CLEMSON -- Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney again addressed members of the media Sunday evening during his weekly teleconference following his coaching staff's film review of Saturday night's double-digit loss to Louisville in Death Valley.
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As usual Swinney spoke on a myriad of subjects, as the No. 19-ranked Tigers prepare for a week of practice ahead of traveling to Virginia Tech next weekend.
The following is an abbreviated transcript of Sunday evening's teleconference.
OPENING STATEMENTS: "Not much different from what I said last night. Incredibly disappointing game. Give a ton of credit to Louisville. They out-executed us in all three phases. Bottom line, we didn't deserve to win. We could not stop the run and had missed opportunities offensively where we didn't finish. We had to settle for some kicks and those kicks were blocked. We had a chance to create some momentum to go up 14-3 and we didn't get that done. A lot of missed opportunities and no complementary football.
"Defensively, no turnovers and our fundamentals were poor. I'm really disappointed in how we played. When you don't stop the run, you don't deserve to win. And then penalties.
"Offensively, 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing and it hadn't happened where we lost a game in over 100 years until last year. And then it happened again last night. We had no turnovers but just too many missed opportunities. You make those field goals, you create some momentum. Some long drives and we didn't finish. The positive was ... our offensive line was physical. And we gave up the one sack. Mafah competed his butt off. So did Cade. But we didn't do enough to create the momentum when we had opportunities to and in any facet of the game.
"We have to get back to work and reset this week. We have another opportunity this week. We'll flush it and move on really quickly.
"Injury-wise, Capehart and Shelton Lewis will be week to week. Everybody else will be day to day at this point."
Q: Early on, it seemed like Cade was rattled. Did you see that on film?
SWINNEY: "No. First two drives we were three and out. They said it was a false start. I didn't see it on tape. And then we had a missed block, so we were behind the chains. The third drive we had a nice touchdown drive and then the next drive we had a 10-play drive. We had two guys wide open and the ball gets tipped up. Tristan caught it. That's not the stat we wanted. It was minus nine yards and knocked us out of field goal range. We come out in the second half and had the fourth and one stop, then had a 13-play drive and had a blocked field goal. There were a few plays he missed and some plays we should have made for him. He made some really, really, good checks. I think he was 5-for-5 on checks that he made which was really good to see. Nobody was good enough to win but he competed his tail off."
Q: Just trying to get a more precise read on your read with the issues on this defense. Is it talent? Knowledge of the system? Situational awareness?
SWINNEY: "They've done a lot good things at times. Last night was the worst game we've played all year. We've got plenty of talent. We've got great talent over there. I didn't have them ready to play. It's just that simple. Poor job. We didn't tackle well. We didn't create turnovers. Not leveraging the ball, not finding the ball, not getting off blocks up front. We had a bunch of missed tackles. There were a lot of things that we need to do better.
"We're 5-1 in the league and 6-2. It's hard to go undefeated and it's going to get harder and harder to go undefeated. Sometimes you can have a funky night like that and it happened last night and it hurt us. We have to get ready for the next one."
Q: Has Louisville been cut-blocking all season? Do you think that was responsible for some of the injuries you had up front?
SWINNEY: "Yes, yes, but no on the injuries. Peter just got shook up a little bit. Louisville just does that (cut blocks). It's nothing we weren't prepared for."
Q: How is Nolan's confidence with the blocked kicks you've had this season?
SWINNEY: "He's got good confidence. He's a really confident, stable, young man. The first one we lost Peter Woods and were scrambling there. We weren't firm at our end position there. Simple as that. Their guy ran through us and blocked it. The second one, our wing, he reached out and the guy came right through the gap. Our wing just didn't get his job done. It's disappointing. We didn't execute the fundamentals and the technique there. Don't blame the players. Put that on me."
Q: You talked briefly about the onside kick last night. Have you gotten any further clarity on the ruling on the field?
SWINNEY: "No. Biggest thing is they called it their possession. I guess they didn't have enough video evidence to overturn it. We need to do a better job of not letting it come down to that anyway. That was definitely something that didn't go our way. We thought we had it but they obviously saw something different."
Q: Your reaction to some of your fans throwing objects onto the field after the call?
SWINNEY: "Yeah, that's not who we are at Clemson. I get it, but they have to let me deal with the refs. It's just not something we should do here at Clemson. Hopefully we'll learn from that and it won't happen anymore."
Q: Louisville had nine pass-breakups. What did you see from that on the tape?
SWINNEY: "A few of them were drops that we need to finish on. Those were 50-50 balls and we have to make a few more of those. We had one opportunity on a big one that could have sparked us to create some momentum and we just missed it and missed on several more. But give them credit, too. They're a good team."
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Q: After getting down by three scores, it seemed like the offense never moved with speed. Now that you've looked at it and talked to your coaches, what was the issue there?
SWINNEY: "Yeah, there were a couple in the fourth quarter. They moved the chains on us and we had to get different personnel in the game. We had another where we thought it was fourth and inches and then it was fourth and one and a half. There were a couple of other times where we didn't have enough urgency. I think we had 101 snaps, the second most in Clemson history, so we were trying to get some fresh legs in the game. But definitely we needed to do a better job in some instances."
Q: Peter Woods is day to day, correct?
SWINNEY: "Yes. Day to day."
Q: You're 95th nationally in rush defense in yards per carry. Is that jarring for you to see that?
SWINNEY: "Yeah. That is, especially with our personnel. We're just not doing a very good job. It's big plays. That's the main, attributing factor. There are times we do a great job and sometimes where we have given up big plays. Some have not been on our 1's, but last night 100-percent were on our 1's. And we just didn't do anything about it. I thought Louisville deserved to win and we didn't because of that ... that one thing. You have to be efficient in running and stopping the run. We have been good and efficient in running the ball all year but the opposite on defense. That's a big, big, disappointment for sure. Good news is we have another opportunity this week to see if we can get better."
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