#10 Wake Forest (9-1) vs Clemson (7-3) (12PM ET, ESPN)

#1
TrueOrange

TrueOrange

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#1
It's Clemson's very good defense against Wake Forest's offense. Clemson opened either a 5 or 7 point favorite, though the line seems to have moved down to -3.5.

The ACC Atlantic Division race is still pretty straightforward...while also being a bit jumbled.

If Wake Forest beats either Clemson OR Boston College, they go to the ACC Championship Game.
If Clemson beats Wake Forest AND Wake Forest loses to Boston College AND NC State loses to either Syracuse or UNC, then even in an off-year, Clemson still goes to the ACC Championship.
If Clemson beats Wake Forest AND Wake Forest loses to Boston College AND NC State wins out, then NC State goes to its first ACC Championship.

Wake Forest hasn't scored less than 35 points a game, and Clemson's offense has repeatedly struggled to do just enough to get by. The Demon Deacons also still have somewhat of an outside shot at the playoffs, depending on the results of other games.

However, Clemson's defense has been close to stellar, and Wake Forest's defense hasn't been too great lately the longer their games go on (though that's somewhat a side effect of running a always no-huddle, always hurry up offense: when if you start having repeated 3 and outs, your defense starts getting only a minute or less of gamete to actually rest on the sidelines between drives).

Clemson also hasn't lost at home since 2016. Meanwhile, Wake Forest hasn't beaten Clemson since 2008 (the game that got Bowden fired and Dabo hired). And the last time Wake Forest won in Death Valley? 1998.

Plus there's quite a handful of injuries (which I'll note in the next post), though Clawson likes to keep pretty close-lipped on that. Pretty much the unanimous pick across the board by the experts, however, is Clemson.
 
#2
#2
The injury report is a jumble.

Wake Forest:
​
Clawson likes to keep pretty tight-lipped, but we know that last week:
— Both starting CBs (Gavin Holmes and Caelen Carson) did not play
— Another CB (Ja'Sir Taylor) is a gametime decision
— One of the starting WRs (Jaquarii Roberson) left last week's game early with an injury.
— Starting RB Christian Beal-Smith left the UNC game with an injury and missed last weekend's game (wearing a boot).
— Wake Forest's starting LB will also miss the first half of this game due to a targeting penalty in the second half of last week's game.


Clemson:​
Hoo boy.

Out for the season:
S Lannden Zanders (shoulder)
DT Bryan Bresee (ACL)
OL Dietrick Pennington (ACL)
OL John Williams (undisclosed injury)
OL Tayquon Johnson (pectoral muscle)
TE Braden Galloway (shoulder)
DE Justin Foster (lower back)
OL Matt Bockhorst (ACL)
ATH Will Taylor (ACL)
WR Frank Ladson (groin)
WR Justyn Ross (foot)

Out for the game:
WR Brannon Spector (hasn't played yet this season due to post-COVID respiratory issues)
WR Joe Ngata (foot)
LB Sergio Allen (knee/ankle)
TE Sage Ennis (undisclosed injury)

Doubtful:
QB Taisun Phommachanh (shoulder)

Questionable:
DL Tre Williams
DE Justin Mascoll (undisclosed injury) .

Probable:
QB D.J. Uiagalelei (knee) (is playing)
OL Will Putnam (ankle) (playing)
RB Kobe Pace (concussion protocol)
RB Will Shipley (leg)
CB Andrew Booth (concussion protocol)
DE Xavier Thomas (hamstring)
LB Jamie Skalski (undisclosed injury)
S Jalyn Phillips (undisclosed)
 
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#3
#3
And the first drives by both teams look fairly meh (there was a very debatable pass interference call the refs chose to ignore against Clemson on the 3rd down of Wake Forest's first drive and Clemson got to Hartman pretty much the first play).

Clemson's running game did a bit more, but the passing game is still quite erratic (the first pass was a completion, but the rest were all quite off target). Clemson got a 50-yard FG out of the drive after it stalled, though, making it 3-0 Clemson with 12:40 left in the 1st quarter.
 
#4
#4
And after a long completion, Clemson pretty much sacks Hartman the following 2nd and 3rd down. Clemson already has 3 sacks in the first 5 minutes.
 
#5
#5
Clemson got lucky. Their QB threw what should have been an INT but the Wake Forest defender was completely turned around and didn't see the throw that was well short of the WR until it bounced off of his hand.

