Lamar Jackson Dominates as Football Loses to Louisville 56-10

By Christian De Guzman

LOUISVILLE, K.Y. — Not even lightning could stop Lamar Jackson.

As the pocket collapsed around the Louisville quarterback, he found a hole in the trenches. Jackson used that hole to break to his left and head towards the end zone. But he was met by Jonathan Thomas before he reached the five-yard line.

That was no problem for the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.

Jackson used a swim move and juke to his right to evade Thomas’ tackle. He walked into the end zone for his second rushing touchdown of day. At the time, the scoreboard read 42-3 in favor of Louisville.

“It’s amazing to see the runs that he makes,” said Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino.

Behind the performance of Jackson, Louisville dominated Syracuse, winning 56-10. The Cardinals torched the Orange defense throughout the game, totaling 727 yards of offense. Even though SU has played against Jackson before, there seemed to be no stopping him from doing what he wished.

“Let’s not fool ourselves, Lamar is special,” said Syracuse head coach Dino Babers. “He’s so cool and he’s so calm. He’s by far the best one that I have seen in a long time outside of RG3.”

Babers was referring to Robert Griffin III, who was the quarterback all four years that the Syracuse head coach was an assistant at Baylor. Much like Jackson, Griffin won the Heisman Trophy Award back in 2011.

Jackson was taken out of the game with 48 seconds left in the 3rd quarter. He threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns. He rushed for 111 yards and 2 more touchdowns. Jackson also set a new school record with his 11th 300-yard game this season.

“Our team is moving at a fast pace each period,” said Jackson. “We can score on any play. That’s what we like to do.”

Jackson wasn’t the only player who ran wild against the Syracuse defense. Malik Williams only ran the ball nine times, but gained 180 yards on the ground and scored two touchdowns. He and Jackson combined for 291 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

“There is one tackler for one guy, everyone else is playing their gap or man until the ball declares where it’s going,” said Babers. “If [the one guy] doesn’t make a tackle, we need the cavalry to come. We need people to help very quickly because there is not a lot of people behind him and that’s what you saw.”

Zach Mahoney initially started the game at quarterback for the Orange. Eric Dungey was in sweats and a boot for the day, much like he was in the second half of the Wake Forest game. However, after 2 interceptions, Rex Culpepper replaced Mahoney with 5:50 left in the 2nd quarter.

“At the time, we said let’s put him in there and see what he can do with the wind,” said Babers.

Much like Mahoney, Culpepper eventually finished with 2 interceptions. However, the redshirt freshman quarterback totaled 136 yards of offense, compared to Mahoney’s 50 yards.

With the loss, Syracuse can no longer qualify automatically qualify for a bowl. The Orange does not have a high enough APR score to qualify as a 5-win team.

That means seniors such as Zaire Franklin, Parris Bennett, Jonathan Thomas, Ervin Philips, and Steve Ishmael play their final game in a Syracuse uniform next week at the Carrier Dome. The Orange host Boston College on Saturday, November 25th, at 12:20 p.m.