The battle for the Bluegrass, the Brawl for the Governors Cup, The.......well you get the picture. There is no doubt about it, these teams hate each other, always have, and always will. No love lost here as the Cards and Cats square off in their yearly meeting.
Lets take a look at the matchup:
Louisville is coming off of a dissapointing win against MTSU. Yeah, they won by 16, but the defense in the first half of that game looked nothing short of awful. In all fairness though, they did seem to get things fixed a bit in the 2nd half, and with the exception of one really bad play that went for a TD, looked a ton better.
The Louisville secondary took a huge hit this week as it was announced that starting safety (and last years Freshman All-American) Latarrius Thomas will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
I expect to see two players a lot more this week, and they are Brandon Heath (Safety) and Willie Williams (LB) And yes, it is "That Willie Williams" the former All American and Miami Hurricane.
Kentucky has looked impressive in their first two games of the year, and also boast one of the best offenses in the country. They have a great QB, and two very impressive WR's to go along with their quick tailback Rafael Little.
Here is something that I am fairly certain of. The Louisville defense has been holding back over the first two games. Why does this defense look nothing like the defense from last season? We have the same D-Coordinator in Cassity, have pretty much the same amount of talent (Although losing Okoye did hurt), and are playing in the same scheme. The difference has been the play calling on defense. We have seen next to no blitzing, and some very interesting personnel decisions as to who is on the field and when. I expect both of those things to change this week, and expect a lot of pressure to be applied to Woodson of UK. I expect a defense in this game that looks nothing like the defense from the first two. Are the going to shut Kentucky out? Hell no. But it wouldnt shock me one bit if UK scored less in this game than MTSU did last week against the Cards.
The offenses are both fantastic, and this one should see its fair share of points. The defenses are both nothing spectacular, which should say even more about the total amount of points in this one. Where I believe Louisville has the big edge is in special teams. UofL has two very fast kick returners in Spillman and Guy (Who already have 1 kick return TD, and another one called back on a BS penalty), and the Lou Groza award winning kicker Art Carmody.
Lets take a look at the series. Louisville is 7-1 in the last 8 games, including 4-0 in the last 4, and 4-0 in Lexington, where this weeks game will be played. Louisville's average margin of victory is 17, including 19 in games played in Lexington. Bottom Line, they always get up for the game against Kentucky, and I expect this week to be no different.
Quite possibly the biggest factor? Motivation. Kentucky did this week, what in my opinion is a very stupid thing. They placed 17 billboards of UK football in the Louisville Metro area, including one at the exit the players take to get to the practice facility! If they werent already awake and ready to go for this game, you can bet your ass that will do it! Has anyone ever seen what happens to teams that come to Louisville and stomp on the Cardinal logo at midfield? In case you were wondering, you can ask the 2006 Miami Hurricanes (31-7) or the 2005 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (56-5) Both of those teams got cocky, and they got killed as a result. I expect this little billboard fiasco to do the trick for UK. Simply stupid of them.
Final Score:
Louisville 48, Kentucky 35
The play:
Louisville -6.5 for 1 unit
I will also be back for discussion when the Total number comes out, but I can already tell you that I am thinking Over. If its less than 70, it will probably be a 2 unit play on the Over, if it is less than 63, I might even bump it up to 3 units. There will be a lot of points here. Two top 10 offenses going up against two average defenses = A Lot Of Points, especially in this series where the two teams routinely average over 60 combined points per game when they meet up.
Good Luck to Everyone this week!
WEBB
Lets take a look at the matchup:
Louisville is coming off of a dissapointing win against MTSU. Yeah, they won by 16, but the defense in the first half of that game looked nothing short of awful. In all fairness though, they did seem to get things fixed a bit in the 2nd half, and with the exception of one really bad play that went for a TD, looked a ton better.
The Louisville secondary took a huge hit this week as it was announced that starting safety (and last years Freshman All-American) Latarrius Thomas will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
I expect to see two players a lot more this week, and they are Brandon Heath (Safety) and Willie Williams (LB) And yes, it is "That Willie Williams" the former All American and Miami Hurricane.
Kentucky has looked impressive in their first two games of the year, and also boast one of the best offenses in the country. They have a great QB, and two very impressive WR's to go along with their quick tailback Rafael Little.
Here is something that I am fairly certain of. The Louisville defense has been holding back over the first two games. Why does this defense look nothing like the defense from last season? We have the same D-Coordinator in Cassity, have pretty much the same amount of talent (Although losing Okoye did hurt), and are playing in the same scheme. The difference has been the play calling on defense. We have seen next to no blitzing, and some very interesting personnel decisions as to who is on the field and when. I expect both of those things to change this week, and expect a lot of pressure to be applied to Woodson of UK. I expect a defense in this game that looks nothing like the defense from the first two. Are the going to shut Kentucky out? Hell no. But it wouldnt shock me one bit if UK scored less in this game than MTSU did last week against the Cards.
The offenses are both fantastic, and this one should see its fair share of points. The defenses are both nothing spectacular, which should say even more about the total amount of points in this one. Where I believe Louisville has the big edge is in special teams. UofL has two very fast kick returners in Spillman and Guy (Who already have 1 kick return TD, and another one called back on a BS penalty), and the Lou Groza award winning kicker Art Carmody.
Lets take a look at the series. Louisville is 7-1 in the last 8 games, including 4-0 in the last 4, and 4-0 in Lexington, where this weeks game will be played. Louisville's average margin of victory is 17, including 19 in games played in Lexington. Bottom Line, they always get up for the game against Kentucky, and I expect this week to be no different.
Quite possibly the biggest factor? Motivation. Kentucky did this week, what in my opinion is a very stupid thing. They placed 17 billboards of UK football in the Louisville Metro area, including one at the exit the players take to get to the practice facility! If they werent already awake and ready to go for this game, you can bet your ass that will do it! Has anyone ever seen what happens to teams that come to Louisville and stomp on the Cardinal logo at midfield? In case you were wondering, you can ask the 2006 Miami Hurricanes (31-7) or the 2005 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (56-5) Both of those teams got cocky, and they got killed as a result. I expect this little billboard fiasco to do the trick for UK. Simply stupid of them.
Final Score:
Louisville 48, Kentucky 35
The play:
Louisville -6.5 for 1 unit
I will also be back for discussion when the Total number comes out, but I can already tell you that I am thinking Over. If its less than 70, it will probably be a 2 unit play on the Over, if it is less than 63, I might even bump it up to 3 units. There will be a lot of points here. Two top 10 offenses going up against two average defenses = A Lot Of Points, especially in this series where the two teams routinely average over 60 combined points per game when they meet up.
Good Luck to Everyone this week!
WEBB
