Louisville Football: 3 takeaways from the Cardinals win over North Carolina

Louisville football survived a slow start to take down North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Here are three takeaways from the Cardinals win over the Tar Heels on Saturday.

UNC linebacker Andre Smith offered a bold proclamation in the lead-up to Saturday’s game against No. 17 Louisville. Speaking about Cardinals quarterback Lamar Jackson, Smith pronounced, “He’s not going to beat us. We’re just going to stop anything that he tries to do.”

It was quite a confident statement from a player whose defense gave up 35 at home in Week 1 to lose to California. But it also looked like Smith and the Tar Heels defense was going to hold up its end of the bargain for much of the first half on Saturday. North Carolina stalled two early Cardinals drives, forcing them to settle for Blanton Creque field goals.

But stopping Jackson for an entire game is never an easy proposition. By halftime, the defending Heisman Trophy winner had already thrown for 259 yards and two touchdowns. The quarterback had also racked up 47 rushing yards to go over 300 yards of offense in just the first two quarters.

In the end, Louisville clamped down in the second half. North Carolina lost its starting quarterback early in the third quarter, Smith was shaken up on a defensive play, and it was all downhill from there in Chapel Hill. Here are three things we learned on Saturday from the Louisville’s 47-35 win over the Tar Heels in the ACC opener for both schools.

1. Chazz Surratt proved himself in his first career start at quarterback

Entering the season, there were plenty of question marks at quarterback for North Carolina. The Tar Heels had brought in graduate transfer Brandon Harris from LSU, and it seemed as though he was going to be the starter this year. Harris got the nod against California in the season opener, but eventually Chazz Surratt made his way into the game against the Golden Bears.

His performance in defeat against Cal earned Surratt the starting gig for Week 2 in the ACC opener against Louisville. Surratt followed up a 161-yard, one-touchdown performance in Week 1 with a big first half against the Cardinals. Completing 12 of his 14 attempts, Surratt threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns as UNC stayed close with Louisville.

An undisclosed injury in the third quarter forced Larry Fedora and his coaching staff to turn back to Harris at quarterback. The shift in performance was glaring, as the offense immediately sputtered with the change. Harris played well in relief in the second half, as the Tar Heels kept Louisville on upset alert thanks to two scoring drives and a 94-yard return touchdown in the third quarter by Anthony Ratliff-Williams.

What it taught us, though, is that Surratt gives North Carolina the best chance to win in 2017. Despite bringing in a big-name transfer, the Tar Heels had the answer on their roster all along. The redshirt freshman never did get back into the game for UNC, and it was a big reason why they couldn’t pull off the upset in the interdivisional showdown on Saturday.

2. Lamar Jackson is back on pace to repeat as the Heisman Trophy winner

After Week 1, Lamar Jackson had put together another statistically impressive day. But as Louisville struggled to put away Purdue in their home opener, Jackson’s 485 yards of total offense seemed light when considering he only had two touchdowns.

Much like their opener against the Boilermakers, Louisville found itself in a closer-than-expected battle against UNC. Down at times during the first half, Jackson did everything he could to put the Cardinals ahead. The reigning Heisman winner had over 300 yards of offense in the first half, including the longest touchdown pass so far in his career.

Avoiding the rush, Jackson eluded a shoestring tackle and then reset his footing before launching a beautiful rainbow into the hands of striding receiver Jaylen Smith. His other two touchdown passes went for nine and 30 yards. Then there is the threat he generated running the ball. Jackson’s three touchdown runs went for 43, three, and 11 yards.

Jackson finished the day with a huge stat line. The defending Heisman finished with a second straight 300/100 day. Jackson threw for 393 yards on 25-of-39 passing. He also ended Saturday with 132 rushing yards as he piled up six total touchdowns.

3. UNC found out on Saturday that running against Louisville isn’t easy

In their Week 1 loss to California, North Carolina’s backfield rushed for 219 yards and three touchdowns. Against Louisville a week later, the Tar Heels struggled just to get into positive yardage for much of the day. It was a dominant effort by a Cardinals front seven all around, but their biggest play came on a 30-yard sack and forced fumble on Surratt that was recovered by UNC and led to a punt deep in Tar Heels territory.

Surratt and Brandon Harris were able to chew up yardage through the air against the Louisville secondary. The two quarterbacks combined to put up 384 passing yards and three touchdowns on the Cardinals. But it failed to open things up much for the running game.

Of course, Surratt’s sack dropped the rushing numbers a bit since it officially counts as a rush under NCAA statistical anomalies. But even if you take the sack out of the equation, it still reveals a stout performance by Louisville’s defense against North Carolina’s run game. It also left North Carolina throwing the ball on fourth and short in the fourth quarter when they were still down just five, as Harris nearly tossed a pick.

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Even if you do Surratt’s rookie mistake, the Tar Heels still finished with just 47 yards and a late touchdown on 22 carries for a 2.1-yard average. No North Carolina rusher had a carry that went for even 10 yards. A week after holding Purdue to 51 yards on 21 carries in a close win, the running defense helped secure another narrow victory for Louisville in Week 2.