By Neil Burnett
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Clemson continued on it’s roll with a dominating 45-10 win in Louisville. The Tigers, a 24.5 favorite to win the game, dominated on defense from the beginning but once again, started slow on offense. Trevor Lawrence threw for 233 yards and 3 touchdowns, but threw two interceptions in the Louisville redzone.
In every game, there is normally a good, a bad and an ugly.
The Good: The good in this game is obvious. Lawrence had a good day passing. After a horrid start in the 1st quarter (3-7, 9 yards passing and 2 INTs), Trevor was 17-22, 224 yards and 3 TDs the rest of the way. Travis Etienne ran at will, picking up 192 yards in 14 carries and a touchdown. Justyn Ross hauled in 5 passes for 55 yards and a touchdown. The offense was once again balanced with 298 rushing and 253 passing. The defense was outstanding all day, holding Louisville to 263 yards, although they allowed a 100+ yard rusher for the first time in 27 games. They registered 11 tackles for loss, and 6 sacks on a day, including Justin Foster getting 3.5 TFL. Isaiah Simmons had 8 total tackles with 2 TFL and 2 sacks. Louisville’s offense came into the game averaging 37 points a game and 489 yards per game. There was a lot of good today against Louisville.
The Bad: To be honest, the bad was in the 1st half when Lawrence threw two interceptions in the Louisville redzone. Looking closer at his two INTs, the intended receiver was Amari Rodgers both times. The first interception appeared to be caused by a broken off route. The second INT was simply overthrown. In a 45-10 game, it’s hard to find a lot of “bad”. Trevor Lawrence had a good day 20-29 for 233 yards and 3 touchdowns, but he will probably tell us in post game interviews “I felt alright, I think we had a pretty good day, but…….I can play better.” Hard to argue with 22 straight wins, am I right?
The Ugly: Anyone who watched this game saw the ugly. It happened one play on special teams which this particular player will regret for a while. There is no need accentuating the ugly. 19 year olds make mistakes and let’s emotions take over. Coach Swinney knows this is a “teachable moment” and said “The seniors had a few words with him. The leaders stepped up. There will be some consequences but that’s not who he is.” Saturday, October 19th, saw a 1-5 Georgia Tech team beat a 3-3 Miami team IN Miami and a 6th ranked unbeaten Wisconsin team lose to a 2-4 Illinois team. Texas stole one from KANSAS 50-48. Alabama and LSU had less than convincing victories over two of the lesser teams in the oh so powerful SEC. College football is not always cut and dry. Something to remember, when a team visits a conference foe, and the visiting team is undefeated and ranked highly, anything can happen. Clemson gets everyone’s best shot, and sometimes, home team crowd and motivation make a difference, as with UNC. It certainly did in Illinois.
