LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Jeff Brohm owned the loss. You don’t have to worry about that. He might not like being the face of a three-game losing streak, but he understands football life, and his place in it.
“Really bad day of football. I’ll take the blame. I’m the head coach,” Brohm said after Louisville’s 38-6 loss at SMU. “It really couldn’t have gone much worse than that. All three segments — definitely offense and defense — stunk it up. We did a bad job coaching. We weren’t able to respond, and that falls on me.”
Brohm was talking about Saturday. But he could’ve been talking about the month.
Louisville didn’t just lose. It limped, slogged, and collapsed into its third straight defeat, its worst since a 45-13 debacle at Kentucky in 2019. The box score said SMU outgained Louisville 486-228. Louisville passed for just 100 yards, only 20 after halftime.
But this wasn’t just about what happened.
Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford
It was about how we got here.
Louisville entered Gerald Ford Stadium like a team wearing a walking boot. No Miller Moss. No Isaac Brown. No Keyjuan Brown. Caullin Lacy out by halftime. A redshirt freshman making his first career start. A fourth-string tailback and fifth-string hope.
Yes, the injuries matter. But do they explain the spiral?
That’s where I need help. Maybe you do, too.
Because it’s not just bruises and bad breaks. It’s penalties. Timing. Turnovers. A trend line headed for the basement.
Louisville’s passing yards by month:
- August/September: 279 yards/game
- October: 255 yards/game
- November: 164 yards/game
That’s not a slump. That’s a nosedive.
Two tracks of analysis run here. One is Saturday’s mess. The other is the larger picture, and it’s fuzzier.
In the micro, Louisville had no margin for error. A high throw at the goal line? Field goal. A batted ball and sack? Field goal. A fourth-down jet sweep called back by holding? Punt.
By halftime, it was 21-6. It felt like 42-0. Should’ve been 21-10. Could’ve been 21-17 after Louisville's opening drive of the second half. Wasn’t even close.
Deuce Adams wasn’t the problem. He was just the freshest symptom.
To his credit, Brohm steps into the storm. He always has. He stands between the cameras and his players, holds the mic, and takes the heat.
“We had a plan to get into rhythm early and keep the game close,” Brohm said. “We moved it a little bit but couldn't score (a touchdown) when we got down in there, which was disappointing. ... They flat whooped us today. I'm the head coach. We'll have to go back to work. We've got a pivotal rivalry game that we've got to figure out a way to play way better with our personnel, and we've got to get some answers.”
Not an understatement anywhere in that. But this one’s going to leave a mark.
For a team that could’ve been undefeated entering November, that had won nine straight on the road before Saturday’s loss, these losses sting. Lose next week, and they scar.
Kentucky is coming. And that’s the pivot point.
The bigger question, that second line of analysis, is this: How did things get here?
What are the challenges? Roster construction, preparation, money? What’s Louisville’s real offensive identity? Is the portal plan sustainable? Where’s the discipline?
Brohm doesn’t just need to own the losses, he needs to explain the path forward. That’s not easy for him. His reflex is to work. To grind. To figure it out privately and let the results do the talking. Lately, the results are not saying nice things.
And Louisville isn’t Purdue. The fans here are listening for more than silence.
When a team that seemed so close to something promising ends a season this flat, the people who care need both a diagnosis and some hope of a cure.
The good news for Brohm is that the criticism remains friendly fire. He is still the right guy. He still has the goodwill of his hometown. He still carries the pain of every loss like a scar on his clipboard.
If you’re Louisville and can’t make it work with this guy, who can you make it work with? Brohm was hired to do more with less. He understands that assignment. I’m not sure fans always do, but that’s irrelevant when you’re losing 38-6. That result fails to get anywhere close to the assignment.
So, at some point, fans are going to need to hear what happened. And what needs to happen next. Not from some columnist who is firing from his keyboard, but from the coach who is going to have to do it. Maybe not today, but soon.
Oh, and they’re going to need to beat Kentucky.
Because next week isn’t just about bouncing back.
It’s about not getting buried.
And as someone once said in a press box far, far away: When you’re deep in a hole, the first step is to stop digging. The second is to start winning. The third might be to start talking.
More Louisville Coverage:
CRAWFORD | Kentucky's third-quarter knockout punch powers 72-62 win over Louisville
CRAWFORD | For Louisville, injuries hurt, but 38-6 loss at SMU should hurt more
CRAWFORD | Conwell's calm, Fru's fury, Mikel’s moment: Louisville out-toughs UC, 74-64
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