They weren’t going to keep him bottled up for 60 minutes, but the Tigers displayed a defensive dominance over Louisville QB and Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson that few, if any, had done previously.

That led to a rout of the Cardinals, 29-9, on Saturday in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl at Orlando.

It’s the type of dominance LSU fans had expected to see all year long. Unfortunately, they only got glimpses of it in 2016. The Tigers showed on Saturday what they’ve been capable of since early-September.

Jackson looked anything but Heisman-like, especially in the first half. He had minus-24 yards on 12 carries in the first 30 minutes and was sacked five times over that span.

He completed just 2-of-10 passes in the opening half, and the Cardinals did not convert a third-down situation, while the Tigers were able to build a somewhat comfortable 16-6 lead at halftime.

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For the game, Jackson was limited to just 33 rushing yards on 26 attempts. He completed 10-of-27 passes for 153 yards. He fumbled once and did not score a touchdown after being responsible for 25.7 points per game entering the day, second in the country.

And it was all done without LB Kendell Beckwith, who sat out with a knee injury.

Dave Aranda finished up his first season as LSU defensive coordinator and couldn’t have prepared the team any better or put together a better gameplan. He dialed up more blitzes and put tremendous pressure on the Heisman winner.

“He did a great job of changing some things up,” said a jubilant Ed Orgeron, who was victorious in his first official game as the LSU head coach. “When you give Dave three weeks to prepare, he’s going to prepare. He had a notebook full on Louisville, and I could just tell by the way he was talking that he had a good feel of Louisville’s offense.”

That defense stopped Louisville on its first 13 third-down plays. They sacked Jackson eight times, one shy of the school record, and one of those resulted in a safety. Defensive end Arden Key caught Jackson in his own end zone for one of his two sacks – the second set the school record for sacks in a season with 12.

“A lot of people know this, Arden is probably the best pass-rusher in college football,” said LSU DB Tre’Davious White. “We are very fortunate to have him.”

White said that many hours were spent in the film room preparing for Jackson and the Cardinals.

“We watched a lot of film, and that helped us prepare for what they were trying to do,” White said. “They didn’t show us anything that we didn’t see on film.”

Linebacker Tashawn Bower recorded three sacks on the day, and DE Rashard Lawrence earned his first career sack late in the game.

“We did make some assignment errors where we turned a couple guys completely loose a few times, and then there were a few times that they beat us just on the pass rush,” said Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino.

It was a fitting finish for a defense that was stingy all season long when it came to allowing opposing teams to reach the end zone.