There have been years when Wake Forest has been competitive with Clemson. This isn’t one of them. The Deacs had an early and brief lead. The Tigers overcame that by rolling Wake Forest for 28 points in the second quarter as Clemson manhandles Wake 49-14 Saturday afternoon in Winston-Salem.
Wake Forest falls to 2-4 on the season and 1-2 in ACC play. The 10th-ranked Tigers move to 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the ACC. It was the 16th consecutive loss to Clemson for the Demon Deacons.
Some Early Hope
The two teams spent much of the first quarter trading short and unproductive drives. But hey, the punters got in plenty of work. Wake put on a scoring drive late in the quarter. Quarterback Hank Bachmeier completed a 31-yard pass to Horatio Fields in tight coverage at the two-yard line. Fields carried the defenders with him the rest of the way for the score. Bachmeier had taken the team 73 yards downfield in just 2:09 for the 7-0 lead in the closing 90 seconds of the quarter.
But then they had to play a second quarter. And it was painful for Wake as Clemson took advantage of every Demon Deacon mistake.
Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik has stepped up to be the quarterback Tigers fans had been hoping for over the last 18 months. On third and nine at the Wake 46-yard line, he found receiver Troy Stellato over the middle for 19 yards. Two plays later it was Klubnik to Antonio Williams who found his spot between Wake defensive backs Jamare Glasker and Nick Anderson. The end result was a 22-yard touchdown pass that tied the game at 7-7.
That was the last time it was close.
Mistakes Start the Crash
On Wake’s next series, Bachmeier was picked off at his own 35-yard line. He never saw safety Kylon Griffin jump the route. Griffin would have had a pick-six had he not stumbled at the Wake 23-yard line. Klubnik completed a 22-yard throw to Jake Briningstool. And then it was Mafah up the middle for the final yard and a 14-7 Clemson lead. The drive took all of two plays and 27 seconds.
Wake would turn it over again in the very next series. Bachmeier threw a pass that was slightly behind a lunging Taylor Morin but reasonably catchable. The ball went off Morin’s hands and into the hands of a diving Khalili Barnes for Clemson at the Tigers 43-yard line. Eight plays later, on fourth and goal from the two-yard line, Mafah burst up the middle completely untouched for the score and the 21-7 lead.
Trying To Keep it Close
Wake got its last points for a very long time. Bachmeier threw a perfect slow mesh scheme pass to Deuce Alexander over the middle at the Clemson 34-yard line. Alexander tiptoed along the right sideline to the Clemson nine. Bachmeier faked a handoff up the middle, rolled to his right, and found tight end Michael Frogge in the flank. Frogge ran it in the last eight yards with a dive at the end into the end zone for his first career touchdown. It was 21-14 Clemson.
But Klubnik engineered one more drive before the half. Mafah plowed right over Wake’s Anderson en route to a 22-yard run to midfield. Three plays later Klubnik threw a dart from the eight-yard line to a diving Stellato in the end zone for the 28-14 just before halftime.
The domination to come was already evident. Clemson had 293 total yards of offense in just the first half, while Wake managed 195. Mafah had 91 yards of rushing while the entire Wake offense had only 69. And there were the two Bachmeier interceptions that resulted in 14 Clemson points.
Not Any Better in the Second Half
With Clemson getting the ball to start the second half, things snowballed quickly. Klubnik threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Adrian Randall to complete a 10-yard, 75-play drive for the 35-14 Tigers lead.
Wake’s answer on its first drive of the second half was an incomplete pass, a loss of four yards by Demond Claiborne, and Bachmeier getting sacked for 11 yards.
Clemson answered with a 47-yard drive that needed only three plays and 1:23 off the clock. Williams, yes the Clemson receiver, threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Briningstool for the 42-14 lead.
There was no comeback in the making and Bachmeier had a brutal day, so Michael Kern came in for the extended mop-up duty. By that time the fans were gone and so was the game. Wake Forest head coach also admitted after the game that Bachmeier had been injured in the win over NC State last week. He had been limited in his practice time this week. When he came up limping after the sack, Clawson said he saw no point in keeping him out there.
Bachmeier finished the day 12 of 21 for 126 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. Wake managed only 233 yards of offense, while Clemson rolled for 566 yards.
The Tigers added one more touchdown halfway through the fourth quarter for some style points…and because Wake’s defense had no chance of shutting them down. Keith Adams, Jr. ran it in from four yards out for the 49-14 score.
Post Game
Clawson said after the game, that it was pretty basic. Wake got beat by a better team. “Against Clemson, you’ve got to play really well. Those two turnovers in the first half that led to touchdowns really put us in a deep hole,” he said. “We’ll press on. We’ve got a lot of football left. And it is what it is.”
He talked about the continued challenges with the secondary, but also said there were missed tackles. “What we’ve got to do right now to protect the secondary, makes it really hard to defend the run,” he said. “Right now we’re choosing to die a slow death.” He later added, “Again, they’re a good football team. That’s a game that we had to play really well, and we didn’t play really well.”
This is Wake’s 66th consecutive loss to a top-10 team. The Demon Deacons get a break from top-10 and conference play as they travel to Storrs, CT next weekend to play UConn.
Last Word will have extensive coverage from the post-game press conference on Sunday.
