Louisville football game balls: 5 players who shined in shutout of EKU

Jawon Pass

I could start in a lot of places following a blow out the victory. Especially one where nearly every player who stepped onto the field played a role in helping the Cards pitch the shut out.

But to me, one player stands out above the rest and that’s Jawon “Puma” Pass.

All week leading up to the matchup with Eastern Kentucky, we pointed out how important Pass was going to be to the Cards. As I said, you typically don’t glean much from a blowout victory over an FCS school. But for Louisville, being able to establish a rhythm in the passing game, something they struggled with in week one against Notre Dame, was going to be key to long term success.

I’m not saying they read our site, but it seemed like Scott Satterfield and offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford may have been on the same page. They started the game aggressively in the passing game, all while setting up the run as we saw against Notre Dame, wasting no time taking shots deep.

Unfortunately for Pass and his receivers, most of those passes fell incomplete. Though Louisville was able to put up 14 points in the first half, they did so mostly because of big chunk plays (including the 50 yard Tutu Atwell touchdown “catch”) or bad execution on special teams by Eastern Kentucky.

All in all, Pass started the game 6/14 overall (43 percent completion percentage) with two touchdowns and an INT. Not great.

So what’s he doing on the list receiving a game ball?

For the second week in a row, Pass showed a much improved mental fortitude when it came to handling adversity and mistakes. After the pick on the fifth drive of the first half which ended in Pass’ first interception of the season, the redshirt junior bounced back strong.

In the second half, Pass led Louisville on three straight scoring drives showing much-improved accuracy as well as decision making in both passing plays and in the RPO.

Pass finished 12/20 overall on the night going 100 percent in the second half on passing attempts at 6/6 with two more touchdowns, one to Marshon Ford and the other to Dez Fitzpatrick.

Again, you can take this as being against an inferior opponent and believe to sweep it under the rug and say it’s nothing and I’d completely understand why you’d think that. However, considering what has happened with Pass in the past, the way that Pass responded in the second half and the way that he led the offense showed the big step forward he has taken as a football player.

It is awesome to get to see Pass succeed, and as he continues to become more reliable in the passing department the more dangerous Louisville can become a complete team. We’ve seen incredible improvement from the offensive line in two games, and it’s shown in the amount of time Pass has ultimately had to make plays.

On Saturday, despite early struggles, Pass showed great improvement as a true passer.