Louisville Demolishes the Eagles

By Quinn Kelly

To quote the great Dennis Green, a Cardinal in his own right, “they are who we thought they were.”

Louisville came into Alumni Stadium today made a mockery of the Eagles.  It started with Lamar Jackson taking it 69 yards to the house on the third play from scrimmage, 1:16 into the game, and it just got worse from there.  Louisville scored on four of its next five drives and tacked on a field goal on its final drive of the half to head to the break leading 38-0. The Eagles in the first half, on 7 drives, had 94 total yards.  Lamar Jackson alone had more passing yards and more rushing yards (yes, separately) than the Eagles had total offense in that half.  Speaking of LaHeisman, he stayed right on track with 290 all-purpose yards in the first half with 4 passing touchdowns to complement his one on the ground…and he sat out the last two drives of the half with a lower arm cramp.

The second half looked like it would get off to a little bit better of a start for the Eagles.  On Louisville’s opening drive, Jackson fumbled and the Eagles D jumped on it at the Cardinals 40.  Two plays later, Towles hit a beautifully executed throwback screen to Tyler Rouse that went the distance for a 39 yard touchdown.  This would be an isolated burst for the Eagles, though.

The rest of the game was really just a formality.  Louisville tacked on a few more scores and ended up taking this by a final score of 52-7.  Jackson had 231 thru the air and 185 on the ground, finishing with 7 scores to bring his season total to 45, just 2 off of the ACC record set by Deshaun Watson last year.

There really aren’t many, if any, positive takeaways for the Eagles in this one.  I just hold onto the fact that this game really didn’t matter for them.  This week is a wash and next weekend in Tallahassee will be of the same cloth.  I’m just gearing up for UConn, baby.  Bowl hopes still intact.

Final: Louisville 52-7