Louisville Football: 3 takeaways from the loss to Pitt
By Caleb Hall
Jack Plummer cannot win Louisville games by himself
I guess you can say that Cardinal fans already knew Jack Plummer wasn’t elite, but this game cemented in stone that he isn’t in the elite Louisville quarterback company of years back. Plummer has not had to win games just by himself before. Even in last week’s win against Notre Dame the defense and running game led Louisville to a win, not Jack Plummer. Plummer has the ability and can manage games well, but I’m not sure he can put the team on his back and win games alone just by throwing the football.
Plummer threw 29-52 for 350 yards, 1 TD, and 2 interceptions. That is not a very good looking stat line no matter how you look at it. The 350 yards is impressive but those yards didn’t convert into points in the 2nd half, and that is when the Cardinals needed them most.
Plummer could not make the throws that Louisville needed in the 2nd half too. He overthrew the ball to his receivers multiple times, and the pick he threw in the endzone that resulted in a pick six was just flat out bad. Even on throws when the receiver caught the ball, he could have led them more and they could have been much bigger plays. The biggest one being a long Jamari Thrash catch that resulted in a first down but could have been a touchdown if Plummer just led the receiver.
Plummer can still prove he can be a quarterback that can win big games down the stretch for Louisville. But if he keeps overthrowing balls and making rash decisions, it will be hard for Louisville to reach the heights of an ACC championship this season. Plummer is a good quarterback, I’m just not sure he’s as good as we all expected in the preseason.