Three takeaways: No. 16 Louisville rallies behind near perfect defense at Virginia Tech

This one had “trap game” written all over it for Louisville.

Jeff Brohm and his squad knew that the performance in the first half of this game wasn’t going to cut it if they wanted to win. The Cardinals were the exact opposite of the team we’ve all seen this season, trailing 16-7 at halftime due to a turnover and bone-headed mistakes.

However, when they needed to lock in and flip the script, they did exactly that. Whatever the coaching staff said at halftime couldn’t have been any better, because the second half was nearly flawless, especially on defense.

Ron English’s unit held the Hokies offense just under 100 yards (99), and that gave Louisville enough time to get going on offense and take the lead back. At times, they do bend, but through eight games this season, they haven’t broken. The Cardinals’ defense continues to be one of the best in the country, and all the credit in the world goes to English.

In a perfect world, Louisville doesn’t have to go down early to realize that they need to wake up. Sometimes you can get away with it, like today, but that’s a hard strategy to maintain against elite football teams. Luckily, Virginia Tech isn’t that, but a win is a win for the Cardinals. Lots of things to clean up and lots of things to like in this game.

Going from playing objectively badly in the first half to outscoring your opponent 21-0 in the second half is elite football. The next step is doing it for the entirety of the game. Louisville moves to a record of 7-1, and the hunt for the ACC championship game is still on with a 4-1 conference record.

Here are three takeaways from today’s 28-16 win:

1.) Isaac Brown may have to miss more time

Louisville’s star running back Isaac Brown had another monster game on the ground, finishing with 126 yards on 16 carries and one rushing touchdown for 52 yards. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If that kid gets in the open field, you might as well meet him in the end zone.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Brown was just starting to get his footing back after battling some early injuries, and today it looked like he may have suffered a pulled hamstring in the second half. There’s no official word, but it’s possible he could miss time. Keyjuan Brown will be next in line to take on his offensive workload, but the good news is that he’s looked stellar when he’s needed to this season.

“Bama” ran for 94 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries against the Hokies.

2.) Caullin Lacy is the most dynamic return man in the country

The best news of last offseason was that Caullin Lacy was returning for another year after suffering a nagging injury that kept him sidelined for the majority of the season.

At one point, his punt returns became the offensive advantage for Louisville, because outside of the first drive, they couldn’t get anything going at all. Lacy was able to get them in good field position or plus territory on nearly every return. Louisville doesn’t go on to win this game by 12 points without multiple assists from Lacy’s elite field vision in open space. Though he didn’t have a punt return touchdown, he finished with 139 return yards, and the Cardinals needed every bit of it.

3.) Defense was almost flawless in the second half.

Nothing in the first half of play told you that Louisville’s defense was gonna come out and completely turn the Hokies’ water off. That’s what Ron English did to their offense. Held them to a whopping zero points and less than 100 yards of total offense. What a turnaround for the defense that has shown up for this team time and time again. English has really figured it out, and it’s been beautiful to watch. This is the best and most complete defense he’s had in three years, and they’ve shown improvements in all three phases of football. Not bad for a guy who heard all the talk since he’s been here, and he’s done nothing but work harder to get better.

Despite not forcing any turnovers, the defense held Virginia Tech to just 240 yards and stopped the Hokies on their two fourth-down conversion attempts.

Cards linebacker TJ Quinn once again led Louisville in tackles with 10 and provided a tackle for loss. Other playmakers on the defensive side of the football were JoJo Evans, who had two quarterback hits, and TJ Capers, who collected five tackles and one for loss. The Hokies were also 4-of-15 on third down and averaged just 3.8 yards a play.

Cardinals earn another win on the road to move to 7-1, and all they need to do is continue to take care of business. Next week, they’ll face a solid California team at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium at 7 EST.