There was an obvious ripple effect of Louisville’s blowout loss to Houston on Thursday night.

The Cardinals essentially were eliminated from the playoff hunt, which only helped the B1G’s bid to get a second team into the field.

It was also the worst game of the season for overwhelming Heisman Trophy favorite Lamar Jackson. The Louisville quarterback was sacked 11 times, and he finished the night completing just 20-of-43 passes for 211 yards. Now, some are questioning if Jackson is as much of a lock for the award as everyone thought.

According to ESPN’s Mike Golic, Thursday night was good news for Jabrill Peppers.

“To me, who this opens the door for and how I would love it? Jabrill Peppers,” Golic said on Mike and Mike in the Morning. “For a guy like Jabrill Peppers to win it, there has to not be that one clear-cut favorite and I say that ironically because we did. Now that’s the question. Do we still have one clear-cut favorite?”

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Jackson is still likely in favorable position to win the award, though he certainly created some doubters with Louisville’s collapse on Thursday night.

But besides the struggles of Jackson, the other perceived favorites for the award haven’t lived up to expectations. That could make it the opportunity right for an atypical candidate like Peppers to emerge.

“Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey, done, right? So out of the way. Deshaun Watson, is he going to jump back into this? They’re just coming off a loss,” Golic said. “Jake Browning I think just had an excellent chance and maybe he still does because he has a couple more big games to show. He has monster numbers from a touchdown-to-interception ratio, but had a bad game against USC so that hurt him. ”

Golic made a valid point with all of that, except for the fact that Peppers is also coming off a loss. No Heisman Trophy winner has suffered a November or December loss and still won the award since 2003.

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But with Jackson out of spotlight games, Peppers still could have his Charles Woodson moment with Ohio State around the corner.

“My point is Jabrill Peppers is in a position now, he’s got a highlight game (against Ohio State) and if they win that game, he’ll have a highlight game again in a B1G Championship game,” Golic said. “If voters want, they can still have the ballots in their hands.

“They can turn them in early, but if they hang on to them…so to me, Jabrill Peppers is in a great spot to overtake Lamar Jackson.”