The Clemson Tigers‘ 33-21 loss to the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday night in Death Valley saw no shortage of despondent purple and orange-clad fans reeling from their team’s stinging defeat.
Clemson (6-2 overall, 5-1 ACC) was never in control against a Louisville (6-3, 4-2) team that already had three losses and needed a 20-point comeback in its previous game to get past Boston College.
But Louisville’s defense stifled the Tigers’ offense for much of the game (in spite of a misleading stat sheet), and Jeff Brohm’s team pretty much ran the ball at will on Wes Goodwin’s defense.
Louisville scored 26 straight points while Clemson’s offense, so dynamic during its six-game winning streak, was reduced to a shell of itself. Cade Klubnik threw the ball 56 times but for only 228 yards, a 4.1 yards per throw average.
The Tigers never seriously threatened to get back into the game once Louisville carried a 26-7 lead into the fourth quarter.
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All in all, it was a miserable night for Clemson fans — many of whom were seen leaving Memorial Stadium early. A small few of the ones who stayed threw debris onto the field when a fourth-quarter call didn’t go in the Tigers’ favor.
That led to Clemson earning a spot on USA TODAY Sports’ weekly College Football Misery Index after their ugly Week 10 loss.
USA TODAY Sports columnist Dan Wolken wrote:
What makes a 33-21 home loss to Louisville so infuriating is that Clemson fans were convinced a lot of the issues of the last few years had been fixed. And why shouldn’t they have been? After an embarrassing 34-3 loss to open the season against Georgia, the Tigers played really well over the next six games, particularly on offense. At minimum, Clemson looked like a team ready to challenge for the ACC title and a College Football Playoff spot.
But it turned out to be an orange mirage, and Clemson won’t make the CFP unless it can win the ACC title. They simply don’t have any good wins. Beating Appalachian State, North Carolina State, Stanford, Florida State, Wake Forest and Virginia is not impressive when you’ve gotten smacked around by the two best teams on the schedule.
Clemson football 2024 schedule
Clemson, which dropped nine spots to No. 17 in Sunday’s US LBM Coaches Poll, will take on the Virginia Tech Hokies at 3:30 p.m. ET next Saturday. The game will be televised on ABC.