Louisville Cardinals vs Pittsburgh Panthers Football Preview

Some teams choose to dramatically change their fortunes in September. The Louisville Cardinals decided to wait a little bit, but now that they've unlocked the secret to success, they hope they won't lose their winning edge in these precious final weeks of regular-season competition.

Three weeks ago, Louisville’s season was on the brink. Sitting at 2-4 coming off losses to Marshall and Cincinnati, the Cardinals looked to be in danger of missing the postseason and taking a major step backward in their second season under Charlie Strong. Since then, the Cardinals have rallied. Consecutive wins over Rutgers, Syracuse, and West Virginia have the Cardinals not only poised to go bowling once again, surprisingly, to compete for the Big East championship with a little help. At 5-4 and headed home to face Pitt, the Cardinals are as hot as any team in the league thanks to a stifling defense and an ever improving offense led by freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Pittsburgh has been forced to trudge through a disappointing season marred by injuries that have piled up virtually every week. With numerous offensive weapons being lost to injury over the past six weeks, a matchup with the Big East’s best defense on the road couldn’t come at a worst time.

Louisville’s problem was never the defense; even after facing West Virginia, the Cardinals field a defense ranked in the top 25 in almost every category. The problem was always the offense, and now it's not a problem - certainly not to the extent it once was, at any rate. The painfully inept performances which characterized the first half of the season are long gone. Freshman quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has settled in as the starter and his cast of young receivers has made the Louisville offense a potent passing threat. When the Cardinals go to the ground, the trio of Victor Ander, Jeremy Wright, and Dominique Brown are effective (each in different ways).

For Pittsburgh, the loss of tailback Ray Graham is a crippling one. Graham was the spark in an otherwise moribund Panther offense. Without him and a pair of starting offensive linemen, the Panthers will be forced to run - literally and figuratively - with quarterback Tino Sunseri and Graham’s replacement Zach Brown. Having a crippled offense is bad news for a team that already leads the nation in sacks allowed. Louisville’s tendency to bring relentless pressure will make it particularly difficult for Pitt to move the ball consistently. The fact that Sunseri is notorious for throwing ill-timed interceptions will make the Panthers' uphill climb even more daunting as they travel to the lair of a Cardinal crew that has a right to chirp about its quality of performance over the past three and a half weeks.

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By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer