Louisville has recipe for slowing down Watson, Clemson

The Clemson offense has been nearly unstoppable with Deshaun Watson at the helm over the past couple of seasons, but the one team that has had the junior’s number is Louisville.

Watson has been on the field against the Cardinals for about five quarters in his career, one period as a freshman two years ago at Death Valley before being injured and all of last year’s game at Louisville.

In those five quarters Watson is 23-for-36 passing for 194 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions, and Clemson’s offense has totaled 20 points.

Watson has led Clemson on 18 drives against Louisville in his career. The Tigers have scored points on four of them with two touchdowns and two field goals.

Tigers co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott credits Louisville defensive coordinator Todd Grantham for always having his unit prepared to play Clemson, particularly on third down.

The Tigers have converted only 7 of 30 third downs the last two years against Louisville.

“They’re very multiple, especially on third down. He kind of always has a third-down package of the week. They do a lot of different things on third down,” Scott said.

He added that Grantham’s defenses play an aggressive style that makes it tough on the opposition.

“They’re very disruptive. They’re not just going to sit back and play base defense. They’re going to move a lot of guys around,” Scott said. “You’ve got to be prepared for all of the different blitzes and different looks you’re going to get. His guys always play physical. They’re very active, great effort, physical to the ball.”

While Watson’s numbers against Louisville have not been great in his career, the only stat he cares about is the Tigers are 2-0 in those two games.

As long as Clemson wins Saturday night, he doesn’t care about individual statistics.

“The first year I got hurt so I couldn’t finish the game so of course I couldn’t have success because I didn’t get to play. Last year we won so that’s all that matters,” he said.

Watson added he feels like Clemson’s offense is performing well so far this season, even if the Tigers have not matched some of the preseason expectations.

Through four games Watson has passed for more yards than this time last year and has the same amount of touchdowns and interceptions.

“We have little miscues here and there. That’s going to happen with any team,” he said. “Just because all eyes are on us and we had all the hype throughout the season we get overshadowed from all the good plays that we make. Little miscues here and there everyone wants to bring up.”

Although Watson is only worried about a win, in order to get one Clemson will likely have to have a strong offensive night.

Louisville leads the nation in points per game at 63.5 and yards per game at 682.

“Our guys know that they’re going against a team that’s very talented on offense and defense, and we’re definitely going to have to score some points to help our defense out,” Scott said.

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Louisville has recipe for slowing down Watson, Clemson."