Week 5: Louisville at N.C. State

Louisville began the season with aspirations of a national championship. But those dreams are shattered after two consecutive losses, and the Cardinals visit Carter-Finley Stadium looking to avoid their first three-game losing streak since 1997.

They shouldn’t have too much trouble.

N.C. State has been injury-plagued and inept in Tom O’Brien’s first season on the job, failing to move the ball consistently on offense and unable to keep its opponents from doing the same. While the Wolfpack’s offense has to be looking forward to its matchup with Louisville — the Cardinals are allowing 437.8 yards and 32.5 points per game — O’Brien’s defense will face its toughest test of the season.

Led by senior quarterback Brian Brohm, Louisville leads the nation in total offense (619.8 yards per game) and ranks No. 4 in scoring (50.0 points per game). Although the Cardinals lost 38-35 to Syracuse last week in a game that ended their 20-game home winning streak, Brohm threw for a Big East record 555 yards and four touchdowns.

Brohm is No. 3 in the country in total offense (427.5 ypg) and No. 8 in pass efficiency (178.6). He has a pair of top targets in senior wide receiver Harry Douglas, who is third in the nation in receiving (169.8 ypg) and has posted seven consecutive 100-yard games, and 6-6 Mario Urrutia.

The good news for N.C. State’s defense is that it performed quite well against another of the nation’s top quarterbacks, Boston College’s Matt Ryan, earlier this season. The Wolfpack limited Ryan to 142 passing yards and one touchdown, and Ryan has averaged 398.7 yards and three touchdowns in his other three games.

Keeping that in mind, the Cardinals might do what the Eagles did and attack N.C. State on the ground. The Wolfpack allowed Clemson last week to rack up 608 yards, including 280 yards rushing by tailbacks James Davis and C.J. Spiller, and sits fifth from the bottom in the country against the run (247.0 ypg). Louisville tailback Anthony Allen, the nation’s No. 13 rusher (123.3 ypg), should be salivating.

N.C. State counters with junior Andre Brown, one of the best tailbacks in the ACC, but the Cardinals haven’t been terrible against the run this season (155.5 ypg). Where Louisville has struggled is in pass coverage — the Cardinals rank No. 113 nationally in pass efficiency defense (160.6) — and the Wolfpack hasn’t proven that it has a good enough passing game to exploit that weakness.

Quarterback Harrison Beck, who missed most of the Clemson game after he injured his knee in the first quarter, will be healthy enough to start for the Wolfpack. Beck needs to get off to a good start for a change — N.C. State has thrown an interception on its first drive in all three of its losses this season — to keep his team in the game early.

But even if that happens and the Cardinals continue to make stupid mistakes — they average 9.5 penalties for 84.8 yards per game — it’s difficult to imagine N.C. State keeping up with Louisville for four quarters.

Louisville by 17