B.C., Louisville looking to shut down rushing attacks

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Boston College running back A.J. Dillon is looking to punish Louisville again.

In his first start, Dillon rushed for careerbests with 272 yards and four touchdowns in the Eagles’ last visit to Louisville nearly two years ago. He would like nothing more than a repeat performance.

The 6foot, 245pound junior has gone on to run for 3,324 career yards — including 627 yards and six touchdowns this season. He presents a huge challenge for the Cardinals (22, 01) in Saturday’s matchup of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top two ground attacks.

The Eagles (32, 11) lead the ACC averaging 252 yards rushing per game and are third in total offense at 473.2. Louisville’s ground game averages 225.3 on the ground, but its defensive task is denying Dillon an encore perfor

mance on home turf.

“Oh, we’re definitely going to have to tackle,” Louisville sophomore cornerback Anthony Johnson said. “We have to have good discipline to come in the box and make tackles on this big running back.”

If not, fans might be in for another shootout. In Dillon’s breakout game in 2017, Boston College upset Louisville 4542.

This time, both schools aim to rebound from ACC losses, with BC looking to Dillon and junior quarterback Anthony Brown to keep its offense humming. Dillon has rushed for at least 150 yards in each of the past three games.

Thirddown efficiency is a big focus for the Eagles, who converted just 2 of 12 chances against Wake Forest and allowed the Demon Deacons to make 17 of 24 in a 2724 defeat.

“I think the word would be consistency,” said BC coach Steve Addazio, whose team averages 31.6 points per game. “We want to be sure to do our best there and stay on schedule on both sides. We have been on schedule on offense, but (need to) stay on schedule on defense and don’t have too many dribble yards because that leads to thirdandshorts.”

Louisville had a bye following its 3524 loss to Florida State. The Cardinals fell behind 210, rallied to take the lead briefly in the fourth quarter but came up short.

The Cardinals turned to their passing game to get back into the contest against the Seminoles, but the ground game overall has been a bright spot for Louisville. Freshman Javian Hawkins has run for 390 yards while sophomore Hassan Hall has 239, and each has a TD.