On his Always College Football show, ESPN analyst Greg McElroy gave his preview and prediction for tonight’s game between Clemson and No. 20 Louisville (7:30 p.m., ESPN).

Clemson (4-5, 3-4 ACC) is a 2.5-point underdog on the road, but McElroy is going with the Tigers to beat the Cardinals (7-2, 4-2 ACC).

“I’m buying that the swagger that Clemson carried with them last week, I think it carries over,” McElroy said. “I think Clemson might have turned the corner. I’m going to take the Tigers on the road. I think they will get a hard-fought and resilient victory against the Louisville Cardinals.”

Clemson is coming off a 24-10 home win over Florida State last Saturday – snapping a six-game losing streak against Power 4 teams at Death Valley — while Louisville suffered a major upset loss on Saturday, falling 29-26 at home to Cal in overtime. The Cardinals were favored by 18.5 points entering that contest.

McElroy says tonight’s game will come down to two things – quarterback play and offensive line play.

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik has passed for 2,136 yards and 14 touchdowns with five interceptions while completing 67.9 percent of his passes.

Meanwhile, Louisville quarterback Miller Moss has 2,132 passing yards with 11 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 63.8 completion percentage.

“Number one, which quarterback do you give the advantage to? … [Klubnik] has really battled throughout this season,” McElroy said. “He was very efficient in the Florida State game. … This resurgence will probably face his toughest test yet. Louisville is a top-30 pass defense that has been pretty good when it comes to affecting the opposing quarterback. So a very tough matchup for Cade Klubnik, especially knowing he might be without some weaponry in the wide receiver room.

“Miller Moss, on the other side, has also had a pretty decent season, but things are maybe heading back down a little bit after the embarrassing loss to Cal where he threw 38 passes for just 203 yards. Did have an interception and took a really bad sack at the end of regulation. But here’s the good news — he’s going against a pretty vulnerable pass defense, which is currently in the 100s right now in yards per game given up through the air.”

The other big question, McElroy says, is which offensive line will play better?

“Well, we just talked about Clemson’s challenges on the back end with their secondary,” McElroy said. “So, how do they protect their secondary? Well, the strength of their team is along the defensive line. Still a pretty nasty front seven, including two of the best D-linemen in college football with T.J. Parker on the edge and Peter Woods on the interior. This front generated six sacks in their most recent performance against Florida State, and they’re going against an offensive line that has had some challenges this year. I think Louisville’s offensive line actually played decent against Cal, so maybe progress is being made up front offensively. But I think they’re going to have their hands full, for sure.”

As for Clemson’s O-line?

“Clemson’s offensive line, they are very one-dimensional offensively,” McElroy said. “They’re not good running the football. Just over 120 yards a game, and they’re about to go against a Louisville run defense that’s one of the best in the ACC, just over 100 yards per game given up. Now, why has the Clemson run game suffered? Well, partly because they don’t have great depth or experience in the backfield at running back, but a lot of it’s because of the offensive line.

“This was a group that was expected to be one of the better groups in the ACC, and they have yet to live up to those expectations. They have been very inconsistent, and if you look at things through the end of October, they were under 2 yards per carry in the red zone, which is where you’ve got to be at your best running the football, and they really didn’t factor in much in short yardage and other issues like this.”

Clemson leads the all-time series with Louisville, 8-1.

The Cardinals earned their first win against the Tigers in series history last season with a 33-21 win at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium. However, Clemson remains 4-0 in road games at Louisville, including most recently a 30-24 victory in 2021 in which the Tigers held the Cardinals out of the end zone on four straight downs from the Clemson 2-yard line in the final minute for the win.