Tomorrow Louisville takes on the 21st ranked University of Pittsburgh. Coming off a loss to Miami that was less than encouraging, getting back in the win column is of the highest of importance.

Earlier this week Coach Scott Satterfield met with the media, looked back at Miami, and ahead to Pitt.

Here are the 4 (and a half) biggest takeaways.

1) The big plays need to be addressed.

When asked about the things that needed addressing this coming week, Coach Satterfied hit us with this oh-so-surprising answer: “The most disappointing thing last Saturday were the big plays. Three of them resulted in touchdowns. That is 21 points right there and we lost by 13. Those can’t happen.”

Yeah, I know, I know. Shocker.

The big plays hurt, and they hurt a lot. But the interesting part isn’t so much that quote so much as what Coach said next…

“...we (weren’t) lined up (correctly) and not doing what we were supposed to do. It does not take much talent to score on those particular plays, but obviously Miami had a lot of talent and were able to score.”

One of the more demoralizing scores came in the second half (immediately after a long touchdown drive by the Cards) where QB D’Eriq King dropped back and was able to hit a streaking player down the right sideline.

Remember that play? Yeah, me too. It sucked.

What many may not realize is that the same formation was run on the second play of the game. Miami lined up with trips to the left (3 WR), an inline tight end to the right, and a back to the side of the QB. On this play, the second of the game, no Cardinal defender accounted for the right sideline.

Luckily, the pressure was able to get after the QB and disrupt the play. Unfortunately, this is an error Miami noticed (and remembered) while the Louisville coaching staff did not.

The big plays Saturday were not due to a lack of talent, but a genuine misunderstanding of responsibilities. It’s a cliche, but Louisville’s defense truly did set themselves up to fail.

2) Pittsburgh’s simplistic (yet strong defense) may cause some challenges

Louisville has a good offense. That’s a statement that shouldn’t surprise anyone. Also not surprising should be the fact that much of the Cardinal’s offensive success comes from their ability to keep an opposing defense on their heels.

Whether it be an outside zone to Hawkins, a throw over the top to Tutu, or a dump off to Ford in the flat — they throw a lot at you.

When asked about Pitt’s defensive success, Coach had this to say: “Number one, the defense keeps it pretty simple in what they do. They not do a lot of exotic things; they have four down linemen that I think are as good of a unit as anyone that we will play.”

Here’s a spoiler for those paying attention: Creative offenses hate simple defenses.

We live in an era where exotic defenses are idolized, and for good reason — when they work, they work well.

The downfall though, is they’re terribly difficult to pull off. And more often than not, you end up with a defensive coordinator over-adjusting as the game goes on. That plays into Louisville’s hand.

Pittsburgh won’t do that.

As Coach went on to say…

“You can turn on film from any game, that is just a Narduzzi type defense. (...) It's not complicated, but they are good, they are very good at what they do. You have to earn everything, there will not be any freebies, it is a very solid defense.”

Louisville won’t be able to gimmick their way to a few wide open scores like they did against WKU (and Miami did against Louisville). Instead, Louisville will need to play straight up and outperform the panthers on a man to man basis.

Luckily, with as many playmakers as Louisville has, this may bring out the best in them.

3) Defensive back depth isn’t quite where it needs to be.

In every game there are two primary types of impact players. There are the “WOW” players who impact the game positively. They're guys who audibly make you say "wow." Lamar Jackson was one of those guys, Javian Hawkins is one of those guys too.

Alternatively, there are the “WTF” players. These guys, as you might imagine, are the ones who impact the game negatively — they’re guys who leave you (and everyone sitting around you) saying “wtf” while scratching your head.

Against Miami, Jack Fagot and Isaiah Hayes were our “WTF” players of the week. (Sorry guys, we still love you.) Performances like that understandably make you wonder about the youngsters behind them on the depth chart.

Satterfield was asked just that:

"We're trying to get them ready. I think it's tough, you don't really get ready by trial by fire because if you get out there and the next thing you give a big play, which obviously we don't want."

Coach goes on to mention two players specifically:

"Lovie is getting some time in there. Minkins is starting to do a better job in practice. I think he's going to be a good young player for us. (...) These guys are very conscientious smart players, but they're having to learn quickly in practice."

On Miami's final scoring play of the game, D'Eriq King found an uncovered player streaking down the seam and connected with him for a 47 yard score. This was a fascinating play. Well, not the play itself, but what was going on directly before the ball was snapped.

If you re-watch this sequence you'll notice exactly one player on the field freaking out and trying (and failing, unfortunately) to get his guys correctly alligned.

That one player? Freshman Lovie Jenkins.

Interesting.

4) Cunningham played well, but the coaches expect more.

Malik ended the game with a strong stat line (26/36, 307 yards, 3 TD). Unfortunately, sometimes stats don't always paint a complete picture.

Coach Satterfield elaborates upon this far better than I can. So allow me to shut up while you read the direct quote.

"We expect him to make every play. We have high expectations at the quarterback position and if you just look on the surface at the stats, you're like “oh the quarterback had a solid game.”

Well, sure. But he missed several plays out there. On one drive, he missed a wide open receiver in the back of the endzone. We got to hit that. On the play he threw an interception, we had Dez (Fitzpatrick) wide open on a flat. We got to hit him.

He's got to be better. We again have high expectations and expect him to play at a high level, every single week now.

Was it a good game? Yeah he had a good game. (...) but he is expected to play better than that."

I loved this quote, so I'm not going to add much. Well, aside from this takeaway: You have to love the coaches still pushing Malik to be better even after a game in which he was "good."

4.5) Playing without fans, COVID testing, and travel challenges.

This isn't directly related to the on-field product, but here are a few notable quotes from the remainder of Coach Satterfield's press conference:

Playing without fans: "Things we can’t control, we don’t worry about it. You watch these NFL games, they don’t have any fans either. When you're playing football or coaching football you really don't look up in the stands really. We'll play football and have the guys focus on their job, It won’t be a big deal."

The plan IF there were a positive COVID test: "You certainly have to have a plan for if something like that happens. We really are living in day-to-day times right now. If something like that happens we have a plan in place.

Obviously, best case scenario nothing happens to us then we're all we're all available each and every week. But it's a unique challenge for everybody, not just us. It'll be interesting to see how (Florida State) handles it this week. I think they play Miami this week, so that'll be interesting to see how they handle it."

The challenges of traveling during a pandemic: "If you think about home games, we're still getting on our buses, and we're still going to the hotel. Our operations will be the same with that. The difference in this particular game will be that we'll have to go on a plane.

We will take some precautions with that.

We're not going to be eating on the plane. Everybody's going to be having their mask on. We're trying to spread out as much as we possibly can within the plane. Most of our guys when they get on a plane they're kind of sleeping anyway. We'll be safe.

Our guys have done a great job and we'll continue to do that."