U of L's upset dream ends against Clemson

CLEMSON, S.C. – The University of Louisville football team came here to Death Valley looking for vindication.

While they proved their mettle in Saturday's 23-17 heartbreaking loss at Clemson, the Cardinals left this football-obsessed town and Clemson's famous Memorial Stadium wondering what could've been.

Two turnovers, 11 penalties and a shocking 1-of-17 mark on third-down conversion attempts swept away what had to be Louisville's best defensive performance of the season considering the opponent.

Louisville's defense held Clemson to 3.2 yards per play and a 2-of-16 conversion rate on third down. It forced two Clemson turnovers and still hasn't allowed an opposing offensive touchdown since the third quarter of the Sept. 13 loss at Virginia.

But U of L's four-down failure inside Clemson's 10-yard line in the final minute simply drove the dagger home, one final gut punch that left the Cardinals' Death Valley locker room quieter than a cemetery.

"It was real quiet, man," Louisville defensive tackle DeAngelo Brown said. "A loss like that hurts. … You had it right there in your hands."

For the second time this season, Louisville (5-2) indeed let a road win in a raucous environment slip out of its hands.

But this one hurt more than U of L's 23-21 defeat at Virginia. The faces on the players leaving the locker room said as much.

This one could've put Louisville in position to contend for the ACC's Atlantic Division lead when the reigning national champion Florida State comes to town on Oct. 30.

This one could've been the newest feather in the cap of a program desperate to prove its worthiness against the true college football bluebloods in its new conference.

Instead, this one left some Louisville fans questioning their head coach, Bobby Petrino, and wondering how the Cards left this hallowed football ground on the wrong side of history.

"That was a tough game to lose," Petrino said. "We just came up a little short."

Faced with a six-point deficit, 80 seconds left and 81 yards to the end zone, U of L quarterback Will Gardner threw to a wide-open James Quick.

Quick, the fourth-fastest player on Louisville's roster, turned a 20-yard catch into a 73-yard race, finally going down at the Clemson 8-yard line.

In one big play — surely the most important of Louisville's 2014 campaign to date — Gardner and Quick had revived the Cardinals in the Valley of Death.

And in the 50 seconds after that, the Cardinals flat-lined.

What happened?

After a seven-yard catch by Kai De La Cruz and a busted run left Louisville with third down at the Clemson 2, Gardner spiked the ball.

Game Rewind:Look back at U of L's loss

Though Louisville had no timeouts, there were 30 seconds on the clock, plenty of time to run two pass plays, silence Memorial Stadium and surprise the Vegas odds makers who favored Clemson by nearly 10 points.

Instead, Petrino explained after the game, Louisville's coaches wanted to go over their fourth-quarter, we-need-a-touchdown play that they'd practiced all year, a rollout sprint pass to the right.

They chose their one go-to play over two chances at a game-winning touchdown.

What they didn't know was that Clemson knew it was coming. Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said Petrino's Western Kentucky team ran the same exact end-of-game play last year against Arkansas State, and it worked.

But Venables and Clemson prepared for it this week, and after the mystifying third-down spike, the Tigers dialed up the defensive call that they knew would stop the game's last play and executed it.

There was mayhem in Death Valley and heartbreak for Petrino's Cardinals.

"I thought that we had the one touchdown play that we practiced and would be able to get it in on fourth down," Petrino said. "You can always look back and say, 'Well, we could have thrown a fade,' or something like that, but you feel like if you have a chance to huddle and regroup, you'll be able to get it in there."

Now Louisville, undone by missed opportunities and crushed by late-game lapses, returns home wondering what might've been.

The Cardinals were two yards away dancing in Death Valley. Now they have to wait two more years for another chance to steal the show in one of college football's most famed theaters.

"It's hard because it's a loss like that," Gardner said. "That's just how the game goes sometimes."

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).