It’s a non-conference matchup where a highly ranked team goes on the road. The #3 Louisville Cardinals look to build off the momentum of last week’s big win. They travel to face the Marshall Thundering Herd Saturday night. The game kicks off at 8 pm ET from Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia. The game is nationally televised on the CBS Sports Network. Louisville is a 26.5 point favorite according to the current line with the over/under set at 74.5 points in this contest.
Louisville remained unbeaten and jumped from #10 to #3 in the rankings after trouncing then-#2 Florida State 63-20 at home last week. Marshall suffered their first loss of the season as they lost 65-38 in a run and gun fest to Akron last week. This is the 29th all-time meeting between the two schools. Louisville holds a 16-12 advantage in the all-time series but Marshall won the last four matchups. The Thundering Herd took a 17-13 win in Louisville in the last meeting between the teams back in 2011.
Louisville came out like a house of fire last week and just obliterated Florida State. The Cardinals led 14-0 and saw their lead trimmed to 14-10. Louisville then racked up 49 unanswered points and blew the doors off. The Cardinals are averaging a staggering 679.3 yards and a FBS leading 65 points a game. Louisville averages 9.4 yards per play. The Thundering Herd has its work cut out for itself defensively. Marshall allows 373 yards of offense per game. The run game makes for an interesting matchup: Louisville is 4th in the FBS with 333.3 yards per game and 8.2 yards per attempt. Marshall allows 96 yards and 2.9 yards per carry on the ground. Lamar Jackson has 1,377 total yards and 18 touchdowns despite barely playing in the fourth quarter this season. Can the Thundering Herd even attempt to slow the early Heisman frontrunner?
Marshall can move the sticks and put points on the board with the best of them. The Thundering Herd put up 545 yards and 50 points (7th in FBS) per game. Marshall was hurt last week by defense and special teams: Akron scored on a fumble, interception and a blocked punt return. The Thundering Herd is penalty prone as they average 12.5 penalties for 125 yards a game. Marshall has to protect Chase Litton against a Louisville pass rush that has 13 sacks. Litton has his work cut out: Louisville allows opponents to complete 48.6 percent of their throws for 188.7 yards per game. That’s barely half of what Litton has averaged this year. It’s hard to see any team keeping up in a shootout with Louisville, who became the first team in ACC history to score at least 60 points in three straight games.
Louisville put up seven rushing touchdowns in consecutive games for the first time in more than 100 years. Jackson is a Heisman frontrunner and hasn’t been slowed, much less stopped, at this point this season. Brandon Radcliff is putting up a better yard per carry average (11 ypc) than Jackson (9.5 ypc) this year. That’s absolutely ludicrous. Marshall has offensive weapons but they aren’t good enough to trade scores with Louisville’s prolific offense. Give the points as the Cardinals roll to another win.
Louisville is in their last 4 non-conference games and 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games in September. The Cardinals are also 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games overall. Marshall is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games following a double-digit loss at home.