Louisville football: How the Cards can beat Miami

Protect the quarterback

Miami has been one of the nation’s best teams this season at consistently getting after the quarterback, which has been an area where Louisville has ran into issues all year long.

Offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford has been able to get 110 percent out of each and every one of his offensive linemen this season and it’s caused the group to be a complete revelation this season.

While most of their success has come in blocking for Javian Hawkins and the Louisville running game, they’ve been much improved in helping to keep the quarterback protected in the backfield this season – although the numbers won’t show it.

The Cards have already given up 23 sacks this season, which ranks tied for 110th overall in the country, but as Scott Satterfield reminded everyone on Monday during his media availability a big chunk of those have fallen on the quarterback and not being able to get the ball out quick enough.

The part that is worrisome for Louisville is that they’ve given up more than four sacks in each of the games against Notre Dame (four), Florida State (six), Clemson (five), and Virginia (four).

While they were able to pull out a win against Virginia, the correlation between protecting the quarterback and winning games is very evident which means Louisville’s line will have to put together their best performance of the season.

That’s a tall task but one I think Ledford and the Cards are ready for.

It’ll start with keeping Gregory Rousseau away from the quarterback. The entire offensive line will be responsible for helping out as Rosseau lines up at both the defensive end and tackles spots, but the majority of the omen will fall on Caleb Chandler, Cole Bentley/TJ McCoy, and Robbie Bell who occupy the guard and center spots.

Rousseau has made a killing this season attacking through the middle of defenses and that’s not exactly been an area of strength for Louisville – although it’s been much better than year’s past.  Rousseau has already accounted for 12 sacks this season, including four against FSU last weekend, and if Louisville can’t keep him out of the backfield there’s no chance they’ll be able to do much of anything offensively.

Double-teaming will be something I’d imagine Ledford would do on passing plays in particular, but with Diaz having multiple other players upfront as well as from outside/up the middle on exotic blitzes, it’ll allow more opportunities to get after Cunningham and Conley.

Look for Scott Satterfield to find creative ways to neutralize Rosseau and the other talented members of the Miami defensive front seven, including mixing up inside and outside zone runs, sending Atwell in reverse and also utilizing screen passes to either the running back (something we haven’t seen much of) and getting back to feeding Marshon Ford.

If Louisville can get out of Miami with four sacks or less, it’ll go a long way towards the offense being able to get comfortable and do what they do and hopefully lead to a win.