Cardinals Prepare for Physical Contest at Boston College
November 03, 2014 | Football
Nov. 3, 2014
LOUISVILLE, Ky.- After a long stay at home, the University of Louisville football team hits the road for its final ACC road game when the Cardinals visit Boston College on Saturday night at 7:15 p.m.
The game can be seen on ESPN2 with Bob Wischusen, Matt Millen and Quint Kessenich calling the action.
The Cardinals will face a solid Boston College squad, winners of two straight and are coming off a 33-31 road win at Virginia Tech. Head coach Bobby Petrino knows the Cardinals have to be ready for another four-quarter slugfest.
"Boston College is a very good football team," Petrino said. "Offensively, they're going to run the ball. They run it with power and with formations that we haven't faced a lot this year. And then they also have the quarterback runs, which make it a great challenge for us. Defensively, they've done a very good job stopping the run."
Coming off a 42-31 loss to No. 2 Florida State on Oct. 30, Petrino looks forward to see how his team responds after an emotional defeat at home in front of a raucous crowd.
"Well, I think we're going to be okay," Petrino said. "We came out and played really well in the first half. We got turnovers, got the offense the ball in positions where we could go score. We were working well together, offensively and defensively. When you watch the video, you understand that you faced a really good team, one with probably more speed than we have all year. We did make some errors in communication and gave them a couple things."
The Cardinals, after giving up a season-high 173 yards on the ground to Florida State, must be ready to face a BC team who averages 224.9 yards on the ground. Quarterback Tyler Murphy leads the Eagles on the ground with 995 yards, which will be a totally different challenge than facing Jameis Winston.
"It's completely different than the pocket passer that we faced last week, because he's going to have quarterback-designed runs, quarterback read-zone runs," Petrino said. "He also does a good job when they call passes of breaking contain and running the ball. We also have to be very aware of their play-action game, because they do a good job of run, run, run, and then their play-action game."
The Cardinals, who rank third in the nation against the run, must get back to what they have done all season, which made them the No. 1 defense in the country against the run.
"We've been very stout up front, doing a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage," Petrino said. "Our linebackers play fast. They don't hesitate a lot and hit their gaps. We've been able to get the secondary help that you need reading run or pass and coming to the run."
While the defense had their problems with an outstanding Florida State offense, the Cardinals made big strides on offense, but Petrino thinks there are still improvements to be made.
"I think the next step is to be more consistent, get the ball in the end zone more," Petrino said. "There was one time where we had to settle for a field goal and another time we got stopped inside the five-yard line so we have to be more consistent but I have liked the way we have operated the last two weeks more than we did earlier in the year being able to mix the run, the pass, the play-action game.
"I think we are getting closer to what we like to do offensively but it does start up front and we have a good challenge this week being able to handle their big guys up front and making sure we get some space, some room to run the ball."
Sophomore quarterback Will Gardner had his best game as a Cardinal, throwing for a career-best 330 yards and one touchdown in the loss. It was the first 300-yard game of his career, while completing 20-of-38 passes.
"He improved a lot, he made some real good throws, he made some real good throws under pressure when there were people in his face and he didn't have a lot of room," Petrino said. "We missed a couple particularly late in the game so I think the next step we have to do as a team really and particularly on offense is when the pressure is on, we have to perform better."
In the three losses this season, one area has stood out as a major problem, and that is third down. The Cardinals are 6-for-42 on third down this season after going 1-for-11 versus Florida State.
"We had our chances on third down," Petrino said. "We got in some short yardage situations, we got knocked back a little bit. They were a little bit bigger and more physical in that situation on the short yardage. We had two third downs where we end up half a yard, and that's where you would like to have the confidence to go for it on fourth down"
The Cardinals with three games remaining must put a tough loss behind them, and from what they have showed this season, the Cardinals will be ready to turn the page.
