Boston College Football vs Louisville: Cardinals Offense and Defense

Louisville comes to town sitting at 4-3, (2-2 ACC) after a narrow, shoot-out loss to Miami. They’ve now been in four straight one-score games, losing to Notre Dame and SMU by seven, and narrowly getting past UVA on the road. This is the first of a three game road trip for them.

Put Some Points on the Board

The Cards are a high flying offense ranked 12th nationally in yards per play (7.2) and have the second most plays of 40+ yards. Super-duper (7th year) transfer Tyler Shough is the trigger man and part of a 27-member transfer class that is littered all over the roster. He’s thrown for 18 touchdowns passes already, seventh in the country, and over 2000 yards. He threw a whopping 51 times against Miami. Needless to say, they’ve been in quite a few shootouts already, but he’s still dealing out there.

Critically, he’s stayed healthy and didn’t turn the ball over against the Hurricanes, something he had done in the previous three outings (still only 3 interceptions and a fumble on the year).

On the receiving front, Alabama transfer Ja’Corey Brooks is the big, strong receiver leading the pack with 679 yards and 8 touchdowns. Chris Bell is one of the few returners on the team and second on the team with 330 yards and two scores. The junior is a big play waiting to happen, averaging over 18 yards a catch, and both scores came from 30+ yards out. Yet another weapon is Caullin Lacy who only just got back into the mix four games ago because of injury. In his first game back against Notre Dame, he matched Brooks for the team lead with 5 catches and 71 yards, and this past week he ran back a 100-yard kickoff.

There are a lot of weapons on this roster despite losing most of the production from last season. They did however just lose tight end Jamari Johnson. He was fourth in receiving on the team, but that just means more of Mark Redman who already is second on the team with three receiving touchdowns

Freshman running back Isaac Brown hasn’t had a lot of carries, but his 8.3 yards per carry are third highest among all backs. The team has a whole is very pass happy as noted, but they can be efficient when they run and well, BC’s run defense hasn’t exactly been a standard bearer. Brown busted off a number of long runs including a 43 yard touchdown run this past weekend.

That makes four scores on the season plus one more through the air. He’s very capable out of the backfield with 20 catches and 115 yards. The offensive line has only two returners and a number of transfers in the mix. They’ve been about league average in terms of pressure rate and sacks allowed.

Sieve, Sieve, Sieve

The Cardinals defense is just outside the top 100 in defensive passing efficiency, but about average against the run – giving up 133.7 yards per game. The last three games though, they’re ceding closer to 200 yards a game. Defensive coordinator Ron English mixes things up more than most, varying blitz rates to keep offenses off balance. However, it looks like this is not helping the overall defensive performance whatsoever. Team tackling and the 78th ranked third down defense have been major issues for the Cardinals.

Miami is one of the top offenses in the country so no shots there, but the defensive performance is holding the team back despite having some strong talent. There’s veteran corner Quincy Riley who has 14 interceptions in his career and allows a low completion rate. He’s typically a strong tackler as is Corey Thornton, a four year starter from UCF. Between them they have 10 pass breakups this season, but only one interception. This is a defense that had 36 sacks and generated 21 turnovers last year, but are down to 15 and 7 at the halfway point.

Ashton Gillotte is still a star pass rusher. The senior lineman was on multiple preseason first team lists after an 11 sack season (including three against us in a rout), but has only managed two so far. He’s still a force to be reckoned with and a strong run defender. The linebacking corps is not particularly deep, and overall keeping mobile quarterbacks contained has been an issue. We saw Castellanos at top speed a few times last week and we’re going to need it again to keep pace with this offense. Miami QB Cam Ward converted a 3rd and 17 with his legs and extended plays to keep scoring. BC can look to attack the middle of the field against the Cardinals and Castellanos should have time and avoid panic plays.

Special Teams

Aside from Lacy’s kick return prowess BC needs to watch out for, kicker Brock Travelstead has a strong leg. He broke his own school record after hitting one from 56 against Notre Dame. He’s 8-13 this year with three misses coming from over 50. Coach Brohm seems to be willing to give him a shot from deep. That being said they’ve gone 8-15 on fourth down this season, the 30th most attempts in the nation. I think we’ll take our chances with the kicker when the time comes even though everyone seems to connect.