The Clemson Tigers fell, 33-21, in an upset loss to the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday night in Death Valley. The loss dropped the Tigers to 6-2 overall and to third place in the ACC standings at 5-1 in conference play with two league games remaining.
Clemson out-gained Louisville in total offense, 450 yards to 366, but those numbers are misleading. The Tigers and quarterback Cade Klubnik threw the ball 56 times but for only 228 yards, an average of just 4.1 yards per completion.
The Tigers had two field goals blocked after promising drives stalled in Louisville territory. They turned the ball over on downs twice, including when they couldn’t convert on a possible tone-shifting fourth-and-1 from their own 34-yard line in the third quarter.
While the offense showed signs of life in the fourth quarter, it was too little and too late. Even then, the Tigers showed no urgency with the clock and Louisville leading by three scores at 26-7. Their 61-yard drive that ended with a Phil Mafah touchdown run took five minutes off the clock with Clemson still trailing by two touchdowns.
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At his postgame press conference with reporters following the game, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney began by congratulating Louisville players and head coach Jeff Brohm.
For his own team, Swinney said the Tigers didn’t deserve to win and admitted to a “poorly coached” performance.
“We did not play anywhere near our best tonight, and it hurts. It’s a missed opportunity. We didn’t deserve to win. (Louisville) absolutely deserved to win; we did not. You’ve got to give them all the credit. We looked like a very poorly coached team tonight and that’s on me. Simple as that. Just incredibly disappointed with our performance tonight.
“Three things you don’t get back: you don’t get back time, you don’t back words, and you don’t get back opportunity. And this was a major missed one tonight, for sure. You don’t deserve to win when you can’t stop the run. It’s that simple.”
To that point, Clemson allowed 210 rushing yards, the second-highest total this season; they allowed Stanford to run for 236 yards in the Tigers’ 40-14 win over the Cardinal on Sept. 28.
Swinney repeated a number throughout his postgame remarks: 7.8. That was the amount of yards Louisville averaged on the ground Saturday. True freshman running back Isaac Brown accumulated 151 yards on 20 carries, including a 45-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach for a 33-14 Louisville lead.
Swinney was direct when he spoke of the Tigers’ inability to stop the Cardinals’ rushing attack.
“We couldn’t stop the run. They averaged 7.8 a carry. Incredibly poor tackling, very few punts. We did not affect the quarterback like we wanted to. No sacks. So again, you don’t deserve to win when people can line up and average 7.8 a carry on you. Just incredibly disappointing what I saw tonight.”
Here’s everything Swinney said following the Tigers’ loss to Louisville.
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