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CLEMSON – After one half of action here at Death Valley, No. 11 Clemson finds itself in a dogfight with an upset-minded Louisville team, as the Cardinals lead the Tigers 17-7.
Halftime Observations
– It took a couple of drives for the Clemson offense to knock off some of the bye-week rust. After back-to-back three and outs to start the game, Clemson finally put together an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive just before the end of the first quarter of play. Another drive late in the second quarter looked like it would result in points but a 49-yard FG attempt by Nolan Hauser was blocked.
– The Cardinals have gashed the Clemson defense to the tune of 228 total yards, with 133 of those coming on the ground. Bad angles, over pursuit and shoddy tackling have all factored in. This defense just isn’t very disciplined so far.
– Clemson has lost Peter Woods, Tre Williams and Shelton Lewis to injury in the first half.
– Cade Klubnik has passes for just 87 yards over the first two quarters. Against a Louisville pass defense that has been awfully leaky for a lot of the season.
– Klubnik’s legs have been a factor in the first half. He has 35 rushing yards, and has extended a couple of plays. One of those came on the touchdown drive, as he picked up six yards on a first down deep in Louisville territory and one 12-yard run on the final drive of the half.
– Multiple times in that first half Louisville’s entire offensive line hit the ground as soon as the ball was snapped in an effort to cut block the Tigers’ defensive front. Reminiscent of those Paul Johnson coached teams at Georgia Tech many years ago. Woods looked to have been injured on one of those cut blocks.
– Matt Luke was not happy with the play of the offensive line on the first two drives of the game. The Tigers’ offensive line coach could been seen chewing on his players after the second offensive possession. It has not been the best half of football from the guys up front.
– Speaking of a coach being hot, Dabo Swinney has been extremely unhappy with some of the calls here so far. It started with a questionable delay of game call on DeMonte Caphart and then Swinney really went ballistic in the second quarter after Avieon Terrell was flagged for interference and then on the very next play an obvious hold was not called.