A UNC player said Lamar Jackson was 'not going to beat us.' Jackson had 525 yards and 6 TDs.

To be fair, Jackson beats almost everybody.

Lamar Jackson did horrible things to the North Carolina football team on Saturday. Louisville’s reigning Heisman Trophy winner threw for 393 yards and three touchdowns, and he ran for 132 and three more in a 47-35 win for the No. 17 Cardinals.

In retrospect, this comment by Heels linebacker Andre Smith did not age well:

“We definitely don't want it to be the Lamar Jackson show. So if he's able to beat us with his arm, then – well, he's not going to beat us at all. I take that back. He's not going to beat us. We're just going to stop anything that he tries to do.

“He's not going to be able to run on us, we have everything solidified with that, and we'll cover downfield and if the receiver's going to make a good play, like they did on Saturday here, Cal, then, I mean, it is what it is. We've got to come back next play and do the same thing.”

Jackson was most definitely able to run on them. He was also able to throw on them, and he was able to do more or less whatever he wanted on them. That’s because he’s Lamar Jackson, and nobody on the UNC defense is as good as Lamar Jackson.

Confidence is good! Nobody should ever discourage confidence, and it’s not like Smith got in front of a microphone and said, “Lamar Jackson is bad.” He just thought his defense would able to stop him, which turned out to be decidedly untrue.

There’s evidence that talking about stopping Jackson won’t help you stop him.

Last year, Jackson hurdled a dude for a touchdown:

Before Louisville played Clemson, a reporter asked a Clemson defender what would happen if Jackson tried to pull off a hurdling sequel on him:

I don’t think Jackson ever actually tried to hurdle Johnson, but the point, anyway, is that Jackson had a great night against Clemson. It came in a narrow loss, but Jackson led a 36-point effort against an eventual national championship defense and played great. He had 295 passing yards, 162 rushing yards, and three total touchdowns.

Jackson’s human, but most college defenses can’t stop him, no matter what anybody claims is possible before facing him.