Louisville Defeats #11 Clemson, 33-21

Tiger Fans Bizarrely Rush Field Following Loss

Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images

Louisville defeats Clemson.

We’ve all been waiting a decade to say those words and man does it feel fantastic.

This is obviously a huge win for this team and for the program, and I don’t think we should undersell it in any way.

Defeating Clemson has been a massive monkey on Louisville’s back since the Cards joined the ACC in 2014, and the laundry list of heartbreaking losses to the Tigers have only made that weight heavier and heavier.

But tonight that weight has finally lifted with a 33-21 drubbing of the #11 Clemson Tigers on the road, at night, in Death Valley. And it wasn’t even that close. And Clemson’s College Football Playoff hopes are all but dashed.

Louisville’s win tonight made history in a variety of ways. Not only was it the Cardinals’ first ever win over the Tigers, a fact still hard to believe with all of the nailbiting games in this series, but it was the highest ranked opponent Louisville has defeated on the road. And to make things extra sweet, it was Clemsons first home loss in a night game in Death Valley in 11 years, snapping a 22-game winning streak.

Beating Clemson and the record-breaking stats that come with it are huge in and of themselves, but the way Louisville did it tonight is what makes this win extra special.

The defense deserves all the credit in the world. All season long fans have wondered what happened to the dominant force we had become so used to last year, and after an encouraging performance against Boston College last week, they showed up massively tonight and shut down the #5 scoring offense in the country.

It was a performance we had all been waiting for, and it could not have come at a better time. All night long the defense was flying around, hitting extremely hard, and just gave a high-powered Clemson offense fits so bad that Dabo Swinney couldn’t do basic math when they finally found the end zone at the end of the game.

It’s going to be a lot of fun digging into everything they did so well over the next two weeks, but tonight what stood out to me was how the defense sent a message to Clemson from the first play of the game that they were ready for this game and that it was going to be a physical game. And boy was it. Even when Cade Klubnik got loose for positive yards the defense made him feel their presence, and you could see as the game went on he was shaky and wasn’t getting rid of the ball when he needed to. The defense kicked his ass and he was well aware of it.

The defense was on the field for over 100 plays and held the #5 scoring offense in the country to just 14 points before a garbage time touchdown with 2 minutes left. They made Clemson earn every single yard that they got. The defense had 9 pass breakups, 5 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks. The defense had a simple approach, and Clemson had no answers for it.

Even when Clemson was able to move the ball they had to do it at a painfully slow pace that chewed up the clock, and biggest of all, the defense never allowed the huge bust plays. It was exactly the kind of performance Louisville needed to win a game like this, and we got it. That deserves to be celebrated massively.

The offensive line also deserves a bouquet of flowers just as big as the defense’s. Entering their 7th straight game in a row without a bye, the o-line was banged up, but you wouldn’t have known it with the way the held the Clemson Tigers’ defense to zero sacks. That’s a real sentence, and an unbelievable one at that.

Louisville has now won 8 consecutive games when not allowing a sack. Pretty, pretty good.

The offensive line also set the stage for Isaac Brown’s national coming out party.

Isaac Brown is officially a star, and tonight he had to be a star in order to win this game. He had 20 attempts, 151 yards, and 1 instant classic touchdown.

Brown is a stud and Louisville will have to hand him a blank NIL check to keep him in town, because we have something really special on our hands.

The running lanes were wide open for Brown and the running backs tonight, and they took full advantage of it. Louisville simply pushed around Clemson all night and dominated them up front to the point where Tyler Shough didn’t have to do anything really special for Louisville to just blow out a team most had penciled into the CFP.

The last thing I want to touch on before I get back to my celebratory bourbon is that the special teams were outstanding tonight. Aside from Brock Travelstead’s miss on his first field goal attempt, he made his next 4 attempts with only one coming from less than 40 yards out. I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to criticizing Brock, but he rallied tonight and kept pushing the game out of reach on some really clutch field goals.

And if we’re talking about special teams, the highlight(s) of the night came from the two enormous field goal blocks. And they came at equally enormous times. The first was immediately followed by a Cards touchdown to put them up 17-7 before the half. And the second happened when Clemson was driving deep into Louisville territory at the start of the 4th quarter when the Tigers were desperate to score. It was a deflating play that all but took the Tigers out of the game.

There are just so many great things to say about this game and so many things to be encouraged about moving forward. If we can play at this level for the rest of the season, there’s a lot more fun we could have.

Should we even mention the hilarious way Clemson fans handled themselves during this beatdown? We got to see them melt down and lose their minds with Dabo after two correctly called penalties against them, they threw trash on the field following an onside recovery call they didn’t like (only for Isaac Brown to score a touchdown a play later), and best of all they still rushed the field following a loss. Just an all around incredible night for a fanbase that widely considers themselves holier than thou.

Tonight is a nice reminder of why you hire a guy like Jeff Brohm. I hope everyone celebrates accordingly tonight, and I especially love that we get to soak in this win for the next two weeks. Go Cards!