LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -Bobby Petrino keeps telling people there's more to the Big East than Louisville and West Virginia.

Halfway through the season, the resurgent conference's actions have spoken as loud as the Louisville coach's words.

While the sixth-ranked Cardinals (6-0) and the fourth-ranked Mountaineers (6-0) made it through the first half of the year unscathed, they're hardly alone at the top of the Big East. Rutgers is undefeated and ranked 19th, and all three trail Pittsburgh in the conference standings.

"I think they're (the doubters) starting to believe me,'' Petrino said.

If Petrino's team didn't believe him, Cincinnati provided the Cardinals with a wakeup call over the weekend. Louisville's 15th straight home win wasn't secure until cornerback Gavin Smart knocked down a last-second pass in the end zone to preserve a 23-17 victory.

Now, Louisville's much-anticipated matchup with the Mountaineers on Nov. 2 looks like just part of a tough four-game stretch that begins Saturday at Syracuse (3-4).

"It's going to be a difficult challenge,'' Petrino said.

And though Petrino is pleased the Cardinals enter this part of their schedule with their hopes for a conference championship intact, there's still plenty of work to do.

The running game is struggling without Michael Bush - out for the season with a broken leg - and the defense is having trouble getting opponents off the field.

"Offensively as you watch it, we're executing at times (but) we're not as consistent as we need to be,'' Petrino said. "It ends up being one person here, one person there. It's kind of like I've been telling them that's how we look in practice. We've got to get back to where we have all 11 guys on the field doing their job.''

The Cardinals ran for just 105 yards against Cincinnati, 109 below their season average.

"Obviously as a team we felt our offense didn't perform like we would like it to, but a lot of other teams out in the country would be happy with the way we performed,'' said fullback Brock Bolen, who led Louisville with 45 yards against the Bearcats. "There are some things we need to work on.''

The inability to run the ball consistently has hurt Louisville on third down. The Cardinals converted just three third downs against Cincinnati, allowing the Bearcats to hog the ball.

"I like the game when we're controlling the clock, we're controlling the line of scrimmage and we get the other team behind and make them throw the ball,'' Petrino said.

It didn't happen against the Bearcats, who had a 13-minute advantage in time of possession, the second straight week the Cardinals have struggled getting the ball back.

"We can't go hard the first two downs and just let them gain a lot of yards on third,'' defensive tackle Amobi Okoye said.

Petrino may have a solution to Louisville's somewhat-sluggish offense - hurrying things up a bit. Louisville has scored touchdowns at the end of the first half in each of its last two games, including an eight-play, 50-yard drive against Cincinnati that gave the Cardinals the lead for good.

"Our two-minute drive was like bang, bang, bang right in the end zone,'' he said. "So who knows? Maybe we'll come out and no huddle this week.''

Though there are areas of concern, the Cardinals know things could be worse. There are only eight undefeated teams left in the nation, and Louisville is one of them, despite injuries to Bush and quarterback Brian Brohm.

"I won't say we're satisfied, but we're close to a level of satisfaction, and we're just going to keep on working at it,'' Okoye said.