Louisville football: How the Cards will defeat Boston College
Survive the quarterback injury situation
Quarterback is the most important position on the field. Louisville has spent the last two seasons trying to figure out who is the man for the job. Injuries have made it very hard to figure that out so far in 2019 and things may not be getting any easier in terms of the immediate future.
Jawon Pass has missed the last two games nursing a turf toe, and from what we heard from Scott Satterfield yesterday, it’s really hard to say whether he’ll be ready for this weekend’s crucial matchup.
The bye week should definitely help his chances of being under center, but at this point, it’s hard to have a feel for when he’ll really be back.
Malik Cunningham has been the guy that’s stepped up in his absence. But he was injured on the last play of the Florida State game, leaving his status for Saturday in question as well.
Satterfield says he expects Puma and Malik to be available to play.... and he adds that Puma is the biggest question mark right now
— Mark Blankenbaker (@UofLSheriff50) September 30, 2019
So you may see Evan Conley, you may see Jawon Pass, you may see Malik Cunningham, you may see a combination of these guys. It’s really hard to say at this point in the week what’s going to happen, but it’s “win now” time for the Cardinals if a bowl is in their future this year. So whoever it is at the helm, they need to be ready to go on Saturday.
Satterfield on QBs: we do whatever they are able to do physically, Malik was looking really good yesterday.... Evan Conley has been getting a ton of reps, if he goes out there I have a lot of confidence in his ability to play
— Mark Blankenbaker (@UofLSheriff50) September 30, 2019
Malik Cunningham showed against FSU that he is capable of making throws down the field, particularly in the second half. However, with him on the field the Cardinals rushing attacked suffered.
Florida State made it known that they weren’t going to be beaten on the ground, stacking as many as eight guys in the box, making life extremely difficult on Javian Hawkins and Hassan Hall.
This week, whether it’s Pass, Cunningham, or Conley, Louisville will have to throw the football and they’ll have to do it well. The running game for Louisville struggled last week after dominating the first three weeks of the season but against BC they should be able to ge things going again, but to do so a quarterback must step up and make big throws to receivers.
Boston College has been rather inconsistent with stopping the run this season, giving up over 183 yards per game on the ground (ranked 111th nationally). Louisville should have every opportunity to win on the ground, but as we’ve seen, teams are preparing to stop them from doing so.