Pre Louisville (Week 7, 2013)

The first thing that comes to mind when you say Louisville football today is Teddy Bridgewater. This is with good reason; he is arguably the most NFL ready QB prospect in the nation and expertly commands the Cardinal offense down the field each game. In our coming showdown at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, we need to bring attention to their more overlooked defense which has been silently doing its work against its adversaries. While Bridgewater leads the offense up and down the field to put up points, the defense has held their opponents on average to 7.3 points per game (albeit playing lesser competition). Watching the Rutgers game, the Cards pass rush showed that their numbers are real and they pose a serious threat. Constant pressure and 8 sacks caused Rutgers QB Gary Nova to break down under the pressure, making bad decisions under duress which lead to 4 interceptions and a poor offensive showing by Rutgers especially in the 2^nd half. While Blake has shown better composure in the pocket under pressure than Nova, that doesn’t negate the fact that every quarterback increasingly feels the effect of a constant pass rush. While Teddy Bridgewater’s play statistically was not much of a drop off from the norm, the continuous hits and pressure from the Rutgers defense made an effect on his mechanics and decision making, making him look uncharacteristically sloppy. Louisville’s defense thrives on turnovers, largely caused by miscues and mechanical errors made under duress from the pass rush.

On offense, we need to look to the O-line to continue to limit sacks the way they have been doing since the FIU game. They also need to be ready to contain pressure long enough for Blake to get into rhythm and take control. When faced with an aggressive pass rush, the way to take advantage of the defensive over pursuit is quick passing and screens alternated with delayed handoffs and runs to keep them on their back foot and unsure of how our offense is going to hit them next. Their coverage isn’t dominant but they’re good enough to make plays on the ball when the play is there; we cannot allow them to single out our receivers or else they will find an opportunity to take the ball the other way. We can counter their secondary by spreading the wealth to all our best receivers: Rannell Hall, JJ Worton, Breshad Perriman, Jeff Godfrey; the former 3 each having had at least one 100 yard receiving game. If the receivers show up all hands on deck, that will enable Blake to move the ball around the entire field and keep the defense spread out.

On defense, we need to be wary of Louisville’s run first offensive style. Despite having the outstanding passer they have in Teddy Bridgewater, Louisville still follows the old adage of having the run set up the pass. They have a viable rushing attack that is effective at opening up the pass game to allow Teddy Bridgewater to pick apart the secondary as they cheat up to defend the run. The secondary needs to be wary of this and a tendency by Louisville to get big chunks of yards on play action passes; our safeties can’t afford to overcommit and risk allowing big plays. Bend but don’t break will be the mantra against their rushing attack, the safeties will have to be on top of their game to prevent any big plays in case the rushing attack makes it past the linebackers. If the pass rush manages to get enough hits on Bridgewater, we could possibly force some bad throws and mistakes as we saw from him against Rutgers where he was regularly getting hit by the pass rush.

Overall if we limit our mistakes and execute as we should, we very much can move past this week the favorite to earn the coveted BCS bid for the AAC champion.