:59 | Jaden Greathouse 34 Yd pass from Riley Leonard (Mitch Jeter Kick) | |
TD | 1st Period 2:40 | Riley Leonard 4 Yd Run (Mitch Jeter Kick) | |
TD | 2nd Period 12:28 | Ja'Corey Brooks 5 Yd pass from Tyler Shough (Brock Travelstead Kick) | |
FG | 2nd Period 3:46 | Mitch Jeter 48 Yd Field Goal | |
FG | 4th Period 11:25 | Brock Travelstead 56 Yd Field Goal | |
TD | 4th Period 9:16 | Jeremiyah Love 32 Yd pass from Riley Leonard (Mitch Jeter Kick) | |
TD | 4th Period 5:17 | Ja'Corey Brooks 24 Yd pass from Tyler Shough (Brock Travelstead Kick) |
Statistics
LOU | ND | |
---|---|---|
19 | 1st Downs | 11 |
7-17 | 3rd down efficiency | 2-10 |
1-5 | 4th down efficiency | 2-3 |
395 | Total Yards | 280 |
264 | Passing | 163 |
24/41 | Comp/Att | 17/23 |
6.4 | Yards per pass | 7.1 |
131 | Rushing | 117 |
35 | Rushing Attempts | 31 |
3.7 | Yards per rush | 3.8 |
6-50 | Penalties | 5-45 |
3 | Turnovers | 2 |
2 | Fumbles lost | 2 |
1 | Interceptions thrown | 0 |
32:04 | Possession | 27:56 |
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