LB Yasir Abdullah Spearheads Louisville's Phenomenal Defensive Showcase vs. Pitt

On a night where their offense wasn't able to get a whole lot going, the Louisville football program needed a good performance out of their defense if they were to take down Pitt. They got that and then some.

The Cardinals' defense, which was already coming off of an impressive showing on the road against Virginia in their previous game, easily put together their most dominant performance of the season.

Facing a Panthers offense that had been averaging 430.5 yards and 35.0 points per game heading into the matchup, Louisville harassed Pitt all night long on that side of the ball, holding them to a season-low 326 yards and serving as the primary catalyst for a 24-10 homecoming victory Saturday night.

As you can imagine, this was night littered with great individual defensive performances. Defensive end YaYa Diaby tallied 2.5 tackles for loss, half a sack and a pass break up. Linebacker Ben Perry had six tackles and two QB hurries. Reserve defensive end Mason Reiger forced a fumble while reserve safety M.J. Griffin snagged an opportune interception.

But no one had an impact on the final outcome quite like outside linebacker Yasir Abdullah did. He was all over the field making impact plays, and was the unquestioned MVP of the win over Pitt. He tied MoMo Sanogo for the most tackles with seven, and logged two tackles for loss, a sack, an interception, two pass breakups, three quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.

"Oh man, what a warrior," head coach Scott Satterfield said after the game. "He doesn't say anything. He just goes all the time. He just goes hard all the time. He's a very powerful player. He has had an exceptional year. I know teams that we play have to know where he is at and when they don't, he is going to make them pay. He is all over the field."

Abdullah was far from stat padding, too. Whenever a play needed to be made for the defense, he was there to make it and get momentum in Louisville's favor. Not to mention that he wasted little time getting started, putting his versatility on full display in the process.

On Pitt's first drive of the game, they were in premium position to come away with points. At Louisville's 29-yard line, Panthers quarterback Kedon Slovis targeted wide receiver Konata Mumpfield up the right sideline. Normally a pass rusher in Louisville's scheme, the 6-foot-1, 242-pound Abdullah dropped back into coverage, and ran stride-for-stride with the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Mumpfield, with the pass falling right into his lap for the interception.

"I've just been working on (playing in coverage) during the offseason, not just my pass rush and my get off," Abdullah said after the game. "I've been working in coverage, because that'll up my (NFL Draft) stock in the future. Just been working on it."

Abdullah not only set the tone early for the defense, he made arguably the play of the game when Louisville needed it most. Following James Turner's 48-yard field goal to push Louisville's lead out to seven with under five minutes to go, Pitt had one more shot to put together a game-tying drive.

The Panthers marched down the field, getting all the way to Louisville's 40 yard-line, when Abdullah came unblocked off the edge. He nailed Slovis just as he was winding up to pass, jarring the ball loose for a sack fumble. The ball skipped under a mass of bodies and into the hands of cornerback Kei'Trel Clark, where he went 59 yards the other way for a scoop and score to ice the game.

"I almost started crying," Abdullah said. "I thought I hit (Slovis) after, I thought he had just let the ball go. But looking at that replay, man, I just almost started crying. I ain’t going to cry yet, because we’re not finished."

The Miramar, Fla. native now has 8.0 tackles for loss on the year, trailing only Diaby's 9.5, and his 3.5 sacks are good for third on the team. He's also tied M.J. Griffin and Jarvis Brownlee for most interceptions with two, and leads the Cards in pass breakups and QB hurries with four and five, respectively.

The defense has gotten a bad rap at times this season, but it's hard to deny the impact that side of the ball has had up to this point. Following the win over Pitt, Louisville ranks in the top ten nationally in sacks per game, tackles for loss per game, turnovers gained and red zone defense. They might have a propensity to occasionally give up big plays, but they counter that with more big plays in their favor.

"It goes back to preparation," Abdullah said. "During practice we always have that that mentality that we're going to stone the run, we're going to stone everything, we're going to get back to the quarterback. I love my boys up front, man. We're like brothers, man. We go out to dinner, we always talk about what we need to work on and what we see on film. I love them boys."

Louisville will be back in action next weekend when they host No. 13 Wake Forest at Cardinal Stadium. Kickoff against the Demon Deacons is set for Saturday, Oct. 29 at 3:30 p.m. EST.