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Louisville football: How the Cards will defeat Boston College

By Will Reddington

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - SEPTEMBER 02: Jawon Pass #4 of the Louisville Cardinals throws the ball against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on September 02, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - SEPTEMBER 02: Jawon Pass #4 of the Louisville Cardinals throws the ball against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on September 02, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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LOUISVILLE, KY – OCTOBER 14: AJ Dillon #2 of the Boston College Eagles rushes for an 11-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter of a game against the Louisville Cardinals at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Louisville, Kentucky. Boston College won 45-42. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY – OCTOBER 14: AJ Dillon #2 of the Boston College Eagles rushes for an 11-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter of a game against the Louisville Cardinals at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Louisville, Kentucky. Boston College won 45-42. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Limit the Boston College rushing attack

One of the best college football running backs in the nation comes to Louisville on Saturday. Boston College’s AJ Dillon has rushed for over one thousand yards in each of the prior two seasons, doing so last year in just 12 games. He’s well on his way to do it again, putting up 627 yards rushing through just five weeks of play.

This BC rushing attack has given the Cardinals fits before. It’s hard to forget the last time they came to Cardinal Stadium. The Golden Eagles defeated a Lamar Jackson led Cards team 45-42. The guy who was at running back that day will be at running back again on Saturday, he didn’t disappoint last time. AJ Dillon rushed for 272 yards in that matchup on 39 carries, which is as dominant as a college football running back can possibly be.

Last year, one of the games Dillon missed was against Louisville. But the BC rushing attack was far from taking the week off. They had two different players both rush for over 100 yards against UofL last season, one of them being David Bailey.

David Bailey is still a big part of this BC offense, even with AJ Dillon playing such an intricate role. He ran for 112 yards against the Cards last year and he’s already at 281 yards rushing in 2019 on just 53 carries.

https://twitter.com/BCFootball/status/1051198306859343877

Both of these Boston College running backs are averaging over five yards per carry this season. This is a tall task for the Louisville defense, but they did get a nice warmup for what this is going to be like from star Florida State running back Cam Akers.

Louisville’s defense has done a nice job this season when it comes to limiting high powered rushing attacks against the likes of Notre Dame, Western Kentucky, and Florida State. Behind a stout defensive line and speedy linebackers, Louisville currently ranks 43rd nationally in stopping the run, giving up just 135.8 yards per game.

AJ Dillon and David Bailey will present a unique challenge to the defense, but with a weakened offense line (compared to the last few seasons), Louisville should take pride in putting a stop to the rushing massacres that’s taken place each of the last two seasons against Boston College.

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