Syracuse is heading into a critical game against Louisville this weekend. It’s the Orange’s final home game, and the team needs to win two of its final three games to become bowl eligible. The Daily Orange spoke with Cardinals beat writer C.L. Brown of the Louisville Courier-Journal about what Syracuse can expect to see from Louisville on Saturday.

The Daily Orange: How much has Teddy Bridgewater grown from last season?

Brown: It’s been kind of a night-and-day kind of thing with him. Last year, he wasn’t making the reads that he was making this year. He wasn’t, just kind of well-schooled in what to expect from the defenses. Coach Strong talked about it all preseason and during the season is how much Bridgewater stayed in the film room and kind of just became the “student of the game” is what he always harps on. I think all of that has paid off. He doesn’t seem to make a lot of bad decisions out there. He always seems to kind of know where the ball is going and even when he’s checking down and going to guys who weren’t his primary receivers, that’s why he has only four interceptions this year.

The D.O.: Has Louisville been talking a lot about Syracuse’s no-huddle offense, and has that been a point of discussion this week?

CB: The funny thing about it is that they’ve faced this essentially all season, so by now it’s kind of old hat. Kentucky in the season opener came out with that, and that was something that was kind of unexpected at that time. … At this point, it’s just kind of fallen in line with what almost everybody else has done this season.

The D.O.: What has been Louisville’s biggest strength to this point in the season to get to where they are right now?

CB: That’s the funny thing about it; Charlie Strong has the defensive background. It’s been an offensive team this year, and Bridgewater’s pretty much at the center of it. He’s definitely got a lot of help. They’ve got a lot of weapons. Senorise Perry kind of being the home-run hitter at running back. DeVante Parker being a big-play receiver. … They’ve got a lot of tools around him and this year he’s been using all of those tools.

The D.O.: What does a team need to do to beat Louisville?

CB: They have to find a way to slow Bridgewater. Whether it’s getting a lot of pressure up front and sacking him literally, or bringing some sort of coverage he hasn’t seen yet. … And kind of get under his skin. Cincinnati was able to do that in the first half of their game and that was probably the poorest he’s played all season.

The D.O.: Syracuse has been an up-and-down team this season. In some games, it’s made a lot of mistakes and in others, it’s clicked on all cylinders. How is Louisville viewing Syracuse going into this game?

CB: They’re viewing the Syracuse that has been good and clicking on all cylinders; they’re not really talking about the mistakes. They’ve got a lot of respect for Ryan Nassib at quarterback and his ability to make plays and run that offense. Defensively, even though they’ve had trouble stopping the run in these last two games, they look at the season overall where it’s been pretty stout otherwise. They’re highly complimentary. This is a game, especially being on the road, that they feel like could possibly be one of those trap kind of games.

Published on November 9, 2012 at 12:16 am

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman