Louisville vs Houston: Highlights, score and recap
By David Rouben
Lamar Jackson and the Louisville Cardinals ran into a wall against the Houston Cougars, and made the playoff committee look like geniuses in the process.
Coming into Week 12, you might’ve thought Louisville would play a bit angry. In addition to hearing accusations of stealing Wake Forest’s gameplan, they have yet to break into the College Football Playoff committee’s top four. This, despite the fact that their quarterback is a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy. They couldn’t even crash the top four last week when every playoff team except for Alabama lost.
Lamar Jackson, and the rest of the Cardinals, voiced their displeasure on Twitter when they got the short end of the stick again. A big reason why they haven’t made the top four yet is because of their strength of schedule. Their best win is still against Florida State, and losing to Clemson might cost them the ACC Championship Game.
At the start of the season, people circled this game against Houston on the calendar thinking it would punch Louisville’s ticket in to the playoff, but the Cougars fell out of the Top 25 when they lost to Navy and SMU.
Everyone expected the Cardinals to come out and make a statement. But they played with too much emotion, and got completely stifled. The first play of the game saw Malik Williams fumble the opening kickoff, which led to a quick strike touchdown. That only set the tone for the rest of the game.
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Houston opened the floodgates in the second quarter. Their pass rush, led by Ed Oliver and Steven Taylor, pressured Lamar Jackson throughout the game, while their offense found creative ways to score touchdowns.
One of Greg Ward’s passes deflected off a Louisville defender’s hands straight into Duke Catalon’s hands, and Linnell Bonner threw a touchdown pass on a trick play. They built up a 31-0 lead at halftime, and that spelled trouble for Louisville.
Jackson finally got on the board in the start of the second half when he led a touchdown drive. But as soon as it looked like he was leading another drive, he coughed up the ball for Louisville’s third lost fumble of the game.
Houston entered the fourth quarter up by three touchdowns, and had a chance to kill off the game. But on fourth down, they went for it when they were in field goal range. The Cougars more than made up for it by forcing a three-and-out, then converting a 47-yarder with six minutes to go.
This result just made teams like Washington and Wisconsin very happy. It also vindicates the College Football Playoff committee’s decision to leave Louisville out of the top four all these weeks.
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While it was understandable that they’d be ranked below Clemson, many thought they should’ve at least jumped Michigan after they lost to Iowa. But if Michigan and Louisville were to play, most people would take Michigan all day.
Given that it’s the second last game of the season, this game might not be enough to knock Lamar Jackson out of the Heisman race, though it certainly takes him down a few pegs. But with the way he got stymied at every turn, it certainly felt reminiscent to Leonard Fournette’s Alabama game last year.
Three stars
Steven Taylor – A big reason why Lamar Jackson couldn’t get anything going was because of Houston’s disruptive pass rush. True freshman Ed Oliver and Steven Taylor led the charge by combining for five sacks on the Heisman front-runner, with Taylor logging three.
As a whole, Houston’s pass rush got to Lamar Jackson 10 times and forced a safety. Jackson’s scrambling ability has usually masked Louisville’s weak offensive line, but it didn’t this time.
Greg Ward Jr. – Remember when Greg Ward Jr. was a dark horse for the Heisman? Once the Cougars fell off, so did Ward, but he proved why he’s one of the most creative playmakers in college football. Sure he had some lucky bounces go his way, like a pass getting deflected straight to his receiver, but the fact remains that he outplayed Lamar Jackson on a big stage.
Duke Catalon – Duke Catalon was everywhere in the first half. He caught two touchdown passes, rushed for one, and threw one on a trick play. You’d think he was a frontrunner for the Fred Biletnikoff award with the way he was playing, but he doubled his total touchdown output in this one game.
Highlights
What’s next
Louisville’s last game of the regular season will be against Kentucky, but the Cardinals’ season is basically over at this point, and there’s no reason to watch that game than to get excited for their first meeting of the college basketball season.
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Houston’s last game of the regular season is against Memphis. They now have a 9-2 record, and are the only school to beat two top five teams. There is some renewed interest in the Cougars, and a win in Week 13 could propel them into a New Year’s Six bowl. It also puts Tom Herman rumors back in full circulation, because everyone couldn’t get enough of those in the first half of the season.