Our Louisville football team returns home this weekend after two games on the road. They will do battle with the Houston Cougars at 7pm in a Saturday night game at Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium. This will be the first Saturday night game in five years. The Cardinals and the Cougars have played each other on the gridiron 14 times and the series is tied at 7-7. Each team has won four times at home. The Cardinals have won five of the last six and two in a row. The last time these teams played was in 2004 and the Cards won that game 65-27. Louisville and Houston are tied for second place in the AAC.
Coach Strong Houston press conference:
The Cougars and their potent offensive attack has been business as usual this season. Of the 64 scoring drives by the Cougars, 30 were completed in less than two minutes. To say these guys can get the ball down the field is an understatement. This is an offensive unit that returns all but one starter, with a top 20 passing offense, scoring 38 points a game and has a very capable running game. The leader of this group freshman quarterback John O’Korn has quietly led the Cougars to a 7-2 record behind his over 2,300 yards and 23 touchdowns to six interceptions. He is a quarterback that has been highly effective this season and has been backed by a ground game that is averaging over 159 yards a game. Leading the charge in the ground attack is Ryan Jackson who has ran for 543 yards and one touchdown. O’Korn’s main targets in the passing attack are Daniel Spencer and Deontay Greenberry. Spencer has 575 yards with 5 touchdowns and Greenberry has an impressive 1042 yards with 9 touchdowns.
The Cardinals have the 2nd ranked defense over all and the #1 scoring defense allowing just 10.6 points per game.. They are great at creating turnovers and are second in the NCAA with a plus 14 margin and they have been good at defending the run allowing just 78.3 rushing yards per game. Smith, Mauldin, Gaines and company will have their work cut out for them this weekend with this Houston team.
Houston plays sound opportunistic defense. They are a unit that is slightly undersized but what they lack in size they make up for in speed and agility. These guys fly around all over the field and they will hit you and are a great tackling team. A fairly young group the Cougars return just four starters on D and most all of them are in the secondary. Zach McMillan (41 tackles and 5 deflections) anchors the secondary and freshman all-american safety Trevon Stewart (71 tackles and 4 interceptions) who came on strong getting the starting nod in the final 10 games of last season. The Cougars rank No. 1 in the nation with a plus-21 margin in the turnover category. Houston does an excellent job of forcing turnovers and coaxing quarterbacks into mistakes through the air.
Teddy and company like this Houston group have a very effective offense themselves and they are averaging 38 points a game. The key for the Cards offense Saturday night will be not to become one-dimensional. When Louisville lost to UCF they managed just 104 yards on the ground. Bridgewater still threw for over 340 yards and two touchdowns, but it simply was not enough. To win the battle against this Houston defense we need Senorise and Dominique to have big games.
Houston Coach Tony Levine Weekly Press Conference: Louisville 11/12/13:
The sixth man will be very important on Saturday night. And there’s no excuse for Papa Johns not to be rocking. An all day tailgate should give Cardinal Nation enough time to get fired up for this one. The Cougars have a very good team and this will be one of the toughest games of the year. They are coming off a gutsy effort against UCF and the Cards are coming off a less inspired win over UCONN. Both of these team still have hopes that they can reach a BCS game and those will be on the line Saturday. This will be a great November football game and I think the Cards will win but it is going to come down to a play or two.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 31 Houston 24