We have a short week Cardinal fans before we get to pour back into Papa John’s Cardinals stadium for another game. Hopefully it will be to get some redemption after the Cardinals heartbreaking loss on Saturday. It is a Black-Out game so hopefully the team can feed off of what will be an electric environment to pull off the upset. Just as it was last season when Louisville visited Death Valley for the very first time this will be the Tigers very first trip to Papa John’s Cardinal stadium. These teams have only met one time with Clemson winning that game 23-17. Clemson is 5-8 All-time in its first game in an ACC facility, and has a 5-9 record in ESPN Thursday Night games over the years. They have won four in a row, all under Dabo Swinney. Thursday nights have also been pretty good to Louisville with a 10-8 record during the mid-week showdowns.
Clemson will come into Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on Thursday night ranked #11 in the AP Poll and #9 in the Coaches Poll. Most pundits have picked them to ascend to the thrown of the ACC replacing Florida State as the top dog. Coach Dabo Swinney will have one of the most explosive players in the country at his disposal on Thursday night. Dual threat quarterback Deshaun Watson is the real deal. He can hurt you with his speed and has a rocket for an arm. In their first two games Watson has completed 37-48 passes, a .771 completion mark for 442 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. That computes to a 184.6 passing efficiency, ninth best in the nation. He has 11 carries for 39 yards on the ground. If the Cardinals defense can’t put some early pressure on Watson it will be a long night for the home team.
This Clemson team is also pretty solid at the other skill positions. They have some long athletic receivers. Leading the way in the group are Artavis Scott (12 rec, 148 yards, 2 TD’s), Charone Peake (6 rec, 98 yards, 2 TD’s), Ray-Ray McCloud (9 rec, 84 yards) and Germone Hopper (3 rec, 50 yards). Scott played 49 plays against Louisville and had 10 receptions for 66 yards last season. The 10 catches were the most against Louisville in 2014. Tight End Jordan Leggett has 4 receptions for 40 yards this season, but was one of Clemson’s most effective players with three receptions for 43 yards against the Cardinals last year. They have a solid one two punch at running back with Wayne Gallman (29 car, 171 yards, 3 TD’s), and Zac Brooks (8 car, 53 yards, 1 TD). Gallman will be their feature back on Thursday night and Brooks will be their change of pace guy. The only hole I could find is that they lost their offensive mastermind Chad Morris. But make no mistake about it this is a very good offensive group with a lot of fire power.
Tasked with stopping this potent Clemson offensive attack is a Louisville defense that had a very dismal outing last weekend. They allowed 462 yards of total offense and allowed 11 of 22 in third down conversions to the Cougars. Tackling will have to improve and the intensity level will have to improve on Thursday night. The one bright spot for the Cardinals defense has been Josh Harvey-Clemons. He has 24 tackles and two interceptions in the first two games. Big time players love big time atmospheres and I expect him to shine Thursday night along with Shaq Wiggins (5 tackles), and Trumaine Washington (11 tackles, 1 Int) who have also started off with solid performances. This will be the third game back to big time football for former Big 12 defensive player of the year Devante Fields (11 tackles). I hope he has found his football feet again and can return to some of that past glory on Thursday night. Much was expected from the Louisville defensive front this season. They’ll have their hands full but will also need to have a big night. Tall task ahead for this group.
The Tigers defense led the nation in 11 categories last year, including total defense, pass efficiency defense, third-down conversion percentage, first downs allowed and yards per play. But this unit lost virtually the entire defensive front including six players with eight or more tackles for loss in 2014. Clemson is one of those programs that doesn’t rebuild they just reload and this year’s Clemson defense already has some high national rankings as well. They will be led up front by DE Shaq Lawson (8 tackles, 1 sack), DE Kevin Dodd (7 tackles), LB Ben Boulware (5 Tackles), and LB B.J. Goodson (12 tackles). They are led in the secondary by CB Mackensie Alexander, and S Jayron Kearse (8 tackles, 1 Int). This Clemson defense lost a lot but they still have a lot of athletes and speed on this side of the ball. A young struggling Louisville offense will have their hands full.
The Cardinals offense will be without wide receivers Jamari Staples, James Quick, and Alphonso Carter on Thursday night leaving a very young group to carry the load. I expect to see Devonte Peete, and Micky Crum to step up and have big nights. I expected a lot out of Brandon Radcliff this year and he is the type of player that is capable of putting an offense on his back. I think Bad Rad could really have a big night and that would really help to get this struggling offense going. The Cardinals have to get the running attack going if they are to have a chance in this game. We don’t know officially who the quarterback will be on Thursday night. Based on his performance Saturday and his ability to deliver the ball to the right guy I think that it will be Kyle Bolin. And I wouldn’t be shocked if we also see Lamar Jackson a few snaps. This group is still struggling to find some type of identity and they’ll have to do it against a very solid defense on Thursday night.
There has been a lot of Thursday night magic in Louisville. It will take some more of that magic for our Cards to pull off this upset. The defense will have to carry the load and the offense will have to find a way to move the ball. I think that the intensity of the Louisville crowd and the Black-out will carry over and this will be another one of those mid-week classics we are talking about years from now. This is the night when the ship gets turned around. I HOPE..!
The Optimistic Beak Prediction:
Louisville 20 Clemson 17