Clemson was never in control against Louisville Saturday night.
Led by a revamped defense, Louisville held Cade Klubnik and the Clemson Tigers‘ high-powered offense in check for much of the night in a suffocating 33-21 Clemson loss that dealt a huge blow to the Tigers’ College Football Playoff hopes.
Clemson (6-2 overall, 5-1 ACC) was never in control Saturday night in Death Valley as the Tigers got outplayed — and out-coached.
Louisville (6-3, 4-2) ended the night with 366 yards of total offense, including 210 rushing yards. Clemson’s defense didn’t record a single sack all night and forced only one punt until the fourth quarter. Clemson finished the night with 441 yards of offense, most of it coming in the final period with the Cardinals in control.
The Tigers’ offense started the night with two three-and-out drives and didn’t get a first down until 3:45 to play in the opening quarter. The offense seemed to be roaring to life after Klubnik hit freshman receiver T.J. Moore on a slant for 22 yards and then, two plays later, for 13 more to the Louisville 12-yard line.
Klubnik found Antonio Williams for a 12-yard touchdown and the Tigers’ first points of the night. Nolan Hauser’s extra point gave Clemson a 7-3 lead with 16 seconds left in the opening quarter.
None of the sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium would have guessed that Louisville would score the game’s next 26 points.
The Cardinals took the lead in the second quarter when sixth-year quarterback Tyler Shough somersaulted into the end-zone from four yards out for a 10-7 lead with 5:42 left in the half. Shough’s run capped a 92-yard drive in just under three minutes.
A turning point in the game came when Clemson drove to the Cardinals’ 32-yard line on the Tigers’ next possession, only to see the drive stall. The Tigers tried to settle for a 50-yard Nolan Hauser field goal but the kick was blocked by T.J. Quinn with 1:43 to play until halftime.
Louisville took over at the Clemson 47-yard line, and Keyjuan Brown finished off a scoring drive with a one-yard touchdown run for a 17-7 Cardinals lead with 43 seconds left in the half.
Jeff Brohm’s team started the second half much like how they closed the first, driving to the Clemson 22-yard line. Brock Travelstead knocked home a 42-yard field for a 20-7 Louisville lead.
After Clemson went three and out following a near interception from Klubnik, Louisville drove to the Tigers’ 23-yard line and settled for another field goal from Travelstead — a 40-yard kick that made it 23-7 with 6:47 left.
Another Louisville field goal added to the lead as Clemson fell into a deeper hole. After that Cardinals scoring drive, the Tigers had managed only 177 total yards and trailed 26-7 going into the fourth quarter. Clemson was averaging less than 5.0 yards per play.
Clemson drove 66 yards to the Louisville 7-yard line. Dabo Swinney made the curious decision to kick a field goal with his team facing fourth and goal. Louisville executed its second blocked kick of the night to keep the score at 26-7 and all but close the curtains.
When Phil Mafah scored from three yards out with six minutes left, it cut the lead to 26-13. Swinney made another curious decision to kick the extra point when a 2-point conversion could have made it an 11-point game. Even taking the extra point out of the equation, the drive took five minutes off the clock as Clemson showed no signs of hurry-up.
After a failed onside recovery attempt went to Louisville, Isaac Brown rushed 45 yards for a touchdown on the Cardinals’ first play from scrimmage to put Louisville ahead 33-14 with 5:50 left.
Mafah scored from a yard out with 2:07 to play to make it 33-21 after Hauser’s extra point, but the Cardinals were well on their way to their first win in program history against Clemson.
Klubnik finished the night with 56 pass attempts but only 228 yards on 32 completions for an average of 4.1 per catch.
The Tigers will head to Blacksburg to take on Virginia Tech next Saturday at Lane Stadium.
