LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After an unceremonious defensive performance, Clemson stood tall with its backs against the wall.
Down 30-24 with under a minute to play at Cardinal Stadium, Louisville had a chance to put the game away and eke out a win, but Clemson’s defense was ready.
Louisville ran four plays from inside Clemson’s 5-yard line and that bend, but don’t break mentality kicked in again.
“We practiced that formation in that situation all week just to be prepared for it,” Trenton Simpson said postgame. “I’m just so glad we stopped them.”
The explosive sophomore linebacker’s sack of Malik Cunningham with just over 10 minutes to go came at a critical junction. Simpson sacked Cunningham for a loss of 11 yards on 3rd-and-3.
He finished the game with 10 total tackles (three for loss) and two sacks.
“We went into halftime and made a lot of adjustments,” Simpson said. “The goal the whole second half was to contain him because he’s so dangerous as a quarterback. I give a lot of credit to him. He was a super-fast dude, had some great plays on us tonight. That was our plan, just to cage him in and we did the best we could.”
Cunningham netted 56 rushing yards in the first half and while that number increased in the final 30 minutes of play Saturday, it was aided by a 51-yard rushing touchdown on Louisville’s first offensive possession of the second half.
From there, he was hobbled and had to hunker down as he clearly wasn’t 100%. He wasn’t the same quarterback that gave Clemson’s defense fits in the first 2.5 quarters, but still gave the Cardinals every chance to win the game at the end.
Clemson’s bend, but don’t break mentality showed up yet again during Saturday’s imperative road victory. According to Simpson, there’s just something about this Tigers’ team.
“I think that’s our team,” he said. “We play hard. We give it all we got. [Saturday] was a display to the world of how we play and how hard we go. But, that’s us every day in practice and that’s every game we play in…we just go all out. That’s the team DNA. I definitely feel like we’re just relentless…it’s just so great to be rewarded.”
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