Louisville football: 3 things from Cards loss to Clemson

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - OCTOBER 19: Evan Conley #6 of the Louisville Cardinals runs with the ball while tackled by Chad Smith #43 of the Clemson Tigers at Cardinal Stadium on October 19, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - OCTOBER 19: Evan Conley #6 of the Louisville Cardinals runs with the ball while tackled by Chad Smith #43 of the Clemson Tigers at Cardinal Stadium on October 19, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
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Clemson proves their still good against Louisville football in what was a hard-fought game for the Cards. Despite the loss, Louisville is still ahead of schedule.

Louisville football’s season is about to heat up. as they’ll play winnable games over the next six weeks, needing two more wins to become bowl eligible. Before they could enter that stretch, they had a date with one of the most dominant programs in college football.

Clemson is at the top of the top. They are the defending champs and haven’t lost a football game since 2017. They entered Cardinal Stadium as a massive 24.5 point road favorite and had a 93.3 percent chance to win according to ESPN’s FPI Predictor.

It was hard to say what was honestly expected from this game. One thing we had seen from this Louisville team for the entirety of this season is they are always competitive and never quit. This would be put to the ultimate test on Saturday, especially considering the fallout from last seasons’ 77-16 loss.

We figured there would be improvement, there has been in every category this season. But playing a team like Clemson is just different. There’s that rare class in college football that includes Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Ohio State, and Oklahoma. All other programs just seem to be on an entirely different level. So this kind of game against Clemson is usually a one of one experience within a season for most teams.

This was definitely true for the Louisville Cardinals, who lost 45-10 on Saturday. Here’s what to take away from this game.