Monday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—The ACC announced its kickoff times for the games on the weekend of Oct. 28, but Louisville vs. Duke is one of five games that has been flexed as a six-day selection. We won’t find out what time the Cards and Blue Devils will kickoff until this weekend.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic shares his final thoughts and observations from the loss to Pitt.

—The sixth-ranked Louisville volleyball team capped off a perfect weekend with a Sunday sweep of Virginia.

—Eric Crawford shares some thoughts on the Louisville football team’s first loss of the season.

Turnovers aren’t a zero-sum thing. If Louisville goes up 14 before halftime, the way the game is played changes. If Louisville punts the ball early in the third quarter and makes Pittsburgh drive the length of the field, maybe things are different. Maybe not, Pitt did fashion lengthy drives in the game.

Certainly, if Louisville comes back to go up 28-24 instead of throwing it away to go down 31-21, the game is different.

At this point, several things are evident.

Louisville has been good this season, but isn’t good enough to overcome three near-red zone turnovers. Few teams are. The Cardinals didn’t get to their No. 14 national ranking because of talent. They did it with good execution on offense when they had to have it, and an opportunistic defense, that ranks 7th nationally with 14 takeaways, despite not having any against a first-time starter at quarterback on Saturday.

Too many interceptions. Only seven teams in Power 5 football have thrown more interceptions than Louisville. And only 12 Power 5 teams have more than Louisville’s 11 turnovers.

Interceptions are tricky things. Sometimes we in the media, like fans, don’t know the true origin of an interception. Maybe the receiver is in the wrong place. Sometimes, like Saturday, a receiver is bumped off his route. But in general, in the red zone, it’s even more crucial to be careful with the ball.

—The preseason AP men’s basketball poll is out, and for the first time since 1959-60 (via Kelly Dickey), Louisville has received no votes in back-to-back years. Kansas will start this season at No. 1.

—Ken Pomeroy has also updated his site rankings for the upcoming hoops season, and Louisville will start at No. 109, one spot ahead of DePaul. The Cards finished 2022-23 at an unthinkable 290th.

—U of L football fell four spots to No. 29 in this week’s S&P rankings.

—The way Dan McDonnell’s program gives back continues to be awesome.

—Jimmy Calloway’s sideline catch was the fourth-best play (video) of the weekend that was in the ACC.

—Kenny Payne will address the media on Tuesday at 1:15 p.m. ahead of the team’s Wednesday night exhibition game against Simmons College.

—The CJ looks at what Payne’s starting five might look like this season.

—A mini ticket plan for the upcoming U of L women’s basketball season is now on sale.

—The week ahead in U of L sports:

Monday, October 16

Women’s Golf at Mercedes-Benz Intercollegiate

Tuesday, October 17

Women’s Golf at Mercedes-Benz Intercollegiate
Men’s Soccer at Oakland - 7 p.m. ET

Wednesday, October 18

Women’s Tennis at ITA Ohio Valley Regionals
Men’s Basketball vs. Simmons College (EXH) - 7 p.m. ET (KFC Yum! Center)

Thursday, October 19

Women’s Soccer at #7 Clemson - 7 p.m. ET

Friday, October 20

#5 Field Hockey vs. #13 Syracuse - 6 p.m. ET (Trager Stadium)
#6 Volleyball at Wake Forest - 7 p.m. ET

Sunday, October 22

#5 Field Hockey vs. Appalachian State - 12 p.m. ET (Trager Stadium)
Women’s Soccer at Wake Forest - 12:30 p.m. ET
#6 Volleyball at Virginia Tech - 1 p.m. ET
Men’s Soccer at #14 North Carolina - 5 p.m.

—The U of L men’s soccer team will travel face Oakland on Tuesday night. The Cards are coming off a 1-0 win over Boston College on Friday night.

—The fifth-ranked Louisville field hockey team dropped a pair of 2-1 contests to No. 2 Duke and No. 6 Iowa this weekend.

—Skyy Clark: Big Lego guy.

—A new show debuting on Hulu is showing the spookier side of Louisville.

—Indiana’s Mike Woodson landed a five-star forward on Sunday.

—There are now just 11 remaining undefeated teams in college football.

—Season tickets for next year’s U of L football campaign are now on sale.

—Jeff Brohm doesn’t do excuses.

It was cold, rainy, and just plain nasty in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

But even with an opportunity to point the blame for a disappointing performance on several things - the sloppy conditions or the fact that four key starters were out or missed time to name a couple - University of Louisville football coach Jeff Brohm was not ready to make any excuse.

The Cardinals were outscored 24-0 in the second half and turned it over three times, losing for the first time this season with a 38-21 decision against the Panthers.

“We’re not gonna make excuses,” Brohm said after the loss. “I’ll take the blame for it. We talked about being ready and the next game was the most important and if you don’t do everything right you’re not going to win. We made too many mistakes. Costly turnovers gave them momentum and you can’t do that.

“In a conference game, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’ve got to do the small things in order to win.”

Louisville did a lot of things wrong that led to the loss - three turnovers, 0-for-4 on fourth downs, and no points in the second half.

“I don’t care what it is, wet sloppy, whatever, we have to take care of the ball,” Brohm said.

—The Louisville women’s soccer team played Boston College to a 1-1 draw. The Cardinals are now 2-3-2 in conference play.

—The Cards slip a spot to No. 4 in Louisville Report’s newest ACC power rankings.

—Caitlin Clark (remember her?) and the Iowa women’s basketball team played in front of a record 55,646 fans for an exhibition game at Kinnick Stadium.

—Big Red Louie looks at Louisville’s new path to the ACC championship game.

—This feels both like yesterday and 27 years ago at this point.

—Racing Louisville’s quest for a playoff spot ended with a 2-0 road loss to San Diego.

—Here’s a look at how Cards in the NFL fared on Sunday.

—The latest Cardinal Authority podcast discusses the bye week for football and the upcoming first exhibition game for the men’s basketball team.

—The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says the Panthers rekindled their old brand of football during Saturday night’s upset of Louisville.

Out of Louisville’s eight drives in the second half, four resulted in turnovers on downs, two were ended by interceptions and one ended with a missed field goal. Only one of the eight drives on which the Cardinals were held scoreless ended with a Cardinals punt.

That’s a huge difference from Louisville’s three touchdown drives on six tries in the first half. Plummer completed 12 of 19 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown in the first half and seemed unbothered by Pitt’s secondary as he threw the ball around the field. But Devonshire said a pregame talk with former Pitt star cornerback Darrelle Revis, who was being honored at the game for his 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction, gave the group a reminder of how they need to be resilient and be ready for their big moment to make a play.

“Just stay true to who you are,” Devonshire said. “I talked with my guys Marquis and A.J. and I told them they’re the best in the game. Darrelle spoke about it today and told us we only get a certain amount of opportunities. Sometimes, you might be blind to it and you’ll miss it. But if your eyes are open and you respect it, you’ll take advantage of those opportunities. They’ll make plays, but we’ll make plays, too.”

—The 2023-24 U of L men’s basketball media guide is now available online.

—Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke is dealing with a right-leg injury.

—The latest episode of the Cardinal Sports Zone podcast is here.

—The split stats show that Jack Plummer is Dr. Jekyll at home and Mr. Hyde away from L&N Stadium.

—And finally, the first “let’s talk about it” episode of The Mike Rutherford Show in a long time is coming your way this afternoon from 3-6 on 1450 AM and 96.1 FM. You can stream it here.