Clemson Tigers They will continue their season with the first of two conference road games, ending their careers in the ACC and preparing to face a tough challenge. Virginia Tech Hokies Saturday at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Kickoff will be at 3:30 pm Eastern time on ESPN.

tigers (6-2, 5-1 in ACC) losing louisvilleIt brought their hopes of reaching the ACC championship game to a screeching halt. It’s not out of the question for the Tigers to not get into the game. It’s just going to take a lot of help to make it happen, and it means nothing if Clemson can’t win its last two ACC games.

Fortunately, the Tigers have a good history with Virginia Tech, especially recently, with Clemson winning the last six meetings; the last one was in 2020.

The Hokies (5-4, 3-2) lost to Syracuse, which ended their three-game winning streak. Virginia Tech needs one more win to make a bowl appearance for the second straight year under coach Brent Pry. But frankly the Hokies could have had more.

So how does Clemson win this game? Here are three keys to the contest.

Before louisville After the game, the Clemson defense had done an outstanding job against the run in the previous three games, not allowing the team more than 100 yards rushing. Some of this had to do with the explosive nature of these games. But still impressive.

The Cardinals racked up 210 yards on the ground Saturday; this was the most yards the Tigers allowed in a game since giving up 236 rushing yards. at Stanford. Louisville also had the highest yards-per-carry average of any opponent at 7.8 yards per carry.

That’s a significant jump and the Tigers need to figure it out over the next few days because the Hokies enter this game with one of the most productive running backs in the ACC. Bhayshul Tuten rushed for 951 yards (6.7 yards per carry) and 12 touchdowns. But quarterback Kyron Drones (323 yards, six touchdowns) is also an issue.

The Tigers’ abysmal offensive performance in the first half against Louisville was not an aberration. This has been a problem even in the last few games they have won. Against Wake Forest and Virginia, Clemson got off to a slow start in the first quarter before getting back into action.

The Tigers never got going against the Cardinals. Although they gained over 400 yards of total offense, the offense was disrupted. Yards per play in the game was key to Clemson’s loss. The Tigers gained just 4.5 yards per play; that was by far their worst since 3.6 yards per play against Georgia. Clemson lost that game too.

Clemson can’t get off to another slow start against a team with talent like Louisville.

Clemson Tigers will need a return game from quarterback Cade Klubnik. A lot of things went wrong against Louisville, and his play was one of them.

One area where Klubnik did not excel on Saturday was throwing touchdown passes. In the six games the Tigers won, he scored at least two goals in each game (an average of 3.3 per game during that stretch). He threw just one shot total in the two losses.

It sounds simple; Throw touchdown passes and win games. But interestingly, although Klubnik’s legs are still gaining yards, he hasn’t scored a touchdown since the Stanford game. The Tigers need him to find the end zone with his arm if they hope to win.