Press Conference: Louisville coach Bobby Petrino

Louisville coach Bobby Petrino talks with reporters after the 21st-ranked Cardinals were upset, 23-21, at UVA on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.

Opening remarks:
“That is a tough loss for us. We didn’t play well enough to win the game. That is the bottom line. We can’t take anything away from Virginia. They had a good plan and they played hard and they executed. I thought our defense played hard and had some good stops. Offensively, besides the opening drive, we didn’t do anything for two quarters and then finally, in the fourth quarter, we got on a roll and were able to take the lead. It looked like we had a chance to win the game and then we made another mistake. I told the team the mistake we made in the kicking game did not cost us the game. He is the same guy that made the great return that gave us momentum. When you lose a game like this, we will watch the video and there will be 15 plays individually that, if we would have made that play we had a chance to win the game. We just didn’t make enough plays to win the game.”

On specific issues with the offense:
“I think it really hurt us on third down conversions. We weren’t able to make the throws, we had some guys open, and then we dropped one. It was kind of an accumulation of the entire team’s protection, throws, catches. Just a poor job by me getting them ready to play.”

On Virginia’s defense batting down passes:
“They (Virginia) were doing a good job. They are a good defensive front. They were doing a good job when they couldn’t get there on the rush getting their hands up in the air. We’ve got to find the passing lane and we’ve got to finish our blocks with our offensive linemen so that when they leave their feet we drive it and don’t allow them to keep their hands up. So there are a number of things responsible for it, but there were certainly way too many batted balls and one of them resulted in an interception.”

On his team’s frustration:
“Yeah, there was frustration out there. That’s where you need leadership. That’s where you have to make plays. You get rid of the frustration by making plays and moving the ball. As a group on offense we need to do a better job of keeping our poise.”