Grading the Tigers: The Louisville Game
Here are our position grades for the Tigers, in their 45-10 win over the Louisville Cardinals.
Quarterbacks: B
Trevor Lawrence was not sharp early on, as he completed only 9 yards worth of passes in the first quarter and added two costly interceptions—both in the end zone.
But he responded the way that you would love to see a quarterback respond.
Lawrence finished the game 20-29 for 233 yards and three touchdowns. He also added a career-high 47 yards rushing
"I'm just really proud of Trevor," head coach Dabo Swinney said. "He was about as bad in the first quarter as you could be. Three for seven, two interceptions and I don't know, maybe nine yards or something. I mean that's like negative, negative, negative and then whatever your rating is. But he comes back and finishes 20 of 29, three touchdowns and that's what great players do. I mean and just I love that. It's all about how you respond and he was disjointedness. I mean he just tried to do too much. They're dropping all the coverage and they pick just two bad interceptions.
"And then he missed JC on the one that probably would've scored. A little high. And then we ran the bootleg in the second half and he should've hit Luke. And so he really had four plays that were bad plays in the game. But outside of that, wow he ran the ball well, he showed great leadership.
Running Backs: A+
For the second straight week, Travis Etienne looked like the back that started the season, as he amassed 197 yards and one touchdown on a 49-yard dash to the end zone.
In total, the ball carriers for the Tigers amassed 298 yards on the ground.
"Rushed the ball for right at 300 yards. And Etienne, I mean back to back weeks, just outstanding," Swinney said.
Wide Receivers: B
The receivers, as a whole, caught the ball thrown to them—however, Swinney felt like they left a few big plays on the field.
As a group, the wide receivers caught 253 yards of passes from three different quarterback and accounted for three touchdowns.
"We had a bunch of (big plays) today," Swinney said. "Missed on a few, got some of PIs and just think we needed to kind of get back and really establish our confidence and who we are and attack."
Tight End: C
The tight ends get a passing grade because they were not a factor in either a positive or a negative way. The Tigers have, either by design because they don't have one they are comfortable throwing the ball to or because of lack of trust, all but removed the tight end from the playbook.
The Tigers tight ends caught only one pass for a total of 10 yards. It is hard to knock them down in their grade or to raise their grade when they have become a non-factor.
Offensive Line: A
Two weeks ago the offensive line played their worst game of the season, the last two weeks have been their best of the season.
"Our offensive line was awesome. They took it over up front. I think we did end up with one sack," Swinney said.
Defensive: A+
The entire defense earned their supper, as they held the ACC's third-ranked scoring offense to only 10 points and 263 yards of total offense, while managing to force three turnovers that accounted for 10 Tiger points.
"So super proud of our defense. Xavier Thomas out today," Swinney said. "That was a big loss for us. Justin Foster steps up three and a half tackles for a loss, two sacks, caused the interception. Just really, really proud of him.
"Isaiah had a sack, Chad had a sack and Tyler Davis had a sack. But the biggest thing was the three turnovers, two interceptions and the fumble and then six sacks. So we really controlled the line of scrimmages on both sides but they got really good. They were 16th in the country in offense coming in, they can score. They got a great scheme. They did get outside of us a few too many times, but just really proud of our defense. We had a stop on downs and just great, great job."
