Anyone with a rationally thinking mind knew the outcome of today’s game before the first kickoff, the only question was how much would Louisville win by. Louisville had just come off a disappointing home loss to Clemson and the unlucky team to get the bulk of the Cardinals’ wrath just happened to be 1-2 Kent State.
Louisville leaped out to a 21-0 lead by the end of the 1st quarter, Kent State hadn’t even picked up a first down yet. The 2nd quarter was unimpressive. With the exception of a late TD run by Lamar Jackson, Louisville failed to put together a successful scoring drive in the 2nd 15 minutes of the game. The halftime score read 28-3, but felt underwhelming after the first quarter performance.
The 3rd quarter was better, Louisville executed two scoring drives and extended their lead to 42-3. The 4th quarter started with Lamar Jackson on the bench, insert Jawon ‘Puma’ Pass. Pass led an efficient drive with the aid of freshman Running Back Colin Wilson. Pass and Wilson showed a lot of promise for the future and it appeared imminent that one of those two would record their first TD as a Cardinal. A fumble into the endzone from receiver Josh Johnson halted the drive and handed the back to Kent State. Still, the Pass-Wilson duo looked impressive today.
There are certainly some issues to clean up. Louisville turned the ball over 4 times (2 INTs, 2 fumbles). A very catchable dropped ball by Dez Fitzpatrick caused one of those interceptions, but the other was an uncharacteristic poorly thrown pass by Lamar. Lamar also fumbled inside his own territory, the other fumble was mentioned earlier that went into the endzone.
Although it was Kent State, many positives can be taken from today. Lamar still scored 3 touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing) and looked exceptionally accurate almost all day (18-22 for 299, 8 carries for 34 yards). With Lamar’s last touchdown to end the 3rd quarter, he set the all-time Louisville touchdown record, congratulations Lamar. Malik Williams added in 2 touchdowns of his own. Louisville would’ve had 49 points on the day, if the squirrel’s touchdown in the 2nd quarter didn’t get called back.
The defense was another bright spot. One of the 6 touchdowns scored today, was scored by Trumaine Washington on a pick-6. Louisville only gave up 3 points and held Kent State to 150 total yards (11 passing, 139 rushing).
It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t pretty, and honestly the opponent wasn’t much to write home about, but the Cardinals bounced back to a tune of 42-3 and improved to 3-1. Up next, Louisville hosts Murray State next Saturday.
Go Cards!
