Written by Erik Slaby
Louisville, KY- On a sweltering, humid, sunny afternoon here in Louisville, at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, in front of a crowd of 55,888 people, the second most in school history, the 3rd ranked Clemson University Tigers defeated the 14th ranked University of Louisville Cardinals by a score of 47-21. This loss now gives Louisville a 0-1 record in Atlantic Coast Conference play and a 2-1 record on the season.
This game was hyped in the week leading up to it for a few reasons. It was the first game in ACC play for both Clemson and Louisville, both teams were ranked and ESPN’s College GameDay was in attendance. Making it the “game of the week” for ESPN. With all of the excitement surrounding the game and the pressure seemingly on Clemson, as the defending national champions, Louisville was not able to win the game. Early on, it seemed like the game would be close but in the second quarter, it started to turn bad for Louisville.
At the 5:31 mark of the second quarter, Clemson got the football back on their own 10 yard line after forcing Louisville’s 5th punt of the night. Clemson gained a combined 11 yards on their first three plays of the drive but on the 4th play, Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant launched a beautiful, deep pass to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud who ran untouched into the end zone. Inexplicitly, McCloud was left wide open, with no Louisville defender within 10 yards of him. Louisville clearly had busted coverage on the play as a few defenders were caught peeking in the backfield. Louisville did not score again until early in the fourth quarter. Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino spoke after the game about this play.
“It was a big play obviously,” an almost despondent Petrino said. “He (McCloud) ran a great route and the ball was perfectly thrown. We jumped on it and the double move, they (Clemson) executed it very well. Pulled the backside guard and we gave him (Bryant) sometime to throw it, but that is a touchdown play that we’ve got to be able to come back from.”
While the touchdown by Clemson in the second quarter was the turning point, the dagger occurred in the third quarter. Early in the third quarter, it appeared that Louisville was beginning to get a rhythm offensively after a few positive plays, but after a 40 yard plus run by Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson was negated due to a personal foul penalty on an offensive lineman, it soon went south.
Two plays after the penalty, Jackson was intercepted by Clemson linebacker Dorian O’Daniel who returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. O’Daniel seemed to have the play read from the start as he jumped the route immediately. This brought the score to 26-7 and any hope that Louisville had of making a comeback seemed to vanish into the air. The crowd was also taken out of the game at that point and many began to leave the stadium. Petrino addressed these plays after the game.
“I didn’t see the block,” Petrino said. “I don’t know what the call was. Obviously we had a big play and brought it back. But, we really just tried to get some yardage to get in a manageable situation. He (Jackson) saw the linebacker.” Petrino also added, “And we didn’t tackle. If the ball is intercepted, you’ve got to go make the tackle. There will be a lot to teach on that play for sure. That really did change the momentum. It didn’t allow us to get any momentum, because they (Clemson) had the momentum the whole time.”
Offensively, Louisville was led by Jackson who completed 21 of 42 passes, for 317 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. The majority of this yardage though came in the fourth quarter where the game was well in hand for Clemson. Louisville had 116 yards net rushing as a team so it would seem that they struggled to run the ball, but they did not. For whatever reason they did not run the ball much, unless it was on quarterback scrambles. They seemed to abandon the run late in the first quarter.
Clemson was led by Bryant who completed 22 of 32 passes, for 316 yards and one touchdown. He also ran for two touchdowns. The running game was led by running back Tavien Feaster, who finished with 92 yards on 10 carries. Fellow running back Travis Etienne also added 98 yards on the ground with the bulk of it coming on an 81 yard touchdown run. That was the longest play from scrimmage for Clemson since 2007. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke after the game about Bryant’s performance on the road against a quality opponent, in a hostile environment.
“I mean, he was awesome,” Swinney said. “He had a couple of shaky moments early, he was high on a couple throws, and we missed a couple layups, to be honest with you.” He also continued by saying, “but he settled in. He settled in and played a heck of a game. Made some nice scrambles with his legs, made some nice runs. And when you complement him with our backs, we really only need to get the ball to the edge. We can be tough to defend, especially when we take care of the ball. I’m just really proud of him. It takes poise, preparation, focus, confidence, and mental toughness to be able to stay locked in and just do your job. He made some big time throws, too.”
