Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had perhaps his weakest game of the season Friday night, leading the Cardinals to an easy -- but ugly -- 31-10 win at Connecticut.
Bridgewater threw for 287 yards and a TD, and he completed his usual number of "Man, how did he drop that in there?" passes. But he also tossed an interception and completed a season-low 56.8 percent of his passes against winless UConn, whose secondary was a huge concern heading into the game. The Huskies had surrendered a total of 739 passing yards and 10 TDs in their two most recent games, blowout losses to Cincinnati and UCF; in those games, opposing quarterbacks had a 72.3 completion percentage.
Bridgewater was plagued by drops at times, including three in a row on one second-quarter drive, but he still wasn't near as sharp as usual. He came in completing 73.7 percent of his passes, a figure that led the nation among quarterbacks who qualify. The weather might have been a factor; it was windy, and the temperature dipped into the 30s in the fourth quarter after being in the mid-40s at kickoff.
It was just the second time this season -- and just the second time in 16 games -- that Bridgewater threw just one TD pass. In addition, this was only the second time this season he completed less than 67 percent of his passes. In a 27-13 win over Kentucky on Sept. 14, he completed 57.1 percent of his throws and had just one TD pass.
While Louisville's offense struggled -- the Cardinals were 4-of-13 on third down, gained a season-low 369 yards and scored touchdowns on a blocked punt and an interception return -- the defense picked up the slack. UConn committed five turnovers, gained just 237 yards and scored its TD with 35 seconds left in the game.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
