Weekly Kickoff: Louisville Cardinals
Boston College had their schedule change this weekend, and will face off with the Louisville Cardinals at 4pm on Saturday. This is the home finale of a long and strange season that started in June. On the other sideline will be Scott Satterfield and his squad, a team that has faced one disappointment after another this year. The Cardinals began the season in the Top 25, but have fallen off a proverbial cliff at 3-6, with a handful of bad losses thrown in there.
The inconsistency with the Cardinals starts with the turnovers, they have 21 turnovers in nine games. Teams sometimes are able to mask those mistakes with forcing turnovers of their own, but that is not the case with this team. Currently the Cardinals sit at -11 in the turnover battle.
Quarterback Micale Cunningham, who threw for 288 yards and accounted for two total touchdowns hasn't been as effective this year. While his completion percentage has remained relatively stable, he has already thrown six more interceptions than he did all of last year and his QB rating has dropped by 50 points. Even against Syracuse, a game that Louisville dominated, Cunningham struggled throwing two interceptions.
Another big factor for the Cardinals is the loss of Javian Hawkins, their star running back. After the season started to circle the drain, he announced that he was heading to the NFL and opted out of the remainder of the season. The electric running back has run for over 2300 yards the past two seasons, and accounted for 17 touchdowns. His loss will be a big blow Satterfield's squad.
On defense the Cardinals have actually improved from last season, though at times they look inconsistent. As mentioned above they shut out Syracuse, held Florida State to 16 points and in their best game of the season slowed down Notre Dame to just 12. On the flip side, the Cardinals have had trouble with teams like Miami, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech who all put up over 40 points against their defense.
For Boston College all eyes will be on the signal caller Phil Jurkovec. The Eagles quarterback had looked not himself the past two games, and it was revealed that he had dislocated his shoulder against Clemson. If he has back to full strength the BC offense should be effective against the Cardinals. But if he is not, this game might be closer than some expect.
BC Bulletin will have full coverage of this game all week.
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