Game Predictions – Louisville

For every Football, Hockey, Basketball, and Baseball game this year, the board members of WZBC Sports will be offering their picks on whether the Eagles will win or lose. Throughout the year, we will be tracking who has the best prediction record, crowning a winner at the conclusion of Baseball season. Here are our picks for the Clemson.

Standings:

TJ Hartnett: I’m excited to be in attendance for this game calling it on WZBC 90.3FM. I’ve heard awesome things about Downtown Louisville as well as the Cards’s stadium. Getting the opportunity to call Heisman Winner Lamar Jackson will be a once in a lifetime experience. The only thing that would make this better would be to enhance the competitive nature of this game. Louisville marched into Alumni last season and finished the game before it started. A year prior, BC lost by a small margin with Troy Flutie under center. Louisville is clearly not the same team they were last year but Jackson is still at the helm. Because of this and the trouble BC had last year with containing the QB, I see signs pointing in Louisville’s favor. Throw in some trick plays, force some turnovers, and take some risks; we’ve got nothing to lose, except the game. Louisville 30, BC 14

Quinn Kelly: 

Brandon Wimbush–207
Kelly Bryant–106
Two excellent running quarterbacks in rush heavy offense have ran for a combined 313 yards on the Eagles this season. And neither of their talent levels coming out of the backfield compare to Lamar Jackson’s. The absence of Connor Strachan will be glaring this week, as nobody in the linebacking corps has the speed to keep up with the reigning Heisman trophy winner if he breaks contain. The Eagles best shot will be bringing up a safety to spy and hoping Ty Schwab can keep up with one of Louisville’s tertiary targets in coverage. The D-Line also needs to have a big game, pressuring a weaker offensive line. But even if we get both these things, it still may not be enough. Jackson is that good at ad-libbing when a play breaks down, and he has the speed and athleticism that BC’s defense doesn’t have a solid match for. The only hope is that BC’s offense can sustain some drives to keep the defense fresh, because the Louisville offense is going to move FAST. Doesn’t seem like this one is in the Cards for BC. Louisville 37, BC 10

Steve McAlee: It appears opponents really do not fear BC’s offense enough to believe they will score enough points to win the game. VT’s Justin Fuente played conservative at times, confident that BC would never allow themselves to catch up on offense. Louisville should be able to score enough early and do the same. The Cardinals have come back to earth after last season’s first nine games, but they’re still explosive with #8 leading the charge. Not much else to say. At home, Lamar Jackson and co. have no issues, and BC stays winless in the ACC. Louisville 34, BC 14

Landon Komishane: The Eagles ran into a train last year in the form of Heisman winner Lamar Jackson. He dominated from the get-go and Louisville won easily 52-7. This is not the same Louisville team at 4-2 now, but the talent gap between them and BC is still very large, especially at the quarterback position. Louisville is coming off a disappointing loss in Raleigh against NC State, so they will be motivated to play. This can’t be stated enough; if BC is not aggressive, they will not win this game. They need to find some sort of rhythm offensively to keep the defense off the field for as long as possible. The defense will play better than last year, but Lamar Jackson is still an unbelievable talent. Overall, Louisville is clearly the better team, and they will show it on Saturday. Louisville 38, BC 13

Matt Seelig: This is probably the second or third time I’ve said this in a game pick, but you can’t win games on defense alone. That could honestly be the subtitle for the 2017 season. Expect everything in this game that we saw in the Clemson game: a strong defensive performance in the early game with no significant offensive production, going into the half down by a touchdown or so. Then Louisville pulls away in the second half because the defense is exhausted from spending the majority of the game on the field. Final score: Louisville 34, BC 13.

Kyle Maslan: Coming off of a loss to VT that could hve been an upset if there were fewer missed opportunites between conservative playcalling, missed throws and miss field goals, BC must be nearing desperation if they want to find a way to climb into a bowl game. Addazio and Co. will not have the benefit of conservative playcalling from a Lamar Jackson lead offense, and with Harold Landry’s bum ankle it could be a long day for Boston College flying to Kentucky for the early game. Last year with a healthy Landry, Lousiville torched the defense to 52 points in Chestnut hill, Jackson isn’t quite havign the year he had last year, but he is almost impossible to stop. Louisville 42 – BC 10

Al Preziosi: Not much to say here. Louisville is more talented on both sides of the ball and has the home-field advantage. Expect another blowout. Louisville 34 – BC 10

Sam Parsons: The Cardinals aren’t as intimidating now as they were to begin the season, and Lamar Jackson hasn’t gotten as much Heisman hype as he did last year. However, he has still been an electric player, and the Eagles have been horrendous against running QBs – especially those of this caliber – over the last two seasons. Both of Louisville’s losses have come against quality teams and they still rank well in offensive points per game. Meanwhile, Steve Addazio remains under fire for an underwhelming (to put it kindly) start for the Eagles. This shouldn’t be like the 52-7 rout we saw in last year’s contest, but it shouldn’t be close, either. Louisville 44, BC 10

Matt Sottile: In all four games against Power 5 opponents this season, Louisville has allowed 28 or more points. BC will need to continue to show flashes of its up tempo offense that was seen in the second half against Virginia Tech last week. Addazio wan’t hesitant to reach into his bag of tricks, as the only touchdown of the night came on an Anthony Brown pitch to Jeff Smith, who found Brown wide open on the left sideline for a 25 yard touchdown. Anthony Brown has shown growth over the season so far and does not shy away from standing tall in the pocket and delivering accurate deep balls to his receiving core. If the BC offense is not able to produce points and keep them in this game? Their defense effectively has to shut down reigning Heisman trophy winner Lamar Jackson, who ran for three scores and threw for four more through the air in three quarters of action when these teams matched up last year. BC can hang around and keep this game more competitive than people think, but Jackson is too athletic and the Cardinals’ offense is too lethal to falter at home against a team still winless in ACC play. Louisville 38, BC 17