– The Beak Preview: Louisville vs. Pittsburgh
The Cards have had their bye week and now prepare to take to the road for an early morning game with nemesis Pitt at Heinz Field this Saturday. Since joining the Big East the Cardinals and Panthers have locked up seven times. With the first three contest going to the Cards and the last four going to the Panthers. Our Cards are off to their best start in six years and look to go 6-0 for only the 5th time in school history. But it won’t be an easy task against a team that has had their number lately.
Coach Strong: “We’ve had a week off and now we’re ready for the real season the conference season. It’s a one game season each week.” “It’s all about the conference race right now. We can’t afford to slip. The Pitt game is our 1st league game, so we must be ready to go.”
Strong on Pitt: “With a new coach , early in the season they were trying to find themselves. They were impressive in the win over Virginia Tech.”
Strong on staying unbeaten: “It’s challenging to stay unbeaten. The key for us is taking one game at a time and not look too far down the road.”
O-Lineman Jake Smith on Pitt: “They’re a good team. They’re tough and they’re smash mouth. We were a little flat against them last year, so we have to be ready.”
The University of Pittsburgh welcomed another new coaching staff this offseason after Todd Graham abruptly left the program, and this one has a very strong Wisconsin flavor with head coach Paul Chryst and his staff spending the last 7 seasons in Badger land. Chryst is trying to bring a smash-mouth, old-school running attack from the Big Ten to the Big East and instill a sense of blue-collar work ethic. QB Tino Sunseri has his top three wide receivers and his tight end back from last season, but he will also be breaking in a new pair of offensive tackles a season after Pitt quarterbacks were sacked 63 times.
Coach Chryst on challenge of coaching players that are once again having to prove themselves to a new staff: “I’m not a hard guy to gain respect from,” “None of us know what the limit is, and if you set that bar at a certain limit then you might be short-changing them. You appreciate and see them progress. Why are you going to set a bar here if it’s supposed to be higher? You just keep going. Are you the best you can be? You don’t know so you have to keep working.”
Pittsburgh comes into this game after a very close loss to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last week. The Panthers were not able to capitalize on a few drives late in the second half that ultimately cost them the game 14-13. The loss puts Pitt at 0-2 in the Big East. The Cardinals enter this game coming off their bye week and a 21-17 win at Southern Mississippi the week before. Louisville struggled to put away the Golden Eagles in that game. Teddy Bridgewater was average for his second straight game throwing for a minimal 85 yards a touchdown and a pick. The Cards had a great night on the ground as Senorise Perry had 118 yards and two touchdowns. Jeremy Wright also had 84 yards.
The Pitt team thrives on turnovers and in their only two wins this season they were able to force 7 of them. In order for them to give our Cardinals a challenge, they will have to get turnovers and rally in front of their home fans with arguably their toughest test of the season coming to town. And in order for our Cards to keep rolling the 18th ranked defense will have to keep doing their job as they are yielding only 18 points per game to opponents. Teddy QB will also need to return to the guy we saw through the first three to four weeks of the season when his name was being included in early Heisman discussions.
Food for thought: Panthers are 6-0 against the spread in their previous six home games vs. an opponent with a winning road record. The Cardinals are 4-0 against the spread in their previous four games in October.
Pitt has had our number lately and they are a very tough team at home. But I look for the Cards defense to be very solid after having a bye week to prepare and also think Teddy QB returns to his early season form. Cardinals will win in a tough one and move to 6-0 on the season.
The Beak Prediction:
UofL 34 Pitt 21