Jeff Brohm on Louisville's first half: If we're gonna throw the football, we've gotta catch the football

Louisville coach Jeff Brohm is calling for more out of his offense in the second half against Notre Dame. The Cardinals find themselves tied at 7 with the Fighting Irish heading into the locker room, but were held scoreless in the second quarter.

The offense showed signs of life on the final drive of the half as it got down to the Notre Dame 25-yard line but missed a potential go-ahead field goal just before halftime. Speaking during a halftime interview with ESPN, Brohm stressed a need to be better in the passing game, citing drops from receivers.

“If we’re gonna throw the football, we’ve gotta catch the football and play pitch and catch,” he said. “I think that’s hurt us a couple of times. But I think we’ve gotta keep establishing the run. This is a good defense, we’ve just had too many negative plays.”

Louisville quarterback Jack Plummer opened the game with a touchdown pass on the first offensive drive. However, he has since been mostly quiet with just 57 yards passing and a touchdown.

On the opposite side of the ball, the Cardinals defense has done a solid job limiting Fighting Irish quarterback Sam Hartman. He’s so far 11-of-17 passing for 128 yards, a touchdown and an interception that came on the game’s opening drive.

Louisville also held Notre Dame to just 22 yards rushing in the first half and also recorded a pair of sacks. Still, Brohm knows if his team is to come out with the win, it has to be better offensively.

“They’ve done a good job (defensively,” he said. “We wanna bring pressure. We wanna affect the quarterback. Any time you give that quarterback time, he’s gonna tear us apart. We’ve done a good job to this point, got some turnovers. We’ve just gotta be a little more efficient on offense.”

Louisville has so far been better than Notre Dame on third down, converting 4-of-9 attempts compared to 1-of-7 for the Fighting Irish. The Cardinals also have 74 yards rushing, which is solid, but they’ll likely need even more both on the ground and through the air if they hope to pull away for the upset.

Louisville entered this contest with an undefeated 5-0 record and moved into the AP poll for the first time this season at No. 25. It’ll aim to turn things around in the second half and come away with a marquee win to climb even higher in the rankings.