Quick thoughts on Louisville loss: A system-wide failure leaves plenty of questions

Dabo Swinney was not happy most of the night (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Nov 3, 2024, 12:40 AM

CLEMSON – Passionate fans, especially in the heat of the moment, don’t always get it right. But one Clemson fan sitting just below the press box threw up his hands in frustration, visibly irked by the Clemson offense's lack of urgency despite being down by three scores, and shouted loud enough for everyone in two empty sections to hear.

“You had two weeks to prepare for this!”

He then threw up his hands again and sat down, head in those same hands, before standing up to leave. It was that kind of night in Death Valley.

To set the stage – Death Valley was rocking and rolling, the crowd was loud and energized and there were good feelings all around as Tajh Boyd and Sammy Watkins were recognized for their accomplishments and entrance into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame.

That all went sour over the next few hours as Clemson failed to execute in all three phases – the defense struggled with big plays, the offense struggled to find a big play, and special teams made big plays for all the wrong reasons.

If you went out to eat with your significant other, didn’t watch a play of the game and were handed a boxscore, you would look at some of the numbers and swear Clemson won. The Tigers outgained Louisville 450-366, earned 31 first downs to 19 for the Cards, passed for 228 yards and rushed for 222 yards.

Quick note – heading into last season the Tigers were 58-0 under Swinney when posting 200 yards passing and rushing in the same game. The loss at Duke to open the 2023 season broke that streak. Clemson is now 65-2 under Swinney with those numbers. Clemson is now 115-2-1 as a program with those numbers.

The Tigers were 11-of-23 on third down, 5-of-6 on fourth down, didn’t commit a turnover, had an almost 16-minute advantage in time of possession, and ran 101 plays to just 59 for Louisville. However, 44 of those and 217 of those yards came in the fourth quarter when Clemson was down 26-7.

However, the Tigers failed to finish drives, turning it over on downs once and missing two field goals. The same protection issues (on the left side) have led to four blocked kicks this season. Louisville had two chunk passing plays – for 22 and 31 yards – but it was on the ground where the Cardinals did the damage. Louisville had runs of 47, 23, 12, 23, 16 and 45 yards. The Cards averaged a whopping 7.8 yards per rush, and it was their cut blocking that paid dividends when both Peter Woods and DeMonte Capehart left the game with injuries.

The frustration boiled over in the fourth quarter with the Tigers down by three scores. Clemson’s offense, which it seemed should have been in two-minute mode, was taking sometimes as long as 23 seconds to get a play in, and then there was more standing around after taking a look at the defense. With the Cardinal defense struggling at times, the offense didn’t run to the line of scrimmage and instead went into a sugar huddle. As one writer proclaimed, “They do understand they’re down by three scores and not up three scores? Right?”

Louisville’s kicker missed his first kick but hit the next four. Louisville punted just twice but averaged 42.3 yards per punt. Clemson failed to get big air or hang time under its punts, which led to one big return that would have been a touchdown if not for a penalty, and the Tigers had both field goal attempts blocked.

Offense? Failing grade. Defense? Failing grade. Special teams? Failing grade. Coaching? Failing grade and then some, because as that one fan said, “You had two weeks to prepare for this.”

It was a system-wide failure. From play-calling to execution. There are four games left in November, and the goal of making the ACC Championship Game is still on the table. However, it would require Miami and/or SMU to lose somewhere along the way. SMU has Boston College, Virginia, and Cal left. Miami has Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, and Syracuse.

Another system-wide failure will make that moot.