First Round Chicago: Louisville eyes the Irish, stomps Northern Illinois 25-10

Chicago hosted its first First Round tournament game on drizzly day in the upper 40's, but Louisville played like all was sunny and warm on their side of the field, as they bested a game but overmatched Northern Illinois team, to advance to the Fiesta Bowl against top seed Notre Dame.

Huskies QB Jordan Lynch struggled early against a prepared Louisville defense.  But it was not only the Cardinals defense that was in a groove, but Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater heated up the cool-ish day with a sparkling passing attack.  Louisville took their first drive in for the touchdown, on J eremy Wright 1-yard run, for the 7-0 margin. 

Bridgewater continued to dominate, and a circus TD catch by DeVante Parker on a 15 yard throw, and and after John Wallace's extra point was blocked, Louisville had a 13-0 lead.

NIU and Lynch struggled offensively, as his regular season magic seemed to be left behind in DeKalb.  So the Huskies pulled out a trick play.  Desroy Maxwell took a short snap on a fake punt on fourth-and-3 and ran 35 yards to set up a field goal for the Huskies' first score.  Mathew Sims 25 yard field goal cut the lead to 13-3 before the end of the first quarter.
  
Louisville continued to pass well in the second quarter, but the Huskies defense tended to bend but not break, and the Cardinals did not take advantage of scoring opportunities by missing field goals of 40+.  The Cardinals added to their lead with a 27 yard field goal, the score was Louisville over NIU 16-3 at the half.

Louisville continued to control the game at the start of the third, but this time capitalized, as Teddy Bridgewater threw a 19 yard touchdown pass to Damian Copeland for the 22-3 lead. 

In the third quarter, Northern Illinois finally found the lighning in the bottle, if only for a single drive, as Jordan Lynch completed a pass to Akeem Daniels for 55 yards to the Louisville 37.  Lynch finished the drive with a touchdown pass to Martel Moore for 11 yards, and NIU fans had a chance to cheer, cutting the lead to 22-10.

That was the score going into the final quarter, but Louiville continued to dominate both sides of the line of scrimmage, adding a Wallace completing the 30 yard field goal in the fourth quarter for the 25-10 lead, and Northern never challenged. 

Louisville leaves Chicago with a trip to the desert, facing Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.