The Cardinals had three interceptions, ending Rutgers' first two drives and Dexter Heyman picked off Gary Nova with 1:41 left to preserve the victory. Heyman said he expected that route after seeing Rutgers use it repeatedly when studying film.
"I even told the guy next to me, 'Hey, play the drag because I'm going to jump the follow," Heyman said.
Jeremy Wright ran for a career-high 108 yards on just 11 carries, the first Cardinals running back to top 100 yards this season. Dominique Brown also ran for a TD. Strong said he told his offense at halftime to go out focused on scoring.
"It wasn't a pretty game, but the guys did it," Strong said.
Rutgers (5-2, 2-1) came in atop the Big East having won four straight and might have got caught looking ahead a week to the Scarlet Knights' game with No. 11 West Virginia, which also lost 49-23 to Syracuse on Friday night.
"We have to take care of what we can control," Rutgers senior fullback Joe Martinek said.
The Scarlet Knights struggled to find the end zone against a Louisville defense ranked 16th in the nation giving up just 16.3 points per game.
They pulled to 16-14 with 14:10 left after driving 80 yards over 14 plays when Nova tossed a 12-yard TD pass to Mohamed Sanu. That was as close as they would get as Mark Harrison dropped a would-be touchdown with the nearest defender 10 yards away, and Rutgers wound up punting on fourth-and-1 with 7:06 left.
"I looked up and I was like, 'Oh my God, how's that guy get so wide open? 'Cause we were in zone coverage, so that should never happen," Strong said.
David Rowe gave Rutgers one last chance when he ran down a ball in the end zone Bridgewater seemed to be throwing away with 2:08 left. But Heyman clinched the victory when he picked off Nova, allowing the Cardinals to run out the clock. Nova, a true freshman, said he hadn't lost a game since eighth grade. He said he didn't see the defender on the final interception.
"I don't like this feeling, and I don't plan on feeling like this again," Nova said.
The Cardinals had struggled in their three-game skid scoring in the second half, managing only one touchdown. They also came in giving up more than 3.5 sacks a game, fourth-worst in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Rutgers averaged four sacks a game on defense but didn't get Bridgewater even once.
"Oh, they blocked people finally," Strong said. | 
