Week 2 of the 2023 season kicked off on Thursday night with a 56-0 win for Louisville football over Murray State.
With the win, the Cardinals improve to 2-0 on the season under Jeff Brohm. While we don’t know a ton about this team through two games against inferior opponents, it feels like this program may have actually turned the corner.
What did we learn from Louisville’s blowout win on Thursday night?
3. We need more Jamari Thrash
Coming over from Georgia State, Jamari Thrash was one of the most underrated transfer additions in college football. He was an explosive wideout for the Panthers in 2022, catching 61 passes for 1,122 yards and seven touchdowns and he had a nice first game with Louisville this season, hauling in seven passes for 88 yards and two touchdowns.
On Thursday night, the Georgia State transfer had three catches for 82 yards and a touchdown in the first half before being pretty much shut down in the second (by the Cardinals).
It’s fair, there’s no reason to get him hurt while up four touchdowns at halftime. Thrash didn’t need to play much in the second half with such a huge lead, but the three receptions in the first 30 minutes just didn’t seem like enough for how explosive of an athlete he is.
Through two games, Thrash has 10 catches for 170 yards and three scores. That doesn’t feel like enough touches for how good this dude is. Keep feeding him.
2. Jack Plummer has to protect the ball better
After a tough freshman year with Purdue back in 2019, Jack Plummer rebounded over the following three seasons to protect the ball better. He had 36 touchdown passes to 11 interceptions in his next two seasons with the Boilermakers along with one year with the Cal Golden Bears.
Plummer’s turnover problem (eight interceptions to 11 touchdowns in 2019) seemed to subside.
Unfortunately, he’s been bitten by the turnover bug a few times already this season and that’s going to cost the Cardinals against better teams.
On Thursday night, he threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball once but fortunately, it was recovered by his own team. Almost coughing the ball up three times against a team like Murray State is just unacceptable and needs to be addressed.
1. This offense is explosive
At Purdue, Jeff Brohm was known for his offenses.
For years, the Boilermakers scored at will thanks to really solid quarterback play and that seems to have carried over to his new job at Louisville.
While the quarterback play still leaves a lot to be desired with three interceptions through two games, it didn’t seem like there was a massive drop-off from Jack Plummer to Harrison Bailey which is a great sign. Heck, five different players completed a pass on Thursday.
The run game had an even better encore performance after rushing for well over 200 yards in the season opener against Georgia Tech. In fact, Jawhar Jordan led the way with 135 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries. The offense combined for 344 rushing yards and six touchdowns on an incredible 7.8 yards per carry.
Combine that with the 346 total passing yards and you have an offense that nearly cruised to 700 total yards on a Thursday night.
It looks like the days of explosive Louisville offenses have returned.