Louisville defeated by Houston 36-10 on Thursday night

They also defeated the Oklahoma Sooners in the season opener.

Jackson is now the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy and has No. 3 Louisville (9-1) in the hunt for a spot in the College Football Playoff as the Cardinals visit Houston on Thursday night. The Cardinals moved from No. 6 to fifth in the CFP rankings this week. “We were tired. We were exhausted in the month of October”, Houston coach Tom Herman said. If he does leave, this is one heck of a going-out party, even if Houston’s season isn’t over yet.

According to ESPN’s matchup predictor, which is based on its FPI rating, Louisville wins the match-up between the two teams 85.3 percent of the time. After all of the sack yardage was taken into account, Jackson finished with a season-low 33 yards on the ground.

“Me being a captain, I tried to get our guys to focus on the task at hand and that was Houston”, running back Brandon Radcliff said.

The tone for the evening was set on the game’s opening kickoff, when Malik Williams ran into the back of teammate Jeremy Smith and fumbled the ball. The Cougars never looked back. After a field goal by Ty Cummings made it 10-0 with 49 seconds left in the quarter, the Cougars upped the advantage to 17-0 with 12:18 remaining in the first half when Ward connected on another 13-yard scoring strike with Catalon. Ward has thrown for 2,608 yards with 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions and has run for 429 yards and nine more scores.

Everything broke right for Houston.

5 Louisville 36-10, dominating the game in every phase and opening up a 31-0 lead before the Cardinals got on the board.

The Cardinals were throttled on the road by the Houston Cougars 36-10, after falling behind 31-0 at halftime. The junior recorded five solo tackles, 11 rushing yards, and 35 total return yards in the loss. The Louisville offensive line struggled against the speed of the Houston defensive line and allowed 11 sacks during the contest and countless hurries. Louisville (9-2) also committed 15 penalties, mostly on pre-snap fouls due to crowd noise, for 114 yards. Jackson threw for 211 yards and a touchdown, but the score did not occur until the second half. Against Houston, he had 244.

Still, there’s no doubt that Thursday night was a missed opportunity for Petrino’s club, and it should provide plenty of offseason motivation heading into the 2017 campaign.

“Yeah, I think for our players, they just have to understand that they need to go out and play well, and play the type of football we are capable of playing”, Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino said. Much of the time though, the Houston pass rush were on Jackson so quickly, even his freakish speed could not help him avoid the pressure. That could change over the next three weeks, but Jackson built up such a staggering advantage that he can still hold onto his lead with a strong finish against Kentucky next week. Louisville is looking to be a college football dark horse after drumming Florida State, but after a close loss at Clemson, Louisville has been fighting to prove themselves to the playoff selection committee. Now, Louisville will likely end up in the Orange Bowl, which is still a New Year’s Six game, but it’s obviously not where UL fans were hoping the Cards would end up.