Louisville outlasted the Duke Blue Devils on Friday night which raised some eyebrows around the ‘Ville.  Fans were not happy that Duke was able to control the clock, convert on fifty-percent of their third downs, and keep the Louisville offense out of rhythm to an extent.

I took a look at exactly what happened and I think the ‘Cards won a unanimous decision against an unorthodox puncher that studied their opponent ad nauseam. Here is my breakdown on why this game was way closer than everyone thought it would be, check it.

Phase #1 – How Duke schemed for Lamar Jackson and the read option.

Phase #3: Hope for Louisville to screw up:

Phase #3: Play conservatively to prevent turnovers and make timely plays on third down:

Despite Duke’s solid game plan, they couldn’t pull out the win, and this one boneheaded play right here is what did them in:

Also, Lamar Jackson was brilliant as always, and his steady play and resilience paced the ‘Cards and kept his team’s playoff hopes alive, as well as his Heisman candidacy.

Oh yeah, Jeremy Smith’s 80-yard TD run and cameo on the Lamar Jackson show also was one of the key plays that really swung the momentum back in favor of Louisville, and obviously was the biggest play of the game.

Well that’s it folks, hope you learned something from all of this.  While it wasn’t the high scoring affair that UofL fans have grown accustomed to this season, it was still a solid win.  If you want to win a national championship in college football you gotta win the ugly ones, this was an ugly one, but UL escaped with the win and minimal injuries.  You gotta count your blessings when you walk away from a car wreck.

Check back next week, I’ll have a post game piece on the NC State game Saturday afternoon, and I will also have another game breakdown posted by mid-week.

Ciao

 

 

 

 

 

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Dave Lackford

Prosecutor at JCAO

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