Louisville, KY – Teddy Bridgewater threw for 397 yards and four touchdowns, leading eighth-ranked Louisville to an easy 44-7 victory over Eastern Kentucky.
Bridgewater completed 23-of-32 passes this week, following up his 23-of-28, 355-yard effort last Sunday in a 49-7 romp over Ohio. The Heisman candidate has nine TD passes in his first two games for the Cardinals (2-0), who will take a slight step up in competition next week with a visit to Kentucky.
"I played average," Bridgewater said. "I left a couple of incompletions on the field. These are all fundamental things, and I am still getting better so I'll learn from that."
DeVante Parker caught five passes for 134 yards with two touchdowns, while Damian Copeland and Gerald Christian hauled in scoring passes from Bridgewater.
Jared McClain threw a TD pass for Eastern Kentucky (1-1), an FCS school from the Ohio Valley Conference which had beaten Robert Morris in its opener.
"We played a top-10 football team, and they showed it," McClain said. "They had a great defense and offensively we put ourselves behind the chains."
Bridgewater was perfect on five throws for 59 yards during Louisville's first series, finishing the 9-play, 75-yard set with an 8-yard TD toss to Copeland.
The Cardinals then went three-and-out, but marched 72 yards in four plays for another score with their ensuing touch. Bridgewater found Ryan Hubbell for 37 yards on the first play and completed the quick march with a 19-yard scoring strike to Parker.
Bridgewater had the Louisville offense inside the EKU 20 again early in the second, but misfired on a third-down pass and John Wallace kicked a 35-yard field goal for a 17-0 cushion with just over 10 minutes left in the half.
A Calvin Pryor interception near midfield about a minute later led to a Senorise Perry 5-yard touchdown run and Pryor returned a J.J. Jude fumble 22 yards to set up a 39-yard Wallace field goal for a 27-0 advantage.
Wallace started the scoring in the third quarter with a 22-yard kick and Bridgewater finished Louisville's next series with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Christian for a 37-point bulge.
Eastern Kentucky finally reached the end zone early in the fourth quarter on a 15-yard connection from McClain to Devin Borders, but Bridgewater went back out and directed a 76-yard series that ended with a 42-yard TD pass to Parker.
Game Notes
Louisville piled up 475 yards of total offense and held Eastern Kentucky to just 206 yards ... McClain finished with 85 yards passing and led the Colonels with 27 yards on 11 carries ... The Cardinals improved to 18-8-1 all-time against Eastern Kentucky and have won 10 of the last 11 meetings.
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