Louisville Football: How can Wake Forest be a threat to the Cardinals?

We take a look at if the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will be a threat to taking down the Louisville football team on Saturday.

This game on Saturday between the Louisville football team and Wake Forest is going to be huge. The Demon Deacons are already 6-3 this season and looking to shut down Lamar Jackson and stun the college football world.

However, will they pose a realistic threat to knocking off the Cards this weekend?

I can tell you one thing for sure, they aren’t going to beat the Cardinals by the way of their offense. They have consistently been one of the worst offenses in the ACC all season long. The most points they have scored in a game this year was 38, but that was against Delaware back in September.

Here is how Wake Forest ranks among the other ACC teams in offense:

13th ranked scoring offense

8th ranked rushing offense

12th ranked passing offense

13th ranked total offense

Again, the way Louisville’s defense played last weekend against Boston College, Cardinal fans shouldn’t be concerned about their ability to score points on the road. Their highest scoring total on the road this season was 24 and that was against Duke, again, in September.

On the other hand, the Demon Deacons are very solid on the defensive side of the football this season. I would even argue that is the biggest reason why they are bowl-eligible in 2016. They do a great job of keeping the opposing offense out of the endzone, which has given their anemic offense more opportunities to score.

Here is how they ranked among the other teams in the ACC on defense:

2nd ranked scoring defense

6th ranked rushing defense

9th ranked rushing offense

7th ranked total defense

If Wake Forest is going to take down Louisville, it will, 100 percent, be because of their defense. Defensive lineman Duke Ejiofor is currently 4th in the ACC with 8 sacks, freshman cornerback Jessie Bates is second in the conference with 5 interceptions and not to mention, he also leads the ACC in interceptions for touchdowns with two.

The biggest difference between Wake Forest and the rest of the ACC is that they simply do a great job of creating turnovers and then not turning it over themselves. They are first in the conference in turnovers per game with 0.89 and plus 8 in total turnover margin.

This is where Louisville has to be careful because they find ways to turnover the football way too often. The Cards are 8th in the conference in turnover margin with minus-one. They have to take care of the football if they want to pick up their ninth win of the season on Saturday night.