LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A picture is worth a thousand words, the old saying goes. But you can read it a lot faster.

Louisville imposed its will on Virginia Tech Saturday in a 34-3 victory. It was the second straight game the Cardinals have held an opponent without a touchdown. It was Louisville's 10th straight home win, all by double digits. It can clinch a berth in the ACC Championship game on with a win over Virginia on Thursday night, followed by a Duke victory over North Carolina over the weekend.

The Cardinals are doing the job with their running game and their defense. Some images that tell the story of Saturday's win.

Jordan opens the scoring

After pregame concerns that he might not play because of a strained hamstring, Jawhar Jordan opened the game for Louisville and got the Cardinals off to their all-important good start. Louisville has scored on its first drive for the seventh time this season -- with six of those being touchdowns. Jordan finished with 47 yards on 14 carries, including this one-yard touchdown dive.

"I give Jawhar a lot of credit," Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said. "He’s nicked up in multiple spots. He tried to give it a go and he went out there and played. Luckily Isaac (Guerendo) and Maurice (Turner) stepped in and kind of took it over and we didn’t have to use him as much, so that was great to see. I’m proud of that running back room."

Guerendo runs for 2 TDs, flies for 1

Louisville's power running back, a transfer from Wisconsin, showed he has a breakaway gear with 3 touchdown runs on Saturday, barring for 146 yards on 11 carries.

It was a career-high rushing total, and he became the first U of L running back to carry for three touchdowns since Javian Hawkins against Florida State in 2020. His TD runs were from 39, 12 and 36 yards.

Defense dominates

One thing you notice from the pictures is gang tackling. But the numbers tell an even deeper story. Louisville has held back-to-back opponents without a touchdown for the first time since beating Cincinnati 20-0 and Southern Miss 6-3 in Nov. 1980.

It has had at least four sacks in four of the past six games.

It held Virginia Tech to just 140 yards of offense (no more than 51 yards in any quarter). The Cardinal defense now has held five straight opponents under 300 yards of total offense and under 100 rushing yards.

“The temperament they played with, I have a lot of respect for," Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry said. "We’ve played that way at times. Even after we had the drive where we got the field goal, they came right back. You have to be able to maintain that attitude play after play. That was what put them over the top today. They were big and strong, we knew that. They were explosive, we knew that. They managed the game well and they really came to play today.”

Asked what his defense is doing well right now, Brohm said: "It is about getting pressure on the quarterback, getting in front of receivers and not allowing free releases, or easy completions, making the quarterback look downfield longer than he would like to that would allow our defense to get in there and create sacks and get after the quarterbacks. Our linebackers get to play downhill, play multiple fronts and shifts and disguise coverages. All those things matter. I am a former quarterback and I know what we don’t like to see. Right now, our defense is doing a lot of those things you don’t want to see and doing them very well."

Coaching matters

Asked what lesson his team learned from the loss at Pittsburgh, Brohm said it was actually his coaching staff that learned a big lesson.

“Well, believe it or not, in my opinion, first off, we’ve coached better," Brohm said. "I didn’t think I coached well in the Pittsburgh game. We were too aggressive, we had turnovers, gave the other team the ball. On defense we were probably too aggressive, let them throw it over our head. So we needed to coach better. Now that we’re coaching better, our players are executing very well. We’re a little more conservative in our approach, believe it or not, but we’re smarter in what we’re doing while still being aggressive to a certain degree. And our guys are executing. So right now, we really haven’t had to ‘open the playbook,’ so to speak in a passing game, we haven’t had to ‘bring the house,’ so to speak on defense, we’ve just kind of run our package. So I just think, because of that, the understand it, they’re playing well. The mixture of all the things we’ve done has kind of thrown the offense and defense off and I just think it starts with me and our coaches and our players have done a really good job.”

Record passing efficiency

Louisville threw the ball only 13 times against Virginia Tech, and completed 12. Starting QB Jack Plummer was 11 of 12, setting a new school record for completion percentage. I'm still looking for the last time Louisville threw the ball only 13 times in a game. But it hasn't happened since 2009.

“I think Jack did a really good job again," Brohmn said of his quarterback. "That’s two weeks in a row. You could say that we didn’t throw it a lot. Well, you know what, we’ve asked to change up the formula a little bit and see if it’s effective. He’s taking care of the ball. He’s making good decisions. He’s got us in the right play. He’s got us in the right play in the run game. He’s very smart in his approach to the game. He’s distributed the ball accurately when he’s had to. Like I told him, there will be some games where you're going to have to air it out, you’re going to have to be efficient, throw a bunch of darts, and all those things, and still not turn the ball over very much. He’s done a great job, because of his experience, knowledge, his intelligence, and because he wants to win so badly and the fact that he’s a really good teammate. He does what we’ve asked him. He understands his offense as good me, if not better. When you have that guy out there on the field, it really helps. I’m really proud of his performance."

The smiles tell the story

I've only got 2 pictures left, but could show you a half-dozen or more of players smiling while making plays in the game. This team is having a good time. Just watch them dancing during "The Joker and The Thief," which Louisville plays just below the fourth quarter, is really all you need to see. Guys are having fun. And at 8-1, why not?