The House of Blue

Defense was terrible tonight. They better step it up or this will be a long year. Offense looked better.

It's crazy how some teams need to be aggressive and some teams would be better suited being passive. I really think a Brown Scheme would work better this year with the lack of exp... One thing is certain, we sucked in the secondary today... Max looked very good though. He's not JL or TC but I think he will end up a lot better than Hartline, we just need to go tell Hyde and Bell to come on up in Jan so they can get in the line up, we suck at DE and lack strength inside...

Agree with the comments on the secondary. I thought Lowery had a decent game but the others were really lost and out-manned. Someone that was at the game said our corners were giving up 10 yard cushions on every play. That tells me they have no faith at all in covering the UofL receivers with what we have.

At this juncture I would start the freshmen and move Neloms back to safety. AT least we would have two decent players at safety then and have some potential with the corners. However solving that is only part of the solution. Our outside linebackers were beyond awful and our end got manhandled consistently by the UofL tackle. Not sure how we resolve that.

I come in peace, here's what I saw you guys did well:

First of all Maxwell Smith was pretty accurate. I think UK planned on slowing UofL's defense down by throwing a lot of screens and using draw plays to keep us from pinning our ears back. For the most part it worked, but your guys just couldn't hold onto the ball. The Card's seem to play conservatively after a while. The only concern I would have is how well Smith is actually reading the defense. He really didn't test the Card's secondary too much (as in 1v1 coverage), but there wasn't a ton of play calling over the top.

YAC, YAC, YAC. UK's WRs actually did a good job of running after the catch. The routes you all ran under-neath I think were meant to abuse zone coverage, and you did that pretty well, but Louisville is a very good tackling team, so it kept the damage to a minimum once we caught up.

You all actually ran quite well against us, and really abused the fact that we spread our defensive line out to rush off the edge. Playing Smith in the shotgun was probably a good idea, and should be continued.

Causes for concern:

Secondary - Obviously you guys need help there. No one seemed to be a play maker at that position. Now I think your defensive play calling was very conservative, just as ours was. You didn't give up anything big over the top, but we abused you guys in the mid-ranged passing game.

Turn overs - If UK holds onto the ball the game is close, and Strong can't just kneel on the ball for a quarter and a half.

Important stuff:

Honestly guys I wouldn't get too down on the Cats after that performance, I think it's obvious you all have a lot of work to do on defense, but really you have to understand how good Teddy Bridgewater really is. I've been watching football for a long time, and I've never seen a QB on either of our teams, or nearly any college team, play at the level Bridgewater has been playing since the Spring as a Sophomore. If you see a replay, watch as he scrambles around and keeps his eyes down field, the moves he makes to avoid the pressure. How do you guard against that? I'd be terrified to have to defend him, it simply isn't fair at times. If you can't get pressure on him, it's hard to make him miss. Even more, he had some chances to go deep on the run, but instead checked it down to a guy under-neath because he knew mentally that trying to force it over the top on the run, even to a guy that had a few steps, could lead to an under-thrown ball and a turn over. He just didn't make the mental mistakes you'd expect out of a young QB, and his eyes where always down field. I was really stunned at how well he played, it was kind of surreal.

Our WRs aren't slouches either, and neither was our TE. I think we had a lot of experience returning at WR, and it really helped us out against your young secondary.

You want to hear a Louisville fan drink some blue cool aid real fast?

Okay, so I think you're going to win you're next 3 games, and yes that means against Florida. Against Kent State you defensive line is going to get pressure, and help your secondary out, and you guys are going to win easily. You'll get a scare against WKU, but win. Then you're going to roll into the Florida game with a little confidence and break the streak. I don't know what happens after that, and I for one wouldn't blame you for wanting to get rid of Joker even after all of that, but I think the Cats played much better than the score-board indicated, and if you guys can hold onto the ball you can rattle some chains if you don't have to chase a QB like Teddy around all day.

I know you guys are our rivals, but it's not fun when you all are down. Good luck the rest of the way.

Obviously you missed the joke there. I'm well aware of what position Robinson plays. That ball that Gene threw was going to be picked if Robinson didn't bat it out of the defender's hands. I really do believe that was the only pass breakup yesterday. Of course to break up a pass you probably need to be within 10 yards of it or looking for it.

The way our db's played we might need Marco to go that side of the ball.

I'm also doubting how much Marco will contribute. He seems to be a little better Adeyemi. I was excited by his punt return, he looked like he can make some plays there.

But I also won't be surprised to see him bust some big plays next week against kent state.

This. Doesnt matter who the coach is if the players dont have any talent.

I honestly don't think you lacked for pressure as much as we did. I simply think it was Teddy avoiding the pressure a lot.

I wonder if it would help to put Neloms back at Safety and start JD Harmon at Corner. Ashley Lowery looked terrible in run support and didn't make a play all day. I know that kid is more talented than that. I know Bud Dupree is more talent than he showed. I think Miles Simpson is athletic enough to make plays. I know that we're hurting majorly at Willbacker. Play Henderson if you have to. I know Avery Williams is capable of playing better than he did. I know Cobble and Rumph are better than they played. I know even Mikey Benton is capable of playing better than he did. He made some plays last year and he did absolutely nothing in this game.

We absolutely have to play better against the run. If we don't find a way to shore things up we're headed for disaster. I still have a little bit of faith left that we can play better on D and I'm actually excited to see our offense improve. Not a bad performance from the O and they should get better as the year goes on and young guys like Sweat start to get in the mix.

I don't disagree that Teddy is a very good QB, BUT if you are taking this game as a Heisman game for him, forget it. I could have throw most of his passes for catches with the pressure we put on him. Let him face a good defense, probably will be only one, S.FLA, and if he throws 90% completions I will agree with you.

Cast me into the Bridgewater proven lot. I thought the kid was phenomenal.