Doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that we were all gathered down at 4th Street Live celebrating the Cardinals official move into the ACC. Now we are almost halfway through a sports season and are down to only one ACC Football game left. Louisville will be traveling up to Chestnut Hill Massachusetts this weekend and will close out the ACC portion of their schedule against the Boston College Eagles. The Cardinals and Eagles have played six times on the gridiron and the series is tied 3-3. It was the Cardinals who won the last meeting 52-28 back in 1998. BC is in the Atlantic Division and they are currently in 3rd at 3-2. The Cardinals are 4th at 4-3.
Boston College improved to 6-3 on the season after beating Virginia Tech 33-31 last Saturday. The Eagles have won two straight games and they have wins over UMass, USC, Maine, NC State, and Wake Forest this season. They have lost to Pittsburgh, Colorado State, and Clemson. On the year, the Eagles rank 19th in points against, allowing an average of 20.1 points per game. Boston College’s offense is averaging 27.4 points per game, which ranks 80th in the country. The Cardinals have recently faced the Eagles head man Steve Addazio when he was Temple’s head coach. He’s a very good coach who is affectionately referred to as “Vitamin A” because of his high-energy nature on the practice field, on game days and on the recruiting trail. He has the Eagles playing well and will have them ready on Saturday night.
Leading Addazio’s offense on Saturday night is dual-threat quarterback Tyler Murphy, who is a transfer from Florida. While his passing has been far from great this season (55.6% completion rate, 8 touchdowns, 6 interceptions), he has been unstoppable on the ground. Murphy has 965 rushing yards is averaging 7.4 yards/carry this season and has 9 rushing touchdowns.
The Boston College rushing attack does not stop with Tyler Murphy. BC is 9th nationally in Rushing. They have four running backs who have at least 100 yards. Leading this unit is Jon Hilliman who has 578 yards with 9 touchdowns. He is followed by Myles Willis who has 399 yards with 2 touchdowns, Tyler Rouse who has 144 yards with 2 touchdowns, and Marcus Outlow who has 137 yards.
Their passing attack isn’t very formidable, but they do have some guys who are very capable if Murphy is forced to throw it. Leading their wide receiving corps is Josh Bordner who has 289 yards with 3 touchdowns, Dan Crimmins who has 225 yards, Charlie Callinan who has 127 yards with 1 touchdown and Sherman Alston who has 109 yards with 1 touchdown.
On the year, the Cardinals are allowing only 17.7 points per game on average, which ranks 8th in the country. They are ranked 3rd in the country in rushing defense giving up 78.7 yards per game and have only allowed 4 rushing touchdowns on the season. They will have to maintain this effort against BC to give the Cardinals a chance on Saturday night. They will have to do so without one of their leaders Lorenzo Maulding who will be out with a hamstring injury. I’d say that coach Grantham will load the box and force Murphy and this BC offense to use something they really don’t like and that’s their passing game. The Cardinals defense has faced some decent rushing attacks this season including Winston and company last week so they should be ready.
Boston College has a pretty good defense themselves. Their unit is ranked 11th in total defense and just behind the Cardinals ranked 4th in rushing defense. They have a very good defensive line that is stocked with some very big guys. Leading this unit is Defensive end Brian Mihalik 6-9, 295 pounds with 22 tackles, defensive tackle Truman Gutapfel 6-3, 289 pounds with 18 tackles, and defensive tackle Connor Wujciak 6-3, 304 pounds with 22 tackles. These guys are veterans and they will be ready to try and stop the Cardinals attack.
Louisville’s offense is averaging 30.9 points per game, which ranks 57th in the country. The Cardinals gained 488 total yards against Florida State last week and turned the ball over twice. The offensive line did a great job last week and will have their hands full again this week with this very good BC defensive front. They will have to block well to give Dyer and Radcliff some room to run the ball. They will have to excel in their pass blocking to give Will Gardner time to throw the ball down field to Parker and Quick. This is one of the best defenses that the Cardinal offense has faced this season. They will have to have one of their best efforts to give the Cardinals a chance to win.
The Cardinals much like the fans were very dejected after last weeks heart breaking loss to Florida State. A game like that can really zap the energy and the drive out of a football team. It is very hard to regroup after coming up short like that after a very good effort. I think that’s why a lot of folks are looking at the game Saturday night against Boston College as one of those trap games. The outcome of this game will be determined by how these Cardinals come out of the locker room. Will they still have a hangover from a tough loss? I have total and complete confidence in our coaching staff and it is their job to make sure that doesn’t happen. I do think our guys will come out very focused as they are still playing for a bowl upgrade and still have a chance at finishing the season very strongly. A top 25 ranking is still very possible especially with a shot at knocking off Notre Dame after the bye week. This game will be a defensive slug-fest with our Cardinals winning a close one.
The Beak Prediction:
Louisville 13 Boston College 10