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Different coach on the other side, but the same red sea of empty seats for most of the second half.

Two years ago, Clemson turned a much-hyped game at Louisville into a smothering as a bunch of black-clad fans left early.

That was really the first sign that the wheels were coming off under Bobby Petrino, though the full ugliness of it wouldn't materialize until last year.

Scott Satterfield appears to be doing a lot of things right in his first year as Louisville's coach, but the Cardinals are still not remotely in Clemson's class.

That was demonstrated Saturday when Clemson was able to work itself out of some first-half offensive struggles before cruising to a 45-10 victory.

The Tigers extended their winning streak to 22 games while improving to 7-0 overall and 5-0 in the ACC.

In some cases, two goal-line interceptions by Trevor Lawrence would come with a cost.

Not so much in this case. Not with Brent Venables' defense playing like this.

It was thought that Louisville's offense could give Clemson some trouble after the Cardinals put up 62 last week at Wake Forest and 41 the week before against Boston College.

The defenses at the aforementioned two schools aren't very good.

Clemson's? Uh, it might be time to flush the notion that there's going to be a major drop-off in 2019 after the loss of so many great players from last year.

Even without end Xavier Thomas, Clemson's defensive front was able to control the line of scrimmage against a Louisville offensive line that seemed formidable going in.

Louisville's touchdown came with five minutes left, and 75 of the Cardinals' 263 yards came on that scoring drive against a bunch of Clemson backups.

Louisville entered the game averaging 227 rushing yards a game and 5 a carry. Clemson held the Cardinals to 156 yards on the ground and 3.6 per attempt while limiting Micale Cunningham and Evan Conley to 107 yards passing on an 8-of-22 clip with two interceptions.

Oh, and Clemson's offense ended up doing OK once it got out of its own way. The Tigers piled up 551 yards while averaging 7.9 yards per play, and Travis Etienne supplied 192 of Clemson's 298 rushing yards while averaging 13.7 yards per carry.

Lawrence was probably a bit too aggressive early on, leading to the picks when Clemson was in scoring territory. But he finished with 233 yards passing and three touchdowns while completing 20 of 29 passes.

A 77-yard touchdown drive in the final minute of the first half, capped on a 25-yard heave from Lawrence to Justyn Ross in the back of the end zone with five seconds left, put Clemson up 17-3 going into the locker room.

Most important, the swift scoring drive seemed to calm everyone down and reinforce the feeling that the offense could do whatever it wanted even if it hadn't done everything it wanted.

Clemson rediscovered its terrifying ways with a 45-14 crushing of Florida State the week before, but Dabo Swinney's message to the team was that there was still some atoning to do on the road.

Three weeks ago, the offense was jittery and lethargic in a 21-20 victory at North Carolina. So there was a score to settle away from Death Valley, too.

There's no doubt that this offense is at its best when it's pounding the run, and the Tigers have done that the past two weeks. After rushing for 125 yards on 31 carries in Chapel Hill, the Tigers have totaled 618 yards on the ground on 90 carries (6.86 ypc).

Lawrence was a weapon with his legs against the Cardinals, rushing for 47 yards on 10 carries with a long of 20 on a third-down quarterback draw that pushed the ball from deep in Clemson territory in the third quarter.

Ross had 55 receiving yards on five catches. Amari Rodgers had a 61-yard catch-and-run in the first quarter, and Etienne had four catches for 35 yards.

Clemson scored touchdowns on its final four possessions, including a 16-yard run by Chez Mellusi when Swinney was trying to bleed the final minute from the clock.

The Tigers have gone 6-0 against Louisville since the Cardinals joined the ACC.

There was a time when it seemed automatic that games between these two would come down to the very last play.

Not so much anymore; after the 2014, 2015 and 2016 meetings were decided by a total of 15 points, Clemson has bludgeoned Louisville by an average margin of 40.6 points in the past three games.

Different coach, same beatdown.

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