Meanwhile, on 3rd and long, DJ breaks the sack attempts of 3 Wake Forest players to heave up a 52 yard pass that the WR comes down with. After that: Clemson came up short on 2nd and goal, Clemson got stuffed on the QB sneak at the 1 on 3rd down, but the RB barrels in out of the shotgun on 4th and goal at the 1 to make it 10-0 Clemson with 6:41 left in the game.

9 play drive for 77 yards
 
#6
#6
DJ's pretty much a Roethlisberger style-QB, so this game has a pretty good chance of turning into another UNC game (you know, those games where defenses repeatedly look like they're about to sack Roethlisberger but he would either keep breaking them or throwing the defenders off or still have the strength to stand up and complete the pass? Sam Howell did that to Wake Forest's defense most of the second half of the Wake Forest-UNC game).

Add to that how the Clemson defensive pressure has pretty much over whelmed the offensive line and shut down the Wake Forest offense playstyle, this one could get ugly.
 
#7
#7
Wake Forest almost throws a pick at the 30, and the following punt the Clemson returner seemed to return the ball 64-yards for a TD...but he seems to have signaled a fair catch beforehand so the play comes back.
 
#8
#8
Clemson's RB fumbles (came out almost like a rocket) at the Wake Forest 20. Still 10-0.
 
#9
#9
Wake Forest finally gets a drive inside the 10 but stalls after a dropped TD pass and an incompletion on 3rd down (where one of the untargeted WRs was tackled by a defender before the ball was thrown but surprisingly nothing was called).

FG is good. 10-3 Clemson with 10:30 left in the 2nd.
 
#10
#10
Clemson already has 5 sacks on the day.

I’m trying to verify it, but I think the record for team sacks in a game might be 15?
 
#11
#11
Clemson makes it into 1st and goal at the 1 again, gets stuffed on 1st, stuffed on 2nd, loses yards on the QB sneak on 3rd, and then out of what looked like a direct snap to a RB almost lined up as far back as a punter scores a TD on a RB jump pass on 4th down.

17-3 with 6:25 left in the half
 
#12
#12
3rd and goal at the 1. Wake Forest scores a TD out of the Wildcat to make it 17-10 Clemson with 1:22 before halftime.

And then they kick it out of bounds
 
#14
#14
Pass off the fingers of the Clemson WR get tipped up and intercepted by Wake at their own 35 with a little over a minute until halftime.
 
#15
#15
House of Neyland said:
I still think that Wake Forest-UNC game should’ve counted as a ACC game so weird that it didn’t
Click to expand...

There’s no real reason that it should have.

The teams scheduled it on their own as one of their 4 OOC game slots so they wouldn’t play each other like every 6+ years.

If your thought is “conference teams shouldn’t be able to schedule each other in non-conference games”, then maybe you’d the ACC or NCAA to step in and stop the scheduling. But then, UNC and Wake Forest would have just scheduled another team for that OOC game.
 
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#16
#16
7th sack. Initially ruled a fumble but not only was his knee on the ground, but his hand holding the ball bounced off the turf first.
 
#17
#17
And Wake throws an interception to end the half.

17-10 Clemson at halftime. Tigers get the ball to start the half.
 
#18
#18
Worth pointing out: Clemson’s starting to take an approach used by VT and other schools for playing offenses like this:

Make the offensive drives last longer, take more time off the clock, and limit the number of total offensive drive opportunities gets in the game.

Wake Forest only had 2 possessions the entire second quarter before an interception in the last minute.
 
#19
#19
Wow, Wake just got a turnover inside their own 10 by just smacking the pitch to the RB out of the air.
 
#21
#21
I’m just enjoying the fact we live in a time Wake is competitive in football
 
#22
#22
Power running all the way. 24-10 Clemson now with 10:50 left in the 3rd.

Clemson’s probability of winning this up to around 92% now per ESPN.
 
#23
#23
Wake stalls inside the Clemson 15 (they actually were stuck with their QB having to come out on 3rd and 4 as his helmet came off; in turn the backup - who had only thrown one pass - completed a 58 yard pass).

31 yard FG is good. 24-13 Clemson with 8:08 left in the 3rd
 
#24
#24
Wake Forest also had another injury to another offensive lineman and had to reshuffle it, it sounds like.
 
#25
#25
One handed catch, touchdown, and a defensive pass interference.

If that ain’t the most Wake Forest way for a team to pull away.

31-13 Clemson with 5:31 left in 3rd after the 60 yard TD catch.

Clemson also managing the clock like a champ. 5 minutes left in the 3rd, and Wake’s only had 2 drives (and one was a 1-play fumble)
 
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