Blowout loss to Syracuse would be lowest point for Louisville football program

Louisville football travels to face an extremely tough Syracuse opponent tonight. Another blow out could be catastrophic to the state of the program.

Let me take you back to two years ago. It’s week two of Louisville football’s season and Lamar Jackson is coming off of a career game against Charlotte in the season opener. In just three quarters of play, the then sophomore, threw for 286 yards, 6 touchdowns, and ran for another 119 yards and two more scores. At this point, the name Lamar Jackson is not known by the rest of the country.

Until week two… against Syracuse.

In the team’s first road game of the year, Lamar Jackson exploded onto the national scene in a Friday night prime time game. While Syracuse was rebuilding, no one expected Louisville to do what they did.

62-28 was the final score, behind Lamar Jackson’s 411 throwing yards, 199 rushing yards, and five total touchdowns. Oh yeah, and he did this..

The following week, the Cards would put on a show in front of a national audience against #2 ranked Florida State with College GameDay in town, winning that one 63-20. Those three weeks would set the table for Lamar Jackson to win the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first player in Louisville history to do so.

Now, fast forward to today and get ready for a reality check.

Louisville is no longer beating down opponents 63-20, and 62-28. Instead, they are the team on the opposite ends of the beat downs, proving to play worse and worse as the season goes on.

We all know Bobby Petrino is on the hot seat, we all know the season is lost. We all know that Louisville will play three ranked teams to close out the season for the first time in program history. And we probably all know (whether we want to admit it or not) that 2-10 will be this team’s final record and 60+ points will likely be hung in every game.

The Cards and Bobby Petrino have owned the Orange since joining the ACC in 2014.. Let me rephrase that… The Cards and (mostly) Lamar Jackson have owned the Orange.

In four match-ups the Cards are 4-0, outscoring ‘Cuse 187-61. But in 2018-19, the tables have turned. Syracuse is the 13th ranked team in the country sitting at 7-2, and are 21.5 point favorites over Louisville heading into tonight’s match-up.

I went on 1260 the Score in Syracuse yesterday to talk about the dumpster fire that currently is Louisville football, and as the words came out of my mouth it hit me just how far this program has fallen.

Though many would say this years team has already hit rock bottom and the program is at it’s lowest point in history, making it worse than the Ron Cooper and Steve Kragthorpe era’s, I believe a loss tonight would be the ultimate low in Louisville history.

Never before has a team fallen from grace in such a manner, going from 8-win and 9-win seasons to staring 2-10 right in the face in the matter of one season. Many around the program are trying to write it off as “just a bad season,” but never has a season been as downright pitiful as this. Petrino has lost the respect of the team, and it is obvious in the effort that they give on the field. Recruits are dropping left and right and current players are jumping at the opportunity to transfer away.

Two and a half seasons after that absolute shellacking in the Carrier Dome, the Cards don’t look like a shadow of their former selves. The Orange have lost the last two games to the Cards by a combined 118-38, and the games weren’t even that close. Now, the Cards are coming off of a game where they allowed 77 points to a Clemson team that wasn’t even trying in the second half, and the Orangemen can smell blood.

If I am Dino Babers, this is a perfect opportunity for a statement game. Syracuse still has a shot at making a New Years 6 bowl, and could send a message to the rest of the conference and to the country that they are for real. And who better to keep your foot on the gas against than a team that is absolutely reeling.

The Cards could go down in epic fashion tonight, and 60, 70- hell, even 80+ points is not out of the question for this high-powered Syracuse offense.

The worst is yet to come this season for Louisville football, and all Cards fans can do is sit back, cheer on their team and hope that a change comes sooner rather than later.