Lamar Jackson is living up to the hype and helping his 2016 Heisman campaign thanks to another remarkable half of football that has his No. 10 Louisville Cardinals leading the No. 2 Florida State Seminoles, 35-10, at halftime.
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Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson continued his early-season Heisman Trophy campaign, rushing for 146 yards and four touchdowns and adding 216 yards and a score passing.
Deondre Francois and the Seminoles offense couldn’t keep pace.
Louisville sacked Francois twice inside two minutes before halftime to regain possession and scored after sophomore cornerback Tarvarus McFadden gambled on an interception that resulted in a 44-yard completion to Cardinals receiver James Quick.
“I’m just proud of how he prepared for the game”, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. Cards fans were hoping Saturday’s third meeting as Atlantic Coast Conference rivals would be the charm for Louisville. His numbers were less impressive than the first two weeks due to the Huskies being helped out by a pair of Portland State turnovers deep in its own end, giving Washington a short field.
Jeremy Smith ran for two TDs for the Cardinals, and Jackson was almost unstoppable in piling up 362 yards of offense.
“They got the momentum, and we could never get it back”, Fisher said.
A similar drive stretched the Cards’ lead to 14 later in the first.
Even when they made plays, the ball bounced Louisville’s way. His four rushing touchdowns tied the team single-game record he already holds, and he’s now responsible for 18 touchdowns this season.
We are now seeing that Jackson has put it all together and is ready to perform at this high level for a full season, and he passed a huge test against a Florida State defense that seemed lost and out of sync. FSU gets a late field goal to make it 63-20. Four minutes later, Jackson scored from a yard out with 12 seconds left in the half. The Tide needed just three plays and 37 seconds to pull within 24-10 after Calvin Ridley ran for a 6-yard score. FSU’s defense hasn’t looked completely solid in a very, very long time, and it came back to haunt them greater than ever Saturday.
Vick went 15 of 29 for 225 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 97 yards and score in a 46-29 loss in the national championship game in the 2000 Sugar Bowl. The loss leaves the Rebels sitting at 1-2 with a showdown game against Georgia next week. In a game that created serious questions about the team’s defense, the special teams also made a critical mistake.
Unsurprisingly, the punt return eliminated any wind remaining in FSU’s sails and Louisville cruised to the finish line with the definition of a signature win. He was relatively quiet in his first two games before mauling Pitt’s cornerbacks today with 9 catches for 296 yards and 2 TDs. But first, the Cardinals must make their way through a proverbial trap game against Marshall next week.
And among these great games were numerous players that lit up the scoreboard. “You could see it by the way he played the game”.
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The general surge in confidence in Louisville’s chances might actually benefit Florida State. Jimbo Fisher teams usually bounce back pretty well from them, and perhaps with the weight of expectations that were placed on the team lifted off, they’ll play a bit looser.
