WINSTON-SALEM— Brutal honesty can be hard to find in big-time athletics, especially
when players look to explain losses.Not so at Wake Forest.
“We had ample opportunities
to score. Our defense played a hell of a game,”Demon Deacons quarterback Ben Sankey
said after Saturday’s 12-3 loss to Clemson. “I take that personally. I know I
stunk it up a little bit. They shut down our whole offense.
“We just stunk it up. I
don’t know what else to say.”
What more could be said about a
game that saw scores of 2-0, 3-2 and 5-3 over the first futile three quarters? While the
Wake Forest defense was busy stopping Clemson on three fourth-down plays, the Deacon
offense simply offended the crowd of 21,105 at Groves Stadium
“Offensively we didn’t
do anything well,”said Wake head coach Jim Caldwell, whose team fell to 4-4 overall
and 1-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “We didn’t throw it well, we
didn’t catch it well, we didn’t run it well. We didn’t do anything.
“We couldn’t put a drive
down there, and then we did and we backed ourselves up.”
Missing from the Wake arsenal was
a secret weapon. Clemson (4-4 overall, 4-2 ACC), trailed 3-2 early in the fourth quarter
when senior quarterback Brandon Streeter took the field. Streeter, who missed the
Tigers’ past three games with a broken collarbone, led Clemson on two drives that
netted a go-ahead 19-yard field goal from Tony Lazzara and a 1-yard QB sneak to cement the
win.
Streeter’s 3-for-7, 72-yard
effort paled in comparison to starter Woody Dantzler’s strong showing —
22-for-32, 201 yards passing and 51 more rushing — but Streeter put the Tigers in the
end zone.
“It wasn’t so much what
Woody was not doing, sometimes just a little change can spark something, and that’s
what happened,”Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden said. “I thought Wake Forest did
an excellent job on defense and made us execute with precision on offense and we
couldn’t do it. It really wasn’t so much Woody as it was a lack of productivity
on the entire offense.”
Clemson moved the ball with its
pin-point short passing game but couldn’t come up with big plays against Wake. Deacon
Michael Clinkscale snuffed a fourth-down run from the Wake 37-yard line late in the first
quarter. A fake field goal netted no points at the 8-minute mark of the second quarter.
The Tigers finally scored off that
possession, though. Wake’s offense ran three plays and lost 2 yards, forcing Matt
Brennie to punt from the back of his end zone. The snap from replacement long snapper
Jammie Deese sailed over Brennie, past the TV platform and into the lawn seats for a
safety.
“I didn’t even know I
snapped it over his head,” said Deese, on for the injured Brad Smith.
“That’s not the reason we lost, we killed ourselves in other ways than that. If
we’re going to lose 2-0, we don’t deserve to win anyway.”
Wake’s first drive ended with
a false start penalty in Clemson territory that turned a third-and-short into a punt. The
Deacons prepared to take the lead early in the third quarter before Chris McCoy fumbled on
his first carry at the Clemson 14.
Wake caught a break when Mal
Lawyer dropped a punt near midfield that David Moore grabbed. With a 57-yard field to work
with, Wake put together its best drive of the day to sit first-and-goal from the 4. Sankey
earned the first two yards, then tailback Morgan Kane leaped into the air and fell inches
short of the goal line. On third down, a Wake player moved for a 5-yard loss.
Sankey’s pass on the following play fell incomplete andWake settled for Matthew
Burdick’s 23-yard field goal.
“We moved the ball well and
got inside the red zone and made critical mistakes,”Deese said. “When you play a
good team like Clemson you have to be able to capitalize.”
The Tigers didn’t let the 3-2
deficit bother them, especially when Streeter entered the game. His first pass nearly was
intercepted before he settled down on a 33-yard crossing pattern to Rod Gardner. A 23-yard
pass play on third-and-10 set up Lazzara’s field goal.
Dextra Polite’s great
interception on a deep Sankey pass led to Streeter’s scoring run.
“When you play great defense
it gives you great flexibility on offense and you don’t have to be very
good,”Bowden said. “That’s what happened today and we won the game.”
Which is exactly what Wake Forest
expected to do.
“When we’re up 3-2, the
defense feels like it’s good enough to stop them,”Deacon linebacker Dustin Lyman
said. “We felt like we were controlling them pretty well. We knew at some point we
were going to score.”
Wrong.
“We just found ways to come
up short,”Kane said. “An offense has to be able to score more than three
points.”
n
NOTES: Wake’s postseason bowl
hopes dipped with the loss. TheDeacons now must win two of their final three against
NorthCarolina, Duke and Georgia Tech to be bowl eligible. “We don’t have any
breathing room, that’s for certain,”Caldwell said. … Wake managed just 13
first downs and punted seven times. … The Demon Deacons battle the Heels in Chapel
Hill next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. |
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