No. 3 Cardinals look to handle Houston, boost playoff hopes

Jackson, who according to several college football pundits and analysts, has already done enough to win the Heisman, and is on pace to reach the 3,000 yards passing mark after Thursday’s game. They are 10-0 on the season and coming off a 51-3 win over Mississippi State.

The first half hasn’t been kind to the Cardinals, though, as Houston has mostly dominated them through the first half.

Things went wrong quickly for the mistake-prone Cardinals when they fumbled the opening kickoff to Houston (9-2). However, he has scored three touchdowns in those games. In 2016, Jackson has rushed for another 1,336 yards and 19 more trips to the promised land. Let’s breakdown some of the key takeaways from Houston’s 36-10 win over Louisville, besides the obvious blowout. Three plays later, Justice Hansen hit a leaping Kendall Sanders in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown. Cole Hikutini had 26 yards and a touchdown. The 6’5 250 pound senior has nabbed 38 balls for well over 500 yards and six scores. Both the Cardinals and Houston came into the game ranked in the top 10 nationally in rushing defense and total defense.

Louisville is fifth in the latest rankings.

Jackson threw two interceptions and lost one fumble against Houston a year ago and was held to just 168 passing yards and 16 rushing yards on 12 attempts.

“He reminds me of Michael Vick and Cam Newton in that he is by far the best athlete on the field”, Palmer said. “With Houston having a fast-paced offense and a dual-threat quarterback, it’s going to be a challenge, especially going into their environment”. Ward has thrown for 2,608 yards with 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions and has run for 429 yards and nine more scores.

Houston signal-caller Greg Ward Jr. looked healthy for the first time since beating Oklahoma earlier in the year and torched Todd Grantham’s defense. In the last three games, Ward has 15 total rushing yards. The Cardinals have a speedy wide receiving group led by James Quick and Jamari Staples, who combined have close to 1200 yards receiving. They will need to be at their best if they hope to disrupt the Cardinal’s talented secondary. Meanwhile, the Cougars produce 168 rushing yards per game. They rank 3rd in the country, giving way to only 92.8 yards a contest. Still, the Cougs own the nation’s third-longest home field winning streak at 14 games in 3-year-old TDECU Stadium.

Louisville is 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 non-conference games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against the AAC. “Probably don’t know a whole lot what’s going on in the world besides getting ready for the Houston game”.

After defeating Oklahoma 33-23 in the season opener, there was plenty of momentum behind Houston crashing the playoff as a 13-0 Group of 5 program.

Of course, reality says any win here might not matter if Louisville doesn’t get help from other teams. Regardless of if this Houston team is rated or not, this will be a game where Louisville needs to come in focused or they will be sorry.