Recapping Louisville's Rout of Syracuse in ACC Opener

Story by Matt D'Ambrosi

Photos by Julian McKenzie

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – It was a record setting performance in more ways than one at the Carrier Dome Friday night for senior quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Louisville Cardinals.

Jackson’s 610 yards of total offense were the most in both Louisville and Atlantic Coast Conference history as the Cardinals rolled to a 62-28 victory over the Syracuse Orange in the first conference matchup of the season for both teams.

Lamar Jackson Is The Real Deal

If the records mentioned above aren’t enough to convince you, how about sixteen seconds? That’s how long it took Lamar Jackson to prove to everyone at the Carrier Dome just how lethal he actually is.

On the Cardinals’ first play from scrimmage Jackson connected with senior wide receiver James Quick for a 72-yard score in what was the first of eight Louisville touchdowns on the night.

In fact, by the end of the first quarter, Jackson had tallied 207 yards and one touchdown through the air and 108 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. After the game, Syracuse Coach Dino Babers had nothing but praise for Jackson.

“He’s an exceptional player,” Babers said. “I saw him outrun contain, where three guys were exactly where they were supposed to be and he should have got tackled for an eight-yard loss and he runs all the way to the other sideline for an eight-yard gain.”

Jackson, who had eight total touchdowns last week against Charlotte, put the cherry on top of his unbelievable performance this week with an acrobatic leap over defensive back Cordell Hudson on a touchdown run in the second quarter that had his name trending on Twitter all night.

In all, the senior from Boynton Beach, Fla. finished with a video game stat line of 411 yards passing and 199 yards rushing to go along with five total touchdowns (one passing, four rushing).

Amba Etta-Tawo Will Be Vital To Syracuse’s Offense This Season

If there was a silver lining in the blowout loss for Syracuse it was that Maryland-transfer Amba Etta-Tawo built upon his week one performance.

After catching twelve passes for 210 yards and one score in the opener against Colgate, it became clear last night that Babers will look to continue the trend of trying to get Etta-Tawo the ball – even if it means running the exact same play twice in a row.

In the second quarter Etta-Tawo ran the same fade route to the corner of the end zone on back-to-back plays, reeling the ball in on the second one to cut the score to 35-14.

When asked about what it was like facing a defense of Louisville’s caliber, Etta-Tawo said it’s more important to focus on what can be done internally.

“It comes down to doing what be do best,” Etta-Tawo said. “It’s not really the opponent we play. It’s just executing on offense, doing what we do throughout the week [and] executing things that we practice.”

Etta-Tawo, who had only 20 receptions all of last year, already has that many through two games and showed that the Colgate game was no fluke; he is capable of putting up big-time numbers against big-time teams.

The senior wide receiver finished with 103 yards receiving and two touchdowns on eight catches.

Syracuse’s Pace of Play

There was one part of the box score that Syracuse and Babers won Friday night and that was the number of plays each team ran. At the halfway mark, Syracuse had run 58 plays to Louisville’s 42. The total at the end of the game was in Syracuse’s favor as well, 92 to 83.

For Syracuse, the point here is not necessarily efficiency – at least not yet. Babers’ recipe for success is playing fast. And running 81 plays last week against Colgate and 93 plays this week is fast.

There were numerous times throughout the game, especially on the Syracuse drive that led to their first touchdown, in which it was evident that Coach Babers’ quick pace of play was getting to the Cardinals. 

In other words, there were glimpses of play that Babers will be proud of and can look to build upon moving forward.

  

Up Next

The Cardinals will play host to Florida State next week at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. As for the Orange, they’ll look to rebound during next Saturday's homecoming game against the University of South Florida.