Clemson Football: 3 takeaways from road rout of Louisville

Clemson football routed the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday afternoon on the road, silencing some doubt. What’d we learn from the Tigers’ win?

The Clemson Tigers went to Cardinals Stadium in Louisville and dominated the undermanned Cardinals on their way to a 45-10 rout.

Tigers’ quarterback Trevor Lawrence overcame two early interceptions to throw for over 200 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Travis Etienne ran for almost 200 yards and a touchdown. Clemson quarterbacks completed passes to 11 different receivers in this one.

The Clemson defense came up with five sacks and three turnovers. Louisville had 10 drives of 10 or fewer plays including six three-and-outs as the Tigers’ defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage all game long, suffocating anything the Cardinals wanted to do on offense.

For Louisville, this loss wasn’t for a lack of trying. They came out prepared, and didn’t beat themselves. The Louisville turnovers were takeaways, not unforced errors. Louisville simply was out-manned in this one. Their game plan worked until the Tigers adjusted to what Louisville wanted to do defensively.

Offensively the Cardinals were just over-matched. They couldn’t block Clemson or run away from them. Combo linebacker Isaiah Simmons covered Tutu Atwell and he couldn’t pull away from him.

Here are three more takeaways from the Clemson win.