Louisville is making Lamar somehow look even more awesome

All those problems Jackson covered up as QB? They’re all now fully exposed.

In its first year post-Lamar Jackson, Louisville is 2-7, a couple of the worse losses coming by 35 points at home to 3-3 Georgia Tech on Oct. 5, and getting blown out 77-16 by Clemson, and losing 54-14 to Syracuse on Nov. 9.

The worse Louisville gets, the more incredible Jackson looks.

In all four of Bobby Petrino’s previous seasons in this stint at Louisville, the Cardinals have gone 8-5 or better — and for at least parts of three of those, he had Jackson as his quarterback. Jackson caught fire and took the starting job in 2015, won the 2016 Heisman Trophy after lighting the college football world on fire while scoring 51 touchdowns, and was a finalist behind Baker Mayfield in 2017.

As the Georgia Tech game was unfolding, it was clearer than ever just how much Jackson meant to Petrino’s Louisville all along.

Same with the Syracuse game, too:

Throughout Jackson’s career, college football fans remarked on how many Louisville flaws the QB was masking. Well, now there’s no mask.

During Jackson’s time, the Cardinals’ offensive line was always bad, and the defense frequently struggled. Jackson’s wide receivers often dropped passes. He often had to try to win shootouts while avoiding constant pressure.

Offensively, the 2017 Cardinals ranked 81st in standard-downs sack rate, allowing 29 Jackson sacks. Entering the game against Georgia Tech, the Cardinals were down to 97th in that same category. The offensive line then allowed two sacks and seven quarterback hurries against the Yellow Jackets.

Louisville’s wide receivers have combined for just five touchdowns all season — last year the Cardinals had 29, with Dez Fitzpatrick catching nine.

Defensively, the Cardinals rank 103rd in S&P+, and the unit is giving up 40.8 points per game. Oh yeah, and:

In Jackson’s final season, Louisville finished at 87th in S&P+ on defense, but the Cardinals still won eight games.

And now the offense that had to carry all the load during Jackson’s two full years as a starter is no longer capable of carrying anything. It ranks near the bottom in every major S&P+ category:

(Note: These S&P+ numbers are from before the Cuse game)

Against Syracuse, Petrino tried three different quarterbacks in Jawon Pass, Malik Cunningham, and Sean McCormack, who saw his first career game action in the process. McCormack threw a pick on his very first throw, Pass had a fumble, interception, and another fumble on three consecutive possessions, and Cunningham had just one passing attempt.

This pretty much sums it up the night:

Almost everyone expected Louisville’s offense would regress without Jackson, but Petrino actually hoped it would get better.

From ACC Media Days in July:

I expect us to be better. I expect us to be more balanced, the ability to get more guys involved, particularly in the running game. I really like our receiving corps coming back. I really think it’s one of the strongest corps coming back.

And Louisville’s offensive future didn’t look this grim, especially due to the personnel Petrino had returning:

You don’t plug someone into Jackson’s role; you look at all the remaining components and build something new around them. And looking at what the Cardinals have instead of what they don’t, you find hope. Louisville has ...

A four-star sophomore quarterback (Jawon Pass) who completed 70 percent in limited action last year and fills the “pocket passer” niche that Petrino has thrived with in the past.

Last year’s top three receivers, each of whom averaged at least 9.1 yards per target with at least a 50 percent success rate in 2017.

A trio of running backs (Dae Williams, Trey Smith, Colin Wilson) who combined to average 6.6 yards per carry in backup roles. Each is at least 6’ and 220 pounds.

But actual improvement was always going to be nearly impossible minus Jackson.

Jackson wasn’t doing it entirely alone, and his supporting cast helped him to one of college football’s best offenses over the last two seasons — even though he was contributing far more than his share throughout, with frequently subpar blocking and some issues with drops.

2016

-No. 4 in yards per play (7.21)

-No. 3 in yards per game (532.7)

-No. 6 in scoring offense (42.5)

-No. 10 in offensive S&P

2017

-No. 3 in yards per play (7.39)

-No. 3 in yards per game (544.9)

-No. 11 in scoring offense (38.1)

-No. 5 in offensive S&P

As far as Petrino’s future in Louisville, that’s a bit unclear at the moment.

One bad season, along with the $14.1 million buyout in Petrino’s contract, makes it probably unlikely he’ll be fired after this year, but it wouldn’t be all that shocking if he was. He’s officially on the hot seat now, though — that seat is close to catching on fire right about now. Petrino himself has owned up to some of the mistakes he’s made this season, but as Card Chronicle points out, patience in Louisville with Petrino is wearing a little thin:

At some point this is just a coach telling the world that he is inept. Bobby Petrino has been a head football coach for over thirteen years now and he is making decisions that you would expect from an interim coach that’s in over his head. Veteran coaches shouldn’t have to tell fans that they “have to do better”. This is why you were hired and why you collect a check that is the size that it is.

I keep coming back to that last part every week. What’s the point of paying a guy as much as they do Petrino, if he can’t even get the “Football 101” stuff right? What are you paying for at this point? If you can’t trust that your coach will be able to put his players in the best position to succeed, you’re being robbed blind. That’s the first thing you should expect from your head coach and Louisville can’t trust in that at all right now.

Keep in mind that I’m only speaking on the three times this season that Petrino has had to answer to his gaffes. There is a separate list of head scratching decisions that no one took the time to ask him about over the years. Clock management issues and personnel decisions have been a running discussion amongst fans for a few years now.

Retroactive Heisman Trophies don’t exist, but if they did, Jackson would deserve another one.

You don’t replace a player like Jackson, and you can’t expect Petrino to do that. Instead, he needs to figure out how to win games without Jackson at quarterback — something he hasn’t been able to do at all so far this season.