The Bird Cage
The Dynasty Intro: Lamar Jackson
By: Ambrose “Abe” O’Bryan
9/12/2015
Video Edit by Dave Lackford
The Louisville Cardinals return to Floyd Street this afternoon for their 2015 home opener fresh off the heels of a valiant effort against #6 Auburn in Atlanta. The Cards will face an old familiar foe from stints in other leagues when the Houston Cougars take the field at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Louisville will not only open a new season in front of the home crowd, they will also open a new chapter in Cardinal lore when true freshman Lamar Jackson gets his first start.
The Dynasty Intro: Lamar Jackson
By: Ambrose “Abe” O’Bryan
9/12/2015
Video Edit by Dave Lackford
The Louisville Cardinals return to Floyd Street this afternoon for their 2015 home opener fresh off the heels of a valiant effort against #6 Auburn in Atlanta. The Cards will face an old familiar foe from stints in other leagues when the Houston Cougars take the field at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Louisville will not only open a new season in front of the home crowd, they will also open a new chapter in Cardinal lore when true freshman Lamar Jackson gets his first start.
The saga continues (Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang) When we last saw our hero he was shaking defenders out of their shoes while turning the Georgia Dome field into his own personal gridiron-style And-1 mixed tape. Lamar “Lamborghini” Jackson’s performance had Louisville fans buzzing all week long, and for good reason . The diaper-dandy from Boynton Beach looked the part against a team many have picked to make the College Football Playoff this year. That much remains to be seen, but Jackson took the reins from Reggie Bonnafon in the second half last Saturday and put points on the board with every possession as the signal caller. Early in the week Bobby Petrino named Jackson the starter and Cards fans are eager to see how he answers the bell.
Many Louisville fans will remember Teddy Bridgewater taking over for Will Stein part-way through the Kentucky game in 2012 and setting the base equally abuzz over his performance and potential. While Teddy never surrendered the job, many would like to forget what happened the following game in his first career start against a perceived lesser opponent, Marshall. During that game the Thundering Herd made Teddy and the Cards look pedestrian by coming into The Oven and winning 17-13. The parallels are there as this afternoon Jackson will look to build on his opening salvo and lead the Cards to their first victory of 2015 over another “lesser” opponent.
Houston comes to town fresh off a 52-24 win against Tennessee Tech. The Cougar offense will feature a QB who can also make plays with his legs in converted WR Greg Ward Jr. who, like Jackson, ran for over 100yds last week. Ward is definitely a threat with his legs, but he'll face a much stiffer challenge in the passing game than he did last week when he completed 77% of his passes and threw for 275yds. Look for Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham to challenge Ward to make plays with his arm. If he can’t, Houston will be saddled with depending on Ward to win the game on athleticism and play-making ability. The pessimist in me says “this happens all the time with super-athletic QBs on the college level.” Be that as it may, I have a hard time believing Houston has the supporting pieces to win like that today since their top rusher outside of Ward only managed 49yds on the ground last weekend.
The Houston defense is a different beast from the Auburn behemoths Louisville faced off against in the Georgia Dome. While Auburn ran a 4-3 scheme with a large--very large—SEC caliber front seven, Houston runs a 3-4 with a much smaller but faster front seven. It will be interesting to see if Houston can corral Jackson and make him beat them from the pocket but I’m not counting on it. As we saw last weekend Jackson is very comfortable running the read-option and he had Auburn defenders on skates for the entire second half. A result of Jackson's ability to execute the read-option really opened up the running lanes for Brandon Radcliff. While the Louisville O-Line looked pretty bad against Auburn for the entire first half, one would’ve hardly known once Jackson took the helm and the Tiger defenders had to respect his running ability. Also, Houston ain’t Auburn.
Even though Houston won big last weekend and Louisville lost, I’m not all that worried about the Card’s chances this afternoon. With that said, I don’t know that I’d lay any money on the home team to cover the 13 point spread. I think the odds they cover are better than not, but you just never know how a true freshman QB is going to respond in his first home start. It was true for Teddy and he was without a doubt the best Louisville QB of my lifetime. Also, if I’m keeping it completely real, despite showing improvement in the second half against Auburn the offensive line looked pretty bad on Saturday, again, for the third year in a row. I just don’t trust that group to give consistent performances yet. I also don’t like risking good green money on things unless I am supremely confident.
Cards win, probably big, but spread your cheddar around somewhere else.
Many Louisville fans will remember Teddy Bridgewater taking over for Will Stein part-way through the Kentucky game in 2012 and setting the base equally abuzz over his performance and potential. While Teddy never surrendered the job, many would like to forget what happened the following game in his first career start against a perceived lesser opponent, Marshall. During that game the Thundering Herd made Teddy and the Cards look pedestrian by coming into The Oven and winning 17-13. The parallels are there as this afternoon Jackson will look to build on his opening salvo and lead the Cards to their first victory of 2015 over another “lesser” opponent.
Houston comes to town fresh off a 52-24 win against Tennessee Tech. The Cougar offense will feature a QB who can also make plays with his legs in converted WR Greg Ward Jr. who, like Jackson, ran for over 100yds last week. Ward is definitely a threat with his legs, but he'll face a much stiffer challenge in the passing game than he did last week when he completed 77% of his passes and threw for 275yds. Look for Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham to challenge Ward to make plays with his arm. If he can’t, Houston will be saddled with depending on Ward to win the game on athleticism and play-making ability. The pessimist in me says “this happens all the time with super-athletic QBs on the college level.” Be that as it may, I have a hard time believing Houston has the supporting pieces to win like that today since their top rusher outside of Ward only managed 49yds on the ground last weekend.
The Houston defense is a different beast from the Auburn behemoths Louisville faced off against in the Georgia Dome. While Auburn ran a 4-3 scheme with a large--very large—SEC caliber front seven, Houston runs a 3-4 with a much smaller but faster front seven. It will be interesting to see if Houston can corral Jackson and make him beat them from the pocket but I’m not counting on it. As we saw last weekend Jackson is very comfortable running the read-option and he had Auburn defenders on skates for the entire second half. A result of Jackson's ability to execute the read-option really opened up the running lanes for Brandon Radcliff. While the Louisville O-Line looked pretty bad against Auburn for the entire first half, one would’ve hardly known once Jackson took the helm and the Tiger defenders had to respect his running ability. Also, Houston ain’t Auburn.
Even though Houston won big last weekend and Louisville lost, I’m not all that worried about the Card’s chances this afternoon. With that said, I don’t know that I’d lay any money on the home team to cover the 13 point spread. I think the odds they cover are better than not, but you just never know how a true freshman QB is going to respond in his first home start. It was true for Teddy and he was without a doubt the best Louisville QB of my lifetime. Also, if I’m keeping it completely real, despite showing improvement in the second half against Auburn the offensive line looked pretty bad on Saturday, again, for the third year in a row. I just don’t trust that group to give consistent performances yet. I also don’t like risking good green money on things unless I am supremely confident.
Cards win, probably big, but spread your cheddar around somewhere else.
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