LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A week removed from dominating Notre Dame for a statement win in year one under Jeff Brohm, the Louisville football program found themselves on the opposite end of an equally as stunning outcome.

Despite being favored by a touchdown heading into their road matchup against a reeling Pitt, the No. 14 Cardinals (6-1, 3-1 ACC) wound up losing by three scores, getting upset by the Panthers (2-4, 1-2 ACC) on Saturday night to the tune 38-21.

Off to their best start since 2013, Louisville’s first loss of the season came to a Pitt squad who was off to their worst start since 2005. After the game, Brohm took full responsibility for the shocking upset loss.

“Well, we got beat today. I’ll take the blame for it, I’m the head coach,” he said. “You think you have your team ready to play, you think you’ve covered all the bases, make sure they understood what’s happened before in the past. You talk about it, you address it, but obviously it wasn’t enough. I gotta do a better job of getting us ready to play every week.”

All week long, the threat of falling victim to a trap game was one of the biggest storylines surrounding the matchup. Brohm’s struggles following the big wins while at Purdue was something that had been well documented, and Louisville was riding the emotional highs of a decisive win over the Fighting Irish.

Throw in the fact that Pitt was coming off of their bye week, had changed quarterbacks in hopes of getting an offensive spark, and the game itself was played in a near-constant rainfall, and this game was picked by many nationally as a trendy upset pick.

That being said, Brohm didn’t think that his guys weren’t as locked in as they needed to be. He believes they were focused at the task at hand, and attributes the loss to the play on the field rather than their approach or mental state.

“You know what, actually, I thought we were locked in,” Brohm said. “I thought we were ready to go. I’m gonna stand up here and say obviously we got to do better at that, and we will. But I do think the juncture in the game, when we started to get sloppy with the ball, we’re starting to put the ball on the ground and turn the ball over, that was the difference.”

The aforementioned difference that Brohm is referring to were three red zone turnovers committed by the Cardinals, two of which led directly to Pitt touchdowns.

All three Louisville turnovers were committed by quarterback Jack Plummer. The first was a second quarter fumble that allowed Pitt to march down the field and tie the game at 14 a piece. The second was an 86-yard pick six in the third quarter to turn the Louisville deficit from three points to 10, and the third was a pick on the very next drive that bounced out of wide receiver Jimmy Calloway’s hands and right to a Pitt defender.