Louisville Football: Regardless of record, Puma Pass steadily improving

After struggling through several games, Louisville football’s starting QB, Puma Pass, seems to be finally finding his rhythm.

With just a few days to go before the Louisville football program kicked off it’s season in Orlando, Florida against the defending National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide, Bobby Petrino spoke about his new quarterback.

While he wasn’t new to us, he was new to the starting role. With only a handful of appearances in his first season on the field, Jawon “Puma” Pass displayed some of the skills that Cardinal fans had only heard about – some of the skills that made him a QB who could choose Louisville over the likes of Alabama and Auburn.

Though he wasn’t Lamar, a once-in-a-generation type of player, he was different – which really enticed the fan base. Built more like Cam Newton or Ben Roethlisberger than Michael Vick, Pass was hailed to be the savior of “Bobby Ball.”

When talking about Pass making his debut as the “guy,” Petrino said:

"“It’s his time. He’s ready to go. He’s been preparing for this for a long time. He just needs to relax, have a good week of practice. He did really well Friday night. I was really excited about how sharp he was, how accurate he was, and his decision making.”"

Going up against Alabama is certainly a way to start your career – huh? Imagine waiting behind one of the top financial investors in the industry for two years, and finally getting your chance to be “the guy,” in your firm. You walk into the boardroom thinking you were ready for this. You prepared for months ready to tell this client about all you have to offer and why you can take their money and triple it, hell nonuple it. Only to walk in and see the person sitting across from you and it being no other than Jeff Bezos.

That’s exactly what happened to Pass during his debut against Alabama. He struggled, just like anybody really would in their first attempt to go up against a Nick Saban-coached defense. Though he threw two picks in that game, Puma made the city of Louisville proud – and even in a 51-14 trouncing, Pass threw for 250 yards and two touchdowns and gave the fan base and coaches hope that the 0-1 start wouldn’t have an impact on the rest of the season.

But then – Indiana State happened. With three lighting delays and 30 inches of rain, (it wasn’t that much – but you sure as hell couldn’t tell my shoes that) Pass struggled mightily against FCS opponent, Indiana State – a school that went 0-11 in 2016, and was benched at halftime in favor of run-first QB Malik Cunningham.

What? How? No… What? The guy who just heard his coach declare it as “his time,” benched against one of the worst teams in college football? The guy who just passed for the most yards since 2016 against Alabama? How was this happening? This meant doom for the season.

The struggles didn’t stop there. In fact – things got worse. Pass- dealing with a turf toe injury from the Indiana State game- would get the start in week 3 against Western Kentucky in a game with no bad weather. Things aligned for him to get his job back and get Louisville back on track after a shaky week two.

Instead, the opposite happened. Louisville started the game down 14-0 against a non-Jeff Brohm- led Hilltopper team and after throwing just three passes – was done for the night. Benched again in favor of Malik Cunningham. The Cards would eek out a victory and the nightmare officially began.

What? How? No… What? The guy who just heard his coach declare it as “his time,” benched against one of the worst teams in college football? The guy who just passed for the most yards since 2016 against Alabama? How was this happening? This meant doom for the season.

It was now time to panic. Not only was Puma Pass not Lamar Jackson – he wasn’t even dare to say… good. Or at least didn’t appear to be in two games against inferior opponents.

Virginia was next and Malik Cunningham was the guy. After a half of football things weren’t looking good for Louisville. Though the defense was doing an incredible job of holding a team in the top 10 in rushing nationally, the offense- Bobby Petrino’s staple- couldn’t move the ball.

After a key pick from Rodjay Burns to start the second half put the Cards down at 3 yard line, Bobby Petrino decided once again he had seen enough of his starter. However, this time it was Puma Pass who got the nod in favor of a struggling Malik Cunningham.

Pass helped move the offense a little bit more but it didn’t do much to help as the Cards were blown out by Virginia, 27-3.

Now what? Turn to true freshman Jordan Travis? Give Malik Cunningham another chance? Through four games Pass had thrown for just 454 yards, two touchdowns (both of which came against Alabama in week one) and four interceptions. It was clear that even in struggles, Puma Pass was the guy who need to play at QB moving forward.

Bobby Petrino wouldn’t say who the starter was going to be against Florida State – but we all figured it would be Pass. If it wasn’t for an injury and what I believe was a bad decision to pull him in the Indiana State game, utterly rocking his confidence, things could’ve looked a bit different.

So when the Cards trotted out onto the field against Florida State last week – it was no surprise to see No. 4 running out with the ones, and would show Louisville fans and Coach Petrino that the right move was made.

Pass got hot very early on hitting star wide receivers, Dez Fitzpatrick and Jaylen Smith, early and often – leading the Cards to their FIRST OFFENSIVE TOUCHDOWN IN THE FIRST HALF ALL SEASON. 

We all know how that game ended and we all know how the next game against Georgia Tech finished; I’m not going to dive into the results. It sucks to be sitting at 2-4, and while the QB always deserves a little bit of blame, there are way too many other question marks surrounding this team to think the QB is the reason for the horrid start.

Since taking over against Virginia in the second half, Louisville’s offense has had a passing element that was missing after the Alabama game. There was sign of life in a unit that looked over-matched against even some of the worst opponents on their schedule.

As I mentioned, no offensive touchdown was scored in the first half against Alabama, Indiana State, Western Kentucky, or Virginia – the offense was beyond stagnant and was unable to throw or run (or move really). There were hardly any plays over 15+ yards, especially through the air, but from the second half on Puma Pass has accounted for 18 plays of over 15 yards through the air (compare that to the 8 through the first three weeks).

Getting down 14-0 last weekend destroyed any chances of the Cards putting together an elite offensive performance, and it overshadowed the fact that Puma Pass played his best game of the season, throwing for 299 yards and two touchdowns.

The Pumas Pass we all thought we’d see early on the season is finally beginning to emerge, even in the midst of the start to a Louisville season since 1997 when the team opened the year 1-5 through their first six.

Even with an inconsistent running game, one that the back-up quarterback stills leads, and an extremely shaky offensive line – Puma Pass is proving that he is who everyone thought he was.

Through the last two weeks Pass moved his QBR from 10.9 (Virginia) to 59.6 against Florida State and an even better 76.0 against Georgia Tech while combining for 605 yards, 4 touchdowns (1 rushing as well) and two interceptions.

Yes Pass has struggled with accuracy issues – which can come from having a under performing offensive line as well as turnovers. However, with all new (young) quarterbacks there are expected growing pains.

Calling for Malik Cunningham or Jordan Travis at this point would be missing the fact that through the struggles, Pass is finally beginning to emerge as “the guy” for Louisville football.