Louisville football: 5 players to watch against Boston College

Chandler Jones/Cornelius Sturghill/Anthony Johnson – CB

Yes, I’m aware there are three names here but when it comes to forcing the first interception of the season or even limiting big passing plays – I believe it’s going to have to start with the cornerback position.

To have zero interceptions through the first four games of the season seems alarming, and while I’m not quite ready to go that far, I will say that Scott Satterfield keeps hammering it home for a reason.

Louisville’s secondary has easily been the Achilles heel of the 3-2 Cardinals this season, even though the full numbers don’t quite show it. Through the first few games of the season the Cards were able to keep big passing plays to a minimum, but in the second half of the Western Kentucky matchup and then the following week against Florida State, we saw the secondary give big plays time and time again.

With Bryan Brown at the helm, defenses are based on cutting off all big plays and forcing turnovers. So far this season, we’ve seen Louisville limit big plays in spots (they’ve given up 10 plays over 30 yards)  but one thing we haven’t seen is turnovers, primarily interceptions. Through four games the Cards have forced just three turnovers and have a -4 turnover margin which is 107th nationally.

Saturday won’t get any easier for the Louisville secondary as they’ll face off against one of the ACC’s top quarterbacks thus far in the 2019 season, Anthony Brown.

The narrative on Brown for the first few seasons under center was that he couldn’t beat teams himself through the air (or the ground) but instead relied upon his running game. And while Steve Adazzio and Boston College are smart to feed the ball to 250-pound running back AJ Dillon, this season they have a more than capable quarterback that they trust to make plays.

Boston College’s game plan will be simple. Run to set up play-action passing and lure the defense closer and closer to the line before testing them deep with a big shot. When they start to try and test the defense, the combination of Chandler Jones, Cornelius Sturghill, and Anthony Johnson will have to step up in a major way.

All three seemed to have a hard time with Flordia State receivers Keyshawn Helton and Tamorrion Terry, who both had plays over 40 yards through the air. We also saw a lot of confusion, not only with the cornerbacks but also with safety’s Khane Pass and Russ Yeast throughout both the Western Kentucky game, as well as against Florida State.

Several mispositioned plays resulted in scores for both teams and ultimately was a huge part why the Cards lost against FSU.

Versus Boston College, Louisville will Kobay White and Zay Flowers who haven’t necessarily set the world on fire this season but have been solid. The two have totaled 20 receptions, 327 yards, and three touchdowns combined in 2019. They’ll also have to worry about helping out in coverage in nickel and dime formations to cover Boston College’s leading receiver, tight end Hunter Long who has 178 yards on the season.

Hopefully, during the bye week, the secondary spent time focusing on positioning, and proper technique in order for them to get more aggressive against Anthony Brown and the Boston College passing offense.