Opponent Preview: Louisville Film Watch

What does the film say about the Cardinals?

On Saturday Boston College will travel down south to face off with the 2-2 Louisville Cardinals. With a new coaching staff, there have been a lot of changes in the program both philosophically and schematically. To help better prepare for the game I watched the first half of the Notre Dame game and the entire FSU matchup on WePlayed to get a better feel on what type of team Scott Satterfield has, and what challenges/opportunities Boston College may find on Saturday. If you want more indepth video analysis click here to watch my highlights from the games. 

* Saturday's quarterback situation is still up in the air as I have read conflicting reports on whether it will be Puma Pass or Malik Cunningham. After watching the film on both I realized they bring different skill sets to the position. Puma Pass is much quicker than Cunningham, and has more zip to his passes. While Cunningham I thought was much more accurate, but what was interesting was his throwing style. Malik throws a lot of passes with air under them, they almost go in an arch to their receivers. While accurate, it may lead to more interceptions as opposed to Pass who zips them in. Pass runs an offense with a lot of designed QB runs, and if he plays against BC he could find a lot of success if the Eagles defense struggles to contain him. In evaluating the two players, Pass would probably be a tougher matchup for the Eagles

* Boston College's offensive line will be a huge factor on Saturday because in the two games Louisville's defense had varying success. Notre Dame has a great offensive line, and in the first half anytime they decided to lean on the run they found great success. They only struggled when they started relying on Ian Book to pass. Against FSU, the team speed was a problem for Louisville as they got burned for chunk plays by the athletic Seminoles athletes. However, FSU's offensive line is really bad, and the Cardinals were able to blitz effectively and wrap up Alex Hornibrook and James Blackman.  If BC's line can play well, it could mean a big game for AJ Dillon and David Bailey.

*Against the pass this team was quick, and had good pass rushers who came from all over the field. Looking at their statistics Louisville doesn't have one player that stands out as an elite rusher, but it's more of a team approach where Satterfield switches up blitzes, stunts and runs a lot of delayed blitzes. They are confusing to watch, but talented. 

*Javian Hawkins is a complete back and works perfectly in their system. Good speed, vision, and explodes after a cut. Wide receivers are also sneaky good. While the game film doesn't show a ton in terms of what they can and can't do, they each had moments and catches which caught my attention, specifically Dez Fitzpatrick. Jason Maitre and Brandon Sebastian are going to need to play tough on these receivers, and prevent them from finding space because they have the jets to take it to a second gear.

* Louisville is not an explosive team (backed up by statistics as they are 94th in the country with plays longer than 10 yards). Against FSU they managed to stay in the game with two huge pass interference calls that put them near the goal line. Against Notre Dame it was just a steady diet of strong runs. I wouldn't expect them to score quickly but this will be a team that BC needs to get off the field on third down. Louisville could easily string together long clock draining drives if BC can't stop them.