How and what to watch for Wake Forest vs. Louisville

In one of the four ACC games on Saturday, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will try to bounce back after their loss to North Carolina when they take on the Louisville Cardinals Saturday at 12:00 p.m. ET in Louisville, KY.

This will be Wake Forest’s (4-3) first game in almost a month as their matchup with the Duke Blue Devils on Nov. 21 was canceled. The last time we saw Wake was a loss in a shootout 59-53 to the UNC Tar Heels. The Deacons offense was led by Sam Hartman, who completed 29-of-45 passes for 429 yards and four touchdowns, and played up to par against one of the best teams in the ACC.

But it was not enough as their defense could not slow down Tar Heels quarterback Sam Howell. who passed for a career-high 550 yards, six touchdowns, and an interception. Thankfully, Wake Forest’s defense gets a break in their return against a Louisville offense that has been wildly inconsistent this season.

The Cardinals (3-7) last played on Nov. 28 against the Boston College Eagles, where they lost 34-27. Dual-threat quarterback Malik Cunningham tried to will his team to a win with 429 yards of total offense and two passing offense, but it just wasn’t to be.

Cunningham will likely get more carries in the running as the Cards are without running back Javian Hawkins, who opted out last month to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft. The Cardinals will also try to feed Dez Fitzpatrick and Tutu Atwell, especially seeing what UNC WRs were able to do to Wake Forest’s defense.

However, the bigger question at hand is can Louisville’s defense put up a stand against Wake? This season, the Cardinals’ defense is giving up 3.2 offensive touchdowns a game and less than 200 yards per game in both the running and passing games.

Game Time/TV Channel/Streaming

You can watch Wake Forest vs. Louisville on Saturday, December 12th at 12:00 p.m. ET on the ACC Network, or you can stream it via the ESPN app with a cable or streaming service login that gets the network.

Point Spread, Totals, Odds, Trends

Point spread: Wake Forest vs. Louisville (-1.5)
Point Total: O/U 64
Money line: Wake Forest (-103) vs. Louisville (-120)

• This season, Wake Forest is perfect against the spread with a record of 5-0 in its last five games.
• Not surprising to see but the point went over in four of Wake Forest’s last six games.
• Louisville is pretty good against the spread, especially when they are the favorite, as they have a record of 5-1 in their last six games.
• Dating back to last season, the point went over in 11 of Louisville’s last 15 games.

Betting splits

Wake Forest: (77% of handle, 57% percent of bets)
Louisville: (23% of handle, 43% percent of bets)

The Best Bet

The line for this game tells us that this is basically a pick’em between these two ACC foes. Wake Forest is the slight underdog as they haven't played in a month and saw their second-leading rusher Kenneth Walker III opt out this week. When you look at the Cardinals, they are missing their top running back and have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic this season. But seeing how Wake played UNC, if they can bring the same type of energy. they should win on Saturday.

Pick: Wake Forest (-105)

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