Our Cardinals are one of the ACC’s hottest teams, winning six of their past seven games. The Cardinals visit Pittsburgh following a 38-31 win over Virginia. This will be the first ACC meeting between these old Big East rivals. This is the 17th meeting between Pitt and Louisville in a series that dates back to 1976. The series is tied, 8-8. Pitt is 5-5 against Louisville in games played in Pittsburgh and Louisville is 3-3 in games played in Louisville. Pitt began ACC play in 2013, while the Cardinals joined the league for the 2014 season. As I mentioned above these teams were once annual foes from 2005-12 as members of the Big East. In eight league meetings, each team won four times. This will be the first meeting between the two schools since the Cardinals won 45-35 at Pittsburgh in 2012 with Teddy QB pictured above leading the way. A win over the Panthers would be the most ACC wins for the Cardinals in their two seasons in the conference. Louisville went 5-3 last season in its first season in the ACC. Coach Petrino is 2-0 against Pitt and their coach has never faced Louisville.
The Panthers are having a great season themselves. They clinched a winning regular season for the first time in five years last weekend in their win against Duke. They have their best 10-game start since the 2009 Panthers began the year with a 9-1 mark. A victory over Louisville would give the Panthers eight regular-season wins for the first time since that 2009 edition went 9-3. Pitt has a pretty balanced offensive attack with 1,799 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground ranked 57th in the nation and 1,967 yards with 15 touchdowns through the air ranked 98th in the nation. Defensively they are ranked 37th in the country allowing 139 yards per game on the ground and ranked 38th in the country allowing 200 yards per game through the air.
The Panthers have been exceptional at protecting the football this season. Pitt ranks 15th nationally and fourth in the ACC in fewest turnovers with 11. A big reason for this is having solid guys at all of their skill positions. Leading the way is QB Nate Peterman who over his past seven games has connected on 61% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and only one interception. He has thrown for 1,776 yards this season and 14 touchdowns. He is a QB that prefers to sit in the pocket and find his receivers but has the ability to avoid the rush. He has 194 yards on the ground this season. Pitt has a long history of producing some really good wide receivers and this season they have another special one in junior Tyler Boyd who has already established himself as the Panthers’ most prolific receiver ever. Boyd is Pitt’s all-time leader in career receptions with 232 and all-time leader in yards with 3,135. He has 700 yards this season with 5 touchdowns. Boyd also leads the ACC in receptions per game (7.7) and receiving yards per game (77.8). Boyd excels in more than just the passing game. He has also been a threat running the ball with 197 yards this season. This guy will be the biggest test of this season for the Louisville defensive backs.
Besides Boyd Peterman’s other favorite targets this season have been his Tight ends. They are responsible for 53% of Pitt’s touchdown catches through 10 games this season. The Panthers have thrown 15 touchdown passes thus far and tight ends Scott Orndoff (4) and J.P. Holtz (4) have caught eight of them. The other top targets in this very effective Pitt passing attack are wide receivers Dontez Ford with 421 yards and one touchdown and Zach Challingsworth with 138 yards and one touchdown. When they aren’t moving the ball through the air they are running it down your throat with tailback Qadree Ollison. Ten games into the year, the red-shirt freshman is now the Panthers’ leading rusher with 859 yards and nine touchdowns on 166 carries. He is averaging 85.9 rushing yards per game, which ranks fifth in the ACC. Behind every good offense is a great offensive line and Pitt boasts a combined 113 starts on the offensive line, led by junior tackle Adam Bisnowaty with 27 career starts.
Pat Narduzzi arrived at Pitt after establishing himself as one of college football’s top defensive coordinators during his Michigan State tenure. That has carried over to this Pitt program and they are ranked in the nation’s top 30 in four defensive categories quarterback sacks (13th, 2.90 sacks/game), fourth-down conversion defense (15th, 33.3%), fewest first downs allowed (16th, 166 total) and total defense (26th, 340.0 yards/game). Pitt has 67 tackles for loss this year and leading the way is defensive end Ejuan Price with 12. Junior linebacker Mike Caprara is second with 9.5 and linebacker Matt Galambos is third with nine. Leading the way in the Pitt secondary is freshman strong safety Jordan Whitehead who leads Pitt in tackles through 10 games with 82 total stops. Whitehead is averaging 8.2 tackles per game, which ranks eighth in the ACC. He is the only freshman among the league’s top 20 tacklers.
Saturday this Pitt team will pose a great challenge to both the Louisville offense and defense. But our Cardinals are heading into this tough road game trending upward on both sides of the ball. After averaging just 24.3 points per game in the first eight contests of the season, the Cardinals have returned to the Petrino glory days when his teams lit up the scoreboard. In a pair of wins over Syracuse (41-17) and Virginia (38-31), the Cardinals are averaging 39.5 points per game in the last two games. A reason for this offensive surge has been the ability of Kyle Bolin to come in and run the offense effectively. He has completed almost 60% of his passes throwing for 934 yards and 5 touchdowns. The return of James Quick and emergence of Jamari Staples has also helped. These guys have combined for 842 yards and 8 touchdowns. Tight ends Cole Hikutini, Micky Crum, and Keith Towbridge have also made a big impact on this offense with 354 yards and five touchdowns between them. And finally the Brandon Radcliff we all have been waiting for has returned. He led the rushing attack tallying a career-high 146 yards on 21 carries and equaled a career-best with two touchdowns in the last game, and has registered back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances for the second time in his career.
The Cardinals defense held things together for this team while the offense was finding its way. And this unit is now one of the best in the country. They are ranked 14th in the country in total defense, 11th in the country in rushing defense, and 7th in the nation with 15 interceptions. The Cardinals have totaled 40.0 tackles for loss in the last four wins, moving up to 17th nationally with 7.6 per game. The backbone on this side of the ball has been senior linebackers Keith Kelsey and James Burgess. The bash brothers have lived up to their nicknames this season… Kelsey has 86 tackles, which is just one shy of his career-high of 87 set last season, and Burgess has posted a career-best 76 tackles this season. Trumaine Washington has also been a big help. He is sixth on the team in tackles and is leading the squad with four interceptions, which also ranks second in the ACC. His three forced fumbles also ties him for third in the league and his nine passes defended ties him for eighth in the ACC. Trevon Young has been dominating over the last five games, recording 8.5 sacks. Shaq Wiggins, Josh Harvey-Clemons and Chucky Williams entered this season without ever starting a game in the Louisville secondary. They have really made their presence felt and the three players have totaled 7 interceptions. DeVonte’ Fields is also starting to show why he was the former Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and has totaled 8.5 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks in the last four games. If this group finishes strong the Cards might not lose another game.
The Cardinals will have to play really good football on both sides of the football on Saturday afternoon to come away with their 7th win of the season and it’s important to carry some momentum into the season finally against arch rival Kentucky next week. I think this group is finally firing on all fronts and have that cohesiveness that had been missing. The offense and defense are feeding off each other and are peaking at the right time. There is a lot of brotherhood in that locker-room. It won’t be easy but our guys will get the win in the Steele city.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 34 Pitt 24