By William Qualkinbush.
Neither Clemson nor Louisville put on an offensive clinic in Saturday’s 23-17 Tiger victory, and although Louisville’s defense was impressive throughout the game, the Cardinals’ head coach was none too pleased with the unit he is tasked with leading.
Bobby Petrino has architected multiple potent offenses at various locales across the southeast, so he was understandably frustrated at his team’s inability to move the football against a Clemson defense hell-bent on destruction. His angst even stopped him from paying his own defense a ton of compliments in the aftermath of the loss, but he lauded his entire team for keeping its focus during a sloppy game that saw both teams squander scoring chances on multiple occasions.
“We continued to tell them on the sideline and at halftime, ‘Just keep competing. We’ll find a way in the fourth quarter to get it going, and it’ll be a fourth quarter win,’” Petrino said. “Unfortunately, we came up a little bit short.”
In the inaugural meeting between the two schools in football, both the Tigers and Cardinals appeared stuck in neutral on offense. The two teams combined to convert just three of 33 third-down attempts, and neither team posted any such conversions until the third quarter.
Louisville converted only ten first downs for the game, the fewest allowed by a Clemson team in two seasons. They also combined for only 52 rushing yards on 38 attempts in the game—a measly 1.4 yards per carry.
In spite of the struggles, Petrino’s Cardinals had the ball inside the ten-yard-line with a chance to win the game late. After a second-down running play was unsuccessful, Petrino decided to spike the ball, and he says the decision was made based on his confidence in the fourth-down play call.
“I thought that we would have the one touchdown play that we practiced and that we would be able to get it in on fourth down,” Petrino said. “The clock was running down, so we felt like we needed to spike it. You can always look back and say, ‘Well, maybe we should’ve thrown a fade, or do something like that.’ But, you get a chance to huddle and regroup and get it in there.”
The try failed, and Louisville was forced to swallow a bitter defeat. Petrino recognized the difficulty of the task and wished it would have worked out differently for his players, who he says gave great effort throughout the game.
“We knew we were coming into a place where they’ve been playing extremely well,” he said. “It was going to be loud. It’s a place where you’re going to have to work hard to win the game.”
Defensive scoring. Grady Jarrett’s fumble recovery in the end zone in the second quarter marked the second consecutive game in which the Tigers have scored on defense. It was the third touchdown of the season for Clemson’s defense, which has scored 22 points in 2014—including a pair of safeties.
For Jarrett, it was his fourth career fumble recovery. It was also the first fumble recovered for a touchdown for a Clemson player since 1998.
Reaping return rewards. Adam Humphries returned a punt 72 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter of Saturday’s game. It was the first such return in four years. Humphries’ 107 return yards on punts ranks fifth in Clemson history.
Record books for Beasley. Vic Beasley was credited with his 29th sack as a Tiger in the second quarter, surpassing Michael Dean Perry and Gaines Adams on the all-time list. He has now recorded a sack in eight straight games, one shy of Da’Quan Bowers’ school record, and has eight sacks in 2014.
Double digits. Freshman Artavis Scott reached double figures in receptions this week, hauling in ten passes—a career high—for 66 yards. The ten catches are the most by a Tiger freshman since Sammy Watkins had that many against Auburn in 2011.