Grade game 1: Louisville

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1st half defense: B

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feel like the first half defense was an A. Apart from the very last drive where Louisville is in a two minute tempo, we held them to ~40 yards total and had three consecutive drives where Louisville actually lost yards.

Otherwise think you’re pretty right, maybe stretch and give the offense a B/B- second half. We only had two drives after halftime that didn’t result in points.

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2nd half offense: C

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My dude, we pretty much did what we wanted and scored 31 points in the second half without Kewan. I’m giving it an A.

I think that the game plan just assumed that the strength of our offensive line matched up well enough with the weakness of their interior defensive line, and that we could just drive the field on them between the tackles. In theory, that absolutely should have happened and it’s a little concerning that it did not.

I think their defensive strategy at the beginning of the game was the same as ours in that you sell out completely to stop the run. Our game plan in the second half was very much more balance.

Trinidad did somehting in the second half that no pro or college QB has done in a half in 30+ years. Second half offense was an A

Not having Lacy is why we couldn’t salt away the game. Same reason we blew leads in 2024 without a power back. The backups played well but aren’t bruisers who can run into a 7 man box.