CLEMSON -- With 5:40 left in the game and his offense taking the field, Dabo Swinney made the long sideline walk to where his defense was huddling in separate groups.

First he stopped and gave a talk to his linebackers and defensive backs.

Then he walked over a few feet and had some words with his defensive line.

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This was not a congratulatory visit after Barrett Carter made a highlight-reel interception to bring comfort to the stadium with Clemson up 24-10.

This was a fire-breathing callout of one player, Myles Murphy, who had failed to set the edge on a third-and-20 run that Louisville took for 18 yards.

The Cardinals converted on fourth-and-2. Two plays later Carter snuffed out the threat with the pick.

But Swinney was irate that these detail things are still a thing here in mid-November. Particularly involving a veteran, gifted player who should know better. And who should be better.

This is the part of a team and a season that can be lost in the wake of a victory that provides an answer to a debilitating defeat the week before.

A coach can be proud of the way his team responded, and he can rail against the fringe fanatics who were calling for firings in the wake of the seventh regular-season loss in eight seasons.

And at the same time he can be an unrelenting critic of the flaws and lapses that by this point of the season could reasonably be considered defining.

Anyone in the stadium who was near this exchange could see that Swinney was calling out No. 98. And then the head coach took it a step further afterward about the guy who didn't start against Louisville and totaled one tackle.

"That was all Myles," he said. "Just not doing his job, just trying to do too much. That didn't cost us, but those are the type of things that get you beat. So regardless of what the scoreboard is, you've still got to do your job."