Final: West Virginia 17, Louisville 10

FACTS & STATS: Site: Papa John's Cardinal Stadium (42,000) -- Louisville, Kentucky. Television: Big East Network. Home Record: WVU 5-1, Louisville 3-3. Away Record: WVU 1-2, Louisville 2-2. Neutral Record: WVU 0-0, Louisville 0-0 Conference Record: WVU 2-2, Louisville 2-3. Series Record: West Virginia leads, 9-2.

GAME NOTES: On the road for just the fourth time this season, the West Virginia Mountaineers clash with the Louisville Cardinals in a Big East Conference showdown at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

West Virginia had a breakout game against Cincinnati at home over the weekend, crushing the Bearcats in a 37-10 final. The victory snapped a two-game slide for the Mountaineers and gave the squad the six wins it needed in order to be considered for the postseason again this year.

As for the Cardinals, a group that will close out the 2010 regular season on the road at Rutgers next Friday, they continued the trend of alternating wins and losses by suffering a 24-21 overtime defeat at the hands of the South Florida Bulls at home last weekend. Of the team's four home dates against other members of the Football Bowl Subdivision thus far, Louisville is just 2-3. As far as the all-time series goes, the Mountaineers have taken nine of the previous 11 meetings with Louisville.

West Virginia claimed a 17-9 victory in Morgantown last year, dropping the Cardinals to just 1-4 in the series since the team joined the Big East in 2005.

On his way to being named the Big East Player of the Week, quarterback Geno Smith threw four first-half touchdowns over the weekend as the Mountaineers took down Cincinnati at home at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown. Smith tossed a pair of TDs to both Tavon Austin and Jock Sanders and had the Mountaineers ahead by a 28-0 score with about seven minutes to play in the first half. After that WVU pretty much kept the ball on the ground, allowing Noel Devine to score a second-half TD to complement his team-high 77 rushing yards. Devine, who has been dealing with a foot injury this season, has been just a shadow of his former self. One of the all-time leading rushers in the history of the Big East, Devine has run for more than 100 yards just once since doing it three straight games to open 2010. With him struggling the offense has also had its issues and that's why the Mountaineers are tied for 74th in the nation in scoring this week with less than 26.0 ppg.

Cincinnati looked completely inept against the WVU defense in the first half last Saturday afternoon. When the Bearcats weren't punting the ball away, which they did five times in the opening 30 minutes, they were being forced into a couple of interceptions and a fumble that stopped the very first drive of the day. Sidney Glover played a major role for the Mountaineers as he logged two tackles for loss, forced a fumble and made a recovery. Glover, who is fourth on the team in tackles with 45 after nine games, now has a pair of fumble recoveries to his credit. The most forceful hitter for the Mountaineers continues to be Bruce Irvin who, after nine appearances, has logged a total of eight sacks on just 14 overall stops. With an average of almost one sack per game, Irvin ranks third in the conference and 13th nationally right now. As a unit, West Virginia is putting up better than three sacks per game, ranking the squad first in the league and fourth in the entire country.

Louisville scored the first points of the game against USF and the home team got a pair of TD passes from Justin Burke before the intermission, but that still wasn't enough to keep the Cardinals from having to go to overtime and eventually lose to the Bulls. Although, if it wasn't for Burke the Cards wouldn't have had a late chance for the victory, thanks to his 10-yard TD strike to Josh Bellamy with 1:21 to play in regulation. Burke finished the outing 16-of-30 for 146 yards, while Bilal Powell contributed 140 yards on 31 rushing attempts as well. Powell is now second in the conference and fifth in the nation in rushing with 134.1 ypg and because of him the Cardinals are first in the Big East as a group with 192.3 ypg on the ground as well. Unfortunately, the so-called passing attack is anything but with just 198.9 ypg, ranking the group fourth in the league at the moment.

The defense for the Cardinals held the Bulls to just a single offensive touchdown, a 48-yard pass play in the fourth quarter, which means for the most part Louisville was doing all it could to hold down the visitors. However, special teams did allow a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown late in the second frame in order to get USF into the end zone for the first time. Although he finished with just four total stops, B.J. Butler made 2.5 tackles for loss for the Cardinals, while Darius Ashley logged a sack and a forced fumble. In the last four games the pass defense for the Cardinals has played very big, allowing no more than 155 yards (Syracuse) and just a total of four TDs during that stretch which is somewhat remarkable given that before the four-game run the Cards permitted five passing TDs by Cincinnati. As a result of the recent surge, the pass defense is now ranked second in the conference and ninth in the nation with just 163.6 ypg allowed.

Without much of a passing attack to speak of the Cardinals will have a hard time keeping up with West Virginia if the Mountaineers are able to open up as well as they did in the first quarter last weekend.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: West Virginia 28, Louisville 17

Saturday, November 20th, 12:00 p.m. (et).