Time for whats left of this Orange team to hit the road and try to keep bowl eligibility alive against the Cardinals. Read along with LvilleOrange and Reyes39 and see if its possible that the Orange can beat the Cards for the third straight year. 

When: November 14thth, 2009 – 12:00 PM

Where: Louisville, KY at Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium

Capacity: 42,000

Television: Time Warner

Pittsburgh Reading Material (via pacusefan): Louisville Reading Material

The Spread: The line opened at Louisville -7.0 and has risen to Louisville -7.5

Rivalry info: This will be the ninth meeting between these schools.  Syracuse owns a 5-3 advantage in the series and has won the last two meetings against the Cardinals.  Syracuse is 677-478-49 all time. Pittsburgh is 441-426-41 all time.

Coaches: Louisville -Steve Kragthorpe – 3rd season at Louisville (14-19 overall.) Syracuse- Doug Marrone – 1st season at Syracuse (3-6 overall.)

Syracuse Offense vs Louisville Defense: Another week and a few more critical injuries for the Orange offense. Tight End Cody Catalina was off to a good start against the Panthers before a sustaining a knee injury that will require surgery and for him to miss the remaining three games of the season.  At a position already lacking a solid pass catcher (Provo injured as well) Marrone decided to run RB Averin Collier at the U TE position this week in practice. Also injured and out for the season is starting RT Jonathan Meldrum who is expected to be replaced by Josh White. Neither injuries should set the Orange offense further back than it already is but the Orange can’t afford to lose any more bodies if they want to finish out the season. In better news, RB Antwon Bailey has rejoined the team after a one week suspension. Bailey has mostly received touches out of the Stallion offense – something the Orange obviously weren’t comfortable enough to run without him against Pitt. With the Orange’s lack of offensive firepower it’s probable the Stallion will be back in business this weekend against the Cards. The Cardinals allow a pedestrian 150 yards per game on the ground and lack a true pass rush as they rank both 93rd and 81st and tackles for loss and sacks respectively. The Orange relied mostly on the production of their best player Delone Carter against Pitt. With Jim Mckenzie back at Center after injury the Orange were able to keep the offense moving rather fluidly with power running in between the tackles. Carters yards should come by a little easier but will still be tough without a balanced passing attack.

It seems the Quarterback controversy has been somewhat settled for now. After Paulus had received a bit of booing from the home crowd against the Bearcats – he responded with a 12/18 effort with two picks that can’t weren’t really his fault. Nassib had his chance to state his case but responded with an interception and only completed 5 of 16 passes. Marrone remains adamant Paulus will remain the starting quarterback and I believe the Orange should expect the same throughout the year. One thing Nassib has that Paulus doesn’t is the ability to go deep – and without a deep threat receiver it is doubtful Nassib will be asked to throw the ball more than 10 times against Louisville. It really stood out against Pitt as to how much the Orange passing game relied on Mike Williams as no Orange receiver was able to get open all day. It seems the only purpose the Orange passing game will serve is to keep opposing defenses honest and keep Louisville from stacking the box. All you can ask is for Paulus to play ball control and the Orange receivers to catch the ball when it hits…their hands (dur.)

Louisville Offense vs Syracuse Defense: If there is one reason that Louisville HC Steve Kragthorpe is on the hot seat, its the offense.  When he came in, he inherited an offense that was potent and high scoring.  This season, Kragthorpe took the reins of the offense himself and the result?  Louisville is averaging less than 20 points per game.  Now some of this can be blamed on the fact that UofL has had to start 3 different quarterbacks.  The Cards ran out walk-on and Lousiville native Will Stein the last two weeks.  The kid is maybe 5′ 8″ tall.  Although it appears that Adam Froman should be ready to go.  Either way, none of the Cardinal QBs have much of an arm.  The Cardinals, like the Orange, are decent on the ground.  Victor Anderson has been dinged up much of the year, but freshman Darius Ashley has shown promise.  The main problem has been the redzone offense.  If the Cardinals aren’t running to the short side, they are busy shooting themselves in the foot with penalties.  The Cardinals certain to have fun in our secondary this week are Scott Long and Doug Beaumont.    Long is their deep threat, but with the penchant for throwing underneath, he hasn’t had a chance to see the endzone more than once.  The Cardinals Oline has given up 27 sacks, a stat that explains why the Cards haven’t had much of a passing attack.

Where the Cardinals could be dangerous is in special teams.  Trent Guy has done a nice job of returning kick offs and punts.  Any breakdown in the Syracuse coverages could result in six points.  Defensively, the Orange are going to have to find a way to rally after the loss of Art Jones and Max Suter.  Jones was the spiritual leader and clogged up blockers up front, letting guys like Derrell Smith and Max Suter the ability to make tackles.  Now Perkins will be asked to play that role and Shamarko Thomas will be the guy making stops.  Philip Thomas got some burn in the secondary last week so expect his role to be expanded in Suter’s absence.  The defense is going to have to keep the pressure on the Louisville quarterback, whomever that turns out to be, to protect the young secondary.  I still fully expect Coach Shafer to send an endless array of blitz schemes

Why Syracuse will win: Syracuse just has Louisville’s number. Carter has another effective game and the Orange refrain from turning the ball over in critical times.  The fans have already quit on Kragthorpe and the players start to as well (if they haven’t already.)

Why Louisville will win: The Cardinals break out of their redzone funk and cash in on some touchdowns.  The depleted Orange defense wears out over the course of the game and the Cards get effective running from Anderson and Ashley.  Syracuse cannot come from behind due to limitations in the passing game.

Syracuse player to watch: Averin Collier. It will be interesting to see Collier line up in the U Tight End Position in place of Catalina. The RB log jam has kind of kept him hidden but this could spell his break out. Should make for some interesting two back sets when he lines up as the H back and his pass catching abilities if he lines up on the line.

Louisville player to watch: Doug Beaumont. Beaumont has over 90 career receptions but hasn’t reached the endzone.  Last week he nearly scored against WV, but the play was negated by a Louisville penalty.  Look for Doug to get alot of targets as he has a knack for finding seams in opposing defenses.

LVO prediction: While this game won’t be an instant classic, these two teams are very similar.  Whichever team can overcome the difficulties they have faced will win this game.  Since I have been given or offered over 10 tickets from this game, I don’t expect much of a home field advantage.  Syracuse 20 Louisville 17

Reyes39 prediction: Louisville 27 Syracuse 17

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 8:40 am by Sean N. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.