Louisville football: 3 final thoughts from blowout loss to Miami

Louisville has to make things more difficult for opposing quarterbacks

Miami quarterback Jarren Williams had himself a day against the Cards on Saturday. It’s never good when you’re watching your team play and they’re constantly showing graphics about school records that the opposing QB is breaking. That was a consistent theme on Saturday.

Williams completed his first eight passes and looked possibly more comfortable against Louisville than even Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence did. Williams absolutely dominated, completing 15/22 for 253 yards and six touchdowns. All while throwing zero interceptions and not even coming close to fumbling the football.

Miami’s offense was ranked 87th in the nation going into this contest. After it, they’re now just 79th. So this by no means was an offensive juggernaut. Miami has been a team all season that relies on the big play. Against Louisville, they had the big plays, the small plays, all plays. They calmly went up and down the field without having much trouble until the game was out of reach.

Williams had this success for multiple reasons. On seemingly 90 percent of the downs, Williams had absolutely all day to throw. When you’re playing a team with athletes like Miami has, that can’t be the case, they’ll eventually get open. The lack of pressure mixed with the Miami receivers flat out beating the Cardinal defensive backs in one on one situations meant doom for Louisville.

Going forward, Louisville faces three quarterbacks who are ranked in the bottom 30 nationally, even one from Lexington who is actually a wide receiver. Things won’t be tougher than Jarren Williams until a possible bowl matchup. But with that being said, the Louisville defense has to be tougher going forward if the Cardinals are gonna get to that point.