Louisville head coach says Tigers were tired of hearing how bad they were |
CLEMSON – Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield knew his Cardinals would get Clemson’s best shot, especially after the Tigers spent the last week hearing how bad they are.
Louisville entered Saturday’s contest as one of the hottest teams in the ACC. The Cardinals had won five of six games and featured an offense and defense that were in the top of the league in most categories. The Cardinals also featured one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the league in Malik Cunningham, who ranked seventh in the ACC in rushing. Clemson was coming off a lackluster 35-14 loss at Notre Dame last weekend, dropped in the College Football Playoff rankings, and had many wondering if Louisville would be able to pick up its first win in the series in eight tries. The answer is no after the Tigers controlled the game from the outset on the way to a 31-16 victory. "Congratulations to Clemson. I knew all week after you hear how bad you are, how you didn't show up, you didn't play against Notre Dame,” Satterfield told TigerNet. “You hear that enough; you're going to come out with your best game. We knew we were going to get their best shot.” Clemson’s defense recorded four sacks and nine tackles for loss, along with seven quarterback hurries. “Their defensive line, I thought played really, really well tonight,” Satterfield said. “It gave us problems up front. They brought a lot of pressure tonight with their linebackers as well. You get in their backfield, and we really couldn't get anything going offensively. It sputtered here and there but not a whole lot to get going.” Clemson managed to rush for 248 yards but also fumbled the ball three times. “I thought our defense played really, really hard tonight and created some turnovers,” Satterfield said. “Even when it didn't look great for us, they were still fighting and getting turnovers. Really proud of them. We didn't tackle great tonight, I thought we missed some tackles on (Will) Shipley and #26 (Phil Mafah). We knew that coming in that was going to be a big thing, we had to tackle well. We didn't do as great as we would like to do.” Cunningham was injured on the last play of the first half and didn’t return. “We still had opportunities. In the second half, we still had opportunities and we didn't make the most of it offensively. We are getting banged up a little bit right now and we don't have many receivers,” Satterfield said. “Of course, Malik got beat and banged again. But I'm proud of our guys. That's what I told them in the locker room. I'm really proud of how they continue to fight when things are down and out, they have not given up, and they didn't lay down. They didn't tonight, all the way until the last play where we threw a touchdown pass. I'm proud of them. We've got to regroup and we've got to come back tomorrow to get ready for NC State."
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