Cardinals face another week against ACC's best defenses
Another week, another one of the nation’s top defenses visits Cardinal Stadium.
Louisville football hosts Virginia, the eighth-ranked defense in the country, Oct.26 a week after losing to Clemson 45-10.
Clemson, the ACC’s top-ranked defense held Louisville to 263 yards of offense and 10 points to end a two-game winning streak. Virginia’s defense has been nearly as good, limiting teams to 270.3 yards per game while being tied for fourth in sacks per game.
Virginia (5-2) defeated Duke 48-14 last week after suffering consecutive road losses to Notre Dame and Miami. Louisville coach Scott Satterfield says Virginia’s 3-4 defense starts with its outside linebackers.
“They do a good job of containing everything on the edges and making you come inside,” Satterfield said. “When you do that, you’re not getting those free plays on the edges.”
Virginia’s pass defense allows 174.3 yards per game. Despite the season-ending injury to Bryce Hall, the Cavaliers All-American cornerback, the secondary remains a strength.
“They stay on top of everything,” Satterfield said. “There are not guys running free on film, where you can get easy yards down the field.”
Similar to Clemson, Satterfield said his team needs to stay ahead of the sticks against Virginia. Louisville’s offense had trouble gaining yards on first down against Clemson, which allowed the Tigers to call more aggressively. Clemson finished with 11 tackle for a loss.
“We did a very poor job of that particularly in the second half,” Satterfield said. “What does that mean? Well, if you decided to throw it on first down, we need to complete it. A lot of times our first down throws are plays we feel confident in completing.”
