Charlotte 49ers

Louisville football: Charlotte post-game rapid reactions

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Louisville football opened the season Thursday night, defeating the Charlotte 49ers in easy fashion 70-14.

This was everything that Louisville football fans could have hoped for in the first game of the 2016 season. The Cardinals came out on fire as they were able to put up 56 points by halftime. While this game was only Charlotte’s second game against a power-five team, Louisville showed how much of a gap there is between the two programs.

Lamar Jackson had the best two quarters of football that you may ever see from a University of Louisville quarterback. According to ESPN, Jackson was 17-23 while throwing for 286 yards and six touchdowns in the first half. Not to mention, he also ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns. He was running circles around Charlotte’s defense all night long.

The offensive line seemed to get together after a few rough drives to start the game. You could check that up to a couple of well-times blitzes by Charlotte, but most of the time was just bad play by the line. Again, they brought it back together later in the first quarter, but they will need to be consistently better against upcoming opponents Syracuse and Florida State.

There was a lot of talk this offseason about the impact Reggie Bonnafon would have moving into the slot receiver position. Bonnafon and Jackson were able to hook up on a 13-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter of this contest. He will find that he has a size advantage on most corners he will face this season.

Overall, this was a great win for a Cardinal football team ready to take on the ACC.

The Cardinals will now prepare to head to Syracuse to face the Orange next Friday at 8:00pm.