3 takeaways: Brock Domann, defense lead Louisville football to first ACC win over Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — On multiple occasions, ACC Network college football analyst Eric Mac Lain has called Louisville the team of mystery.

The Cardinals, for many, have been hard to figure out. That proved to be the case again Saturday when the Cardinals were without starting quarterback Malik Cunningham, who makes up the bulk of the team’s offensive production. With U of L seemingly in trouble and at risk of dropping back-to-back games, the Cardinals shook off a slow start and thrived in a 34-17 win over Virginia at Scott Stadium.

It’s the team’s first ACC win of the season, and the Cardinals (3-3, 1-3 ACC) avoid an 0-4 start to conference play heading into next week’s bye.

"Guys stepped up when we needed to," Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield said. "Our backs were against the wall today. We're 0-for-whatever in ACC play. We're going on the road, all the negativity, and we got all these backups. Then they came out and played a great game. ... I just think you can't say enough about our resiliency of our guys and I'm really proud of the way they came out and finished this game."

Backup quarterback Brock Domann, in his first start, threw for 275 yards, ran for 71 and produced two touchdowns — one passing and one rushing. The ground game tied a season high for attempts and churned out tough yards, and the defense smothered UVA's ground game, allowing just 6 yards on 25 attempts on a day when the front seven produced six sacks against Cavaliers starting QB Brennan Armstrong. The last time the Cardinals have had such a dominant defensive performance in a game was September 2017 when they gave up just 19 to Murray State.

The win comes during a week of heavy speculation about Satterfield's job status. An ESPN story about the half dozen coaching vacancies around the nation speculated Satterfield could be out if the Cardinals returned to Louisville with a fourth straight ACC loss, although a WDRB report later refuted that.

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Here are three takeaways from a crucial conference road win Saturday:

Next Domann up

Louisville was without three starters Saturday in Cunningham, running back Tiyon Evans and safety Kenderick Duncan. Brock Domann, Jawhar Jordan and MJ Griffin, respectively, started in their places.

Domann got off to a slow start but settled in and threw for 124 yards in the second quarter. He had his first career touchdown on a perfectly executed fake handoff, going 44 yards into the end zone completely untouched to tie the game at 10 at the 7:51 mark of the second quarter.

"The good stuff didn't start happening until the second quarter for us," Satterfield said. "The first quarter was not very good at all, offensively and defensively, but our guys settled down in the second quarter. We started making some plays. We battled back in it and they did a great job."

Domann finished 17 of 30 for 275 yards, a touchdown and two picks, and he carried the ball nine times for 71 yards and a touchdown. His 7.9 yards rushing led the Cardinals’ ground game, which finished with 46 attempts and 198 yards.

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A QB kneel in the final seconds is all that prevented the Cardinals from producing a fourth game with 40-plus carries and 200-plus yards.

Even though Jordan started, he and Trevion Cooley shared the majority of the rushing load with the two switching off on drives. Neither were exceptionally explosive with the longest run being Cooley’s 13 yarder a little more than midway through the third quarter to start the team’s third series of the second half. It ended with Cooley scoring on a 1-yard run, increasing U of L’s lead, 27-17.

Jordan finished with 11 carries, 29 yards and a score, and Cooley led the running backs with 18 touches, 77 yards and a TD.

The score came on the heels of Griffin picking off Virginia quarterback Brennan Armstrong. Griffin finished the game with five tackles (four solo).

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Virginia’s Arm(strong)

Even though Armstrong isn’t having the same kind of year he did in 2021, the quarterback is still a threat through the air. He averaged 12.3 yards per completion and produced the Cavalier’s first touchdown on a 40-yard pass to Dontayvion Wicks at the 6:42 mark of the first quarter following an interception from Anthony Johnson, a former Cardinal.

Armstrong and the Cavaliers’ receiving group hit a low point in the second quarter when they were held to just 13 yards. Jarvis Brownlee also picked off Amrstrong, which set up James Turner’s 20-yard field goal for the Cardinals to end the first half.

Armstrong’s favorite target of the day was Keytaon Thompson, who was targeted 13 times and made nine catches for 98 yards. Armstrong finished the day 24 of 34 for 313 yards, a touchdown and two picks. But the U of L defense hounded him into six sacks by six different players.

Brownlee said there were some changes made to the defense this week, in part attributed to Satterfield moving over to help more on the defensive side of the ball. The Cardinals' fourth-year head coach said Tuesday that, moving forward, he would spend more time with the unit. The hope was that is offense-first mindset could help the group be more successful.

"We probably came into this week running less man unless we had to," Brownlee said. "We just came into the game and just knowing that the game was gonna fall on us and that we knew we can't give no deep balls up. I think this week Coach Satt, when he came over here, it was just about if the safety pulls a man in post, stay in the post. If the corner has deep third, stay in deep third. So, that's what it was all about. It was all about trust and not giving up deep balls."

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After a disappointing 0-3 start to conference action, the Cardinals went on the road and picked up a much-needed win against a Cavaliers team that’s still looking for an ACC victory.

Where U of L has fallen apart in the fourth quarter in previous games, the team held strong and outscored Virginia 7-0.

When the Cavaliers got down to fourth-and-1 from the Louisville 5-yard line at the 8:11 juncture of the fourth quarter, Cardinals safety Josh Minkins made the game-securing stop to force a turnover on downs. The initial ruling was that Virginia had picked up a first down, but the call was overturned after a review. From there, Louisville ran the clock out without making any costly mistakes.

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Louisville can now go into the bye week with confidence and momentum in preparation for a back-loaded final stretch of the season, starting with a tough home game against Pittsburgh.

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville Cardinals football vs. UVA: 3 takeaways from first ACC win