Clemson will hit the road again Saturday with a trip to Louisville for the teams’ first meeting since 2019. The coronavirus pandemic interrupted their series last season.
The Tigers (5-3, 4-2 ACC) will be looking for just their second road win of the season against the Cardinals (4-4, 2-3), who are 3-1 at Cardinal Stadium this season. What will Clemson have to do to get the win? Here are three keys:
Corral Malik Cunningham
Another week, another dual-threat quarterback for Clemson to try to contain. And make no mistake, the Cardinals’ offense runs through Cunningham, who’s accounted for 2,459 total yards and is Louisville’s leading rusher (556 yards). His 13 rushing touchdowns are tied for the most in the ACC.
His legs have been instrumental is getting Louisville’s running game warmed up of late. The Cardinals have rushed for at least 200 yards in four straight games. Cunningham ran for 133 of those two weeks ago against Boston College and ran for 76 more yards last week against North Carolina State.
Dual-threat quarterbacks haven’t been an issue for Clemson so far. The Tigers have already faced Syracuse’s Garrett Shrader (74.4 rushing yards per game) and Florida State’s Jordan Travis (48.6), two of the conference’s top 5 running quarterbacks. They combined for just 2 net yards on 23 carries, which included sacks.
If the Tigers can do the same thing to Cunningham, the third-leading rusher among ACC quarterbacks (69.5), they’ll improve their chances of winning.
Win the early downs
Putting teams in predictable downs and distances is advantageous for any defense, but moving the chains on the money down has been a particularly difficult task for Louisville.
The Cardinals have converted just 37% of the time on third down. Only Clemson, Syracuse and Georgia Tech have been worse at staying on the field offensively in the ACC.
Louisville has only converted half of its third downs once this season. The Cardinals won that game at Florida State. In its four losses, Louisville has converted just 34.5% of the time on the money down.
Which makes it even more important for Clemson to contain Cunningham and the rest of the Cardinals’ ground game on first and second down. Getting the Cardinals in third-and-medium or third-and-long situations would make it less likely for them to covert. Pushing them behind the chains would make it virtually impossible, particularly against a Clemson defense allowing teams to convert just 36% of its third downs.
The more times Clemson can force Louisville to go three and out, the more times the Tigers can get the ball back to their offense, which it needs considering Clemson has yet to score more than 17 regulation points on the road.
Speaking of scoring…
Don’t score for Louisville
Turnovers have been an issue for Clemson the last two weeks. The Tigers turned it over five times against Pitt and Florida State. Their three turnovers against the Seminoles last week tied a season-high.
Even worse, some of those takeaways have directly resulted in points for the opposition.
Pitt and FSU each scored defensive touchdowns against the Tigers, which killed their chances or came close to it. Pitt’s pick-six early in the second half put the Panthers on their way to a 10-point win, and Clemson needed a penalty-aided touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter last week to overcome FSU’s scoop and score that put the Seminoles up three a few minutes earlier.
Throw in Georgia’s pick-six in the season opener, and Clemson has been a victim of three defensive scores this season. The FSU game is the only one the Tigers have won when it’s happened, and that game was at home.
Simply put, it’s not something Clemson can afford to happen given the offense’s unpredictability.
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