Louisville will continue their stretch of home games against Kent State next week. While Kent State is not a high profile opponent like Clemson is, this game will allow Louisville to regroup both offensively and defensively and let them see if they have improved after this tough loss to Clemson. Petrino stated that next week the team needs to, “Just come back and work harder. There’s a lot of football out there to play, obviously, but we need to improve. We can’t make mistakes and we need to play better.”
This game was hyped in the week leading up to it for a few reasons. It was the first game in ACC play for both Clemson and Louisville, both teams were ranked and ESPN’s College GameDay was in attendance. Making it the “game of the week” for ESPN. With all of the excitement surrounding the game and the pressure seemingly on Clemson, as the defending national champions, Louisville was not able to win the game. Early on, it seemed like the game would be close but in the second quarter, it started to turn bad for Louisville.
At the 5:31 mark of the second quarter, Clemson got the football back on their own 10 yard line after forcing Louisville’s 5th punt of the night. Clemson gained a combined 11 yards on their first three plays of the drive but on the 4th play, Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant launched a beautiful, deep pass to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud who ran untouched into the end zone. Inexplicitly, McCloud was left wide open, with no Louisville defender within 10 yards of him. Louisville clearly had busted coverage on the play as a few defenders were caught peeking in the backfield. Louisville did not score again until early in the fourth quarter. Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino spoke after the game about this play.
“It was a big play obviously,” an almost despondent Petrino said. “He (McCloud) ran a great route and the ball was perfectly thrown. We jumped on it and the double move, they (Clemson) executed it very well. Pulled the backside guard and we gave him (Bryant) sometime to throw it, but that is a touchdown play that we’ve got to be able to come back from.”
While the touchdown by Clemson in the second quarter was the turning point, the dagger occurred in the third quarter. Early in the third quarter, it appeared that Louisville was beginning to get a rhythm offensively after a few positive plays, but after a 40 yard plus run by Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson was negated due to a personal foul penalty on an offensive lineman, it soon went south.
Two plays after the penalty, Jackson was intercepted by Clemson linebacker Dorian O’Daniel who returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. O’Daniel seemed to have the play read from the start as he jumped the route immediately. This brought the score to 26-7 and any hope that Louisville had of making a comeback seemed to vanish into the air. The crowd was also taken out of the game at that point and many began to leave the stadium. Petrino addressed these plays after the game.
“I didn’t see the block,” Petrino said. “I don’t know what the call was. Obviously we had a big play and brought it back. But, we really just tried to get some yardage to get in a manageable situation. He (Jackson) saw the linebacker.” Petrino also added, “And we didn’t tackle. If the ball is intercepted, you’ve got to go make the tackle. There will be a lot to teach on that play for sure. That really did change the momentum. It didn’t allow us to get any momentum, because they (Clemson) had the momentum the whole time.”
Offensively, Louisville was led by Jackson who completed 21 of 42 passes, for 317 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. The majority of this yardage though came in the fourth quarter where the game was well in hand for Clemson. Louisville had 116 yards net rushing as a team so it would seem that they struggled to run the ball, but they did not. For whatever reason they did not run the ball much, unless it was on quarterback scrambles. They seemed to abandon the run late in the first quarter.
Clemson was led by Bryant who completed 22 of 32 passes, for 316 yards and one touchdown. He also ran for two touchdowns. The running game was led by running back Tavien Feaster, who finished with 92 yards on 10 carries. Fellow running back Travis Etienne also added 98 yards on the ground with the bulk of it coming on an 81 yard touchdown run. That was the longest play from scrimmage for Clemson since 2007. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke after the game about Bryant’s performance on the road against a quality opponent, in a hostile environment.
“I mean, he was awesome,” Swinney said. “He had a couple of shaky moments early, he was high on a couple throws, and we missed a couple layups, to be honest with you.” He also continued by saying, “but he settled in. He settled in and played a heck of a game. Made some nice scrambles with his legs, made some nice runs. And when you complement him with our backs, we really only need to get the ball to the edge. We can be tough to defend, especially when we take care of the ball. I’m just really proud of him. It takes poise, preparation, focus, confidence, and mental toughness to be able to stay locked in and just do your job. He made some big time throws, too.”
Louisville will continue their stretch of home games against Kent State next week. While Kent State is not a high profile opponent like Clemson is, this game will allow Louisville to regroup both offensively and defensively and let them see if they have improved after this tough loss to Clemson. Petrino stated that next week the team needs to, “Just come back and work harder. There’s a lot of football out there to play, obviously, but we need to improve. We can’t make mistakes and we need to play better.”