BOZICH | 3 takeaways from Bobby Petrino on Louisville’s trip to Houston

Houston’s defensive pressure was an issue for Cardinal blockers who surrendered 11 sacks in the loss.

The upsets just keep coming in the latter stages of the 2016 college football regular season. But those are the types of games we like, something that’s fun as a team, something that we’ve always felt has helped us in recruiting.

Louisville fumbled the opening kickoff, leading to a Houston TD in the first 11 seconds.

By Thursday night, the players may have been questioning if they deserved to be ranked at all.

No. 5 Louisville will face Houston desperate to impress the College Football Playoff selection committee.

“We were hoping to get Alabama on Wednesday between the two games”, Wake coach Dave Clawson cracked. Auburn’s offense, No. 25 in efficiency, is back to looking like a Gus Malzahn-helmed attack (most of the time; see: Georgia).

That will not be the situation Thursday at 8 p.m. when Louisville visits Houston. Greg Ward threw his first touchdown pass on the next play to make it 7-0. The Houston-native finished with 107 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns. That was quickly followed by a freaky touchdown reception on a tipped pass that landed perfectly into the hands of a waiting Cougar. Both of Ward’s touchdown passes went to RB Duke Catalon, both in that first half (Houston did not score a touchdown after halftime).

However, now that they are back on level terms and pretty much control their own destinies, Louisville is desperate to get back on the voters’ good side. The Cougars defense, meanwhile, has been stout against the run.

They’ll have to stop human highlight reel Lamar Jackson, who is easily the frontrunner for the Heisman trophy at this point in the season. Jackson, meanwhile, was forced to be one dimensional with Houston holding him to 33 yards on the ground. The offense, the blade that delivers the cuts, gets most of the attention, but it’s the defense that’s provided the weight for the 8-2 Cougars.

Most thought Houston would provide a very strong challenge. “Just understanding the difference between high school football and college football, so I don’t think last year’s game will play into this game at all”. The Cougars defense ranks third (337.4 yards per game) in the nation in rushing defense and ninth in total defense (303.3 yards per game). Louisville committed an unacceptable 15 penalties and turned the ball over three times via fumbles. He’s a disruptive force on the inside of the Cougars’ 3-4 front, shedding blockers and getting his hands up in passing lanes – Oliver leads all defensive lineman in the country in pass breakups (six).

We don’t know Herman’s goals – if he wants to stay at Houston, despite the fact they won’t be going to the Big 12, or take on one of the nation’s premier programs – and we certainly don’t know what those bigger programs’ power brokers, namely those at Texas, LSU, and or are thinking when it comes to their head coaching position. A field goal to begin the last fifteen minutes wasn’t exactly ideal in the comeback attempt. The defense decided they wanted to land some haymakers and Devonte Fields racked up two sacks on the ensuing Wake Forest drive, the later knocked starting quarterback John Wofford out of the game. Losing to Navy and taking an embarrassing beat down from SMU didn’t help their case, which dropped them out of the AP Poll. What could have been.

Lamar Jackson has put up insane numbers all season, but some would argue they’ve come against inferior competition.