Watson TDs lift No. 5 Clemson to 42-36 win over Louisville

The Tigers (5-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) rallied behind Deshaun Watson’s five touchdowns, the last two coming in the final seven minutes, after Louisville (4-1, 2-1) wiped out an 18-point lead behind another standout performance by Jackson.

Saturday’s win over Louisville has to make Clemson the favorite to repeat as the ACC champion. Freshman linebacker Tre Lamar sprained an ankle, but it’s not expected to be serious, although Swinney said he wouldn’t know more until after Sunday’s practice. “You either have the will to win or you don’t”.

Fifth-ranked Clemson wins games like Saturday’s because it has won them before.

Nebraska was solid, but not flashy, for the second week in a row in Big Ten play and I’m moving the Cornhuskers up three spots to head the second 10, while Wisconsin drops to 14 after its loss.

Watson also became the second FBS player in the last four years to throw for at least 300 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for at least 90 yards against a Top 10 team; the only other quarterback to accomplish that was former Tiger Tajh Boyd against Ohio State in the 2014 Orange Bowl.

The Tigers ceded the spotlight to Louisville early this season, due to a combination of unimpressive play in a 4-0 start and the rapid rise of Jackson (25 total touchdowns in four games) and the Cardinals (who beat Florida State by 43). “Just believe. … I said, ‘Just be great'”. Despite three interceptions and struggling for much of the second half while Louisville took an eight-point lead with 7:52 left, he came back with two huge touchdown drives.

Darrel Williams added a career-high 130 yards and three short touchdowns for LSU (3-2, 2-1 Southeastern Conference), which finished with 418 yards on the ground.

Jackson was 27 of 44 for 295 yards and a touchdown while rushing 31 times for 162 yards and two touchdowns.

“Obviously, we’ve had a very hard schedule, playing two of the best teams in the conference in back-to-back conference games”, said Petrino, who fell to 0-11 in road games against top-15 teams. “He’s the real deal”.

He had thrown a ideal swing pass to receiver James Quick on the outside and all Quick had to do was get to the 2-yard line. He rushed for 163 yards on 31 carries.

“I think our best football is certainly in front of us”, Swinney said. “Just the ups and downs. We’ve just got to keep playing”.

Starting with a 23-yard pass to Artavis Scott, the Tigers got three big chunks of yardage plus a pass interference penalty to put them at the 5-yard line with nine seconds left.

Clemson topped Louisville by a hair on Saturday, 42-36.

Louisville put up 568 yards, more than Clemson’s allowed to anyone over the past two season including to Alabama in the 45-40 national championship loss last January.

A year ago this game was almost rained out, and those who came sat through a torrential downpour to see their Clemson Tigers “B.Y.O.G”. But he could get no farther, when his fourth-and-12 completion to James Quick could not reach the first-down marker as Quick was forced out of bounds by Tigers cornerback Marcus Edmond. S Josh Harvey-Clemons, who leads Louisville with 7.3 tackles per game, had a team-high 11 tackles against Clemson. They were called for a false start, pushing them back to a 4th-and-12 at the hosts’ 14. With the plethora of wide receivers at his disposal, quarterback Deshaun Watson has the luxury of eyeing different targets on every play, but expect his roommate to get plenty of looks once again. Alabama travels to Arkansas for a primetime game on Saturday.

The primary hurdle at this point is likely an October 29 trip to Florida State, but the Tigers could lose that game and still claim the Atlantic Division crown by virtue of their victory over Louisville.