River City Sharps
Being based in Louisville, KY, there is probably no team that we have a better pulse on than the Louisville Cardinals. There was plenty of disappointment last Thursday as the Cards effort came up short against Florida State. While they did lose the game, one real positive that came out of the game was their ability to move the ball and score against the Seminoles defense. While Louisville’s defense has been pretty solid all season, they didn’t quite hold up in the second half against the FSU onslaught. Now we find the Cards travelling to Boston for a matchup with the much improved Boston College Eagles. BC comes into this game on a high following their road victory at Virginia Tech, but we think this is a story of matchup problems for the Eagles. You see, the Eagles have virtually a non-existent passing game and count of QB Tyler Murphy to run out of several different looks. The problem is that even though Louisville will be missing Lorenzo Mauldin this week, the Cardinals have a really stout rushing defense and running against this team has been a losing proposition for most teams. We expect BC to struggle establishing their running game and the Louisville secondary has been really opportunistic this year. On offense, the Cards are not going to test the BC rush defense as much as trying to go over the top with the tight ends and Parker on the edge. As for the trends, consider that the Cardinals are 9-2 ATS in their last 11 games following a straight up loss and an amazing 17-4 ATS in their last 21 road games vs. teams with a winning home record. We also like the extra couple of days Petrino gets to prepare for this game and believe you will see the Cardinals best road performance of the season. The Sharps say…
3 UNITS – LOUISVILLE CARDINALS -3
