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Come Fan with UsThursday, August 6, 2026

This Lamar Jackson laser shows how impossible he is to stop

The Cardinals won, 54-13.

NCAA Football: North Carolina State at Louisville
NCAA Football: North Carolina State at Louisville
Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s start here.

This is an absurd pass threaded through two defenders on a frozen rope for a score. It’s in the red zone, where the game speeds up. Inside the 20, the windows to throw into are tighter. You don’t have much to work with vertically, so the spacing of defenders isn’t there. It makes that throw all the more impressive.

Lamar Jackson doesn’t give a damn about your throwing window. He will make his own, because he’s Lamar Jackson.

Perhaps you forgot how good he is?

Because of a bye week and a Friday night snoozer against Duke, Jackson’s been a bit out of sight, out of mind. He has been out of the mainstream college football consciousness. He’s very much still here and very much still good.

In one half against NC State, Jackson’s 304 yards passing and 55 yards rushing with four touchdowns surpassed his 325 total yards last week. Again, he did it in two quarters. Louisville scored 44 points, and an end zone incompletion was the only reason that 44 wasn’t a 48. The Cardinals were held to a field goal on the drive.

There was really only one time he looked human on the day.

This is the tail end of a sack escape that was in its own right fantastic. His highlights seem so routine that when he does something wrong, it’s noteworthy.

He’s a one-man wrecking crew.

Only 16 teams had more than 34 touchdowns coming into Week 8.

It begs the question: why don’t they just make the whole team out of Lamar Jacksons? He’s on pace to catch Marcus Mariota, the last dual-threat QB to win the Heisman, who in 2014 accounted for 58 TDs. Jackson continues to dazzle and get closer to having at least one hand around the stiff-arming trophy.

So where does Jackson go from here?

Coming down the stretch, Louisville’s opponents rank thusly in S&P+ defense coming into Week 8.:

  • Virginia: 79th
  • Boston College: 65th
  • Wake Forest: 63rd
  • Houston: 18th
  • Kentucky: 77th

To say the rest of the schedule is getable may be a bit of an understatement. SB Nation’s Ryan Nanni was quoted during the second half of this game as saying that Jackson could probably beat Boston College and UVa “at the same time.” He is going to have his fair share of opportunities to dunk on defenses for the rest of the season, and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of watching him do it.

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