The #5 Louisville Cardinals dispatched the #3 West Virginia Mountaineers 44- 34 by returning a fumble and a punt for two touchdowns in the third quarter. The Mountaineers were is disarray for les than four minutes, but that all that the Louisville defense and special teams needed to dash the Mountaineers BCS hopes and to raise their own team into a first place tie with the # 14 Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Louisville QB Brian Brohm was 19 of 26 for 354 yards and 1 TD. He threw no interceptions. For West Virginia is was QB Pat White’s ground game (23 CAR, 125 YDS, 5.4 AVG, 4 TDs) that generated much of the offense. In the air, White was 13 of 20 for 222 yards and an 11.1 yards/per pass average.
It was the Louisville passing game, which totaled 354 yards, against the West Virginia running game, which put up 318 yards. The game was back-and-forth throughout the first half, with the Cardinals making the most out of Mountaineer mistakes just three minutes into the second half as the Cardinals broke the game open on a 13-yard fumble return, going ahead by 9 points—23 to 14.
Louisville should replace West Virginia in the rankings and next week the Cardinals find themselves poised to take on the quickly maturing Scarlet Knights for sole command of first place in the Big East. If fourteenth ranked Rutgers wins next week’s contest and wrestles first place from the Cardinals, then look for the BCS ranking to turn topsy-turvy.
More on the Louisville- Rutgers match up later in the week.
Technorati Tags: Louisville Cardinals, West Virginia Mountaineers, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, NCAA Football, Big East Football, BCS Rankings
