#21 Wake Forest gets by mistake prone Clemson

If embattled Clemson coach Tommy Bowden is going to turn the Tigers’ season around—and perhaps salvage his job in the process—it’s not going to be easy.  Clemson’s nightmare season continued Thursday as their offense sputtered and QB Cullen Harper threw a costly interception that allowed #21 Wake Forest to prevail in a low scoring affair 12-7.

While Wake Forest’s yardage for the game looked impressive, with 342 yards split almost evenly between rushing and passing, Clemson’s defense did a solid job keeping them off the scoreboard.  Until the midway mark of the 4th quarter they had held the Demon Deacons to a pair of Shane Popham FGs that enabled the Tigers to maintain a slim 7-6 lead in the game despite their own offensive ineptitude.  In particular, Clemson’s rushing game was practically nonexistent with 21 net yards. 

Despite the Tigers’ defense playing solid—at least in the “red zone”—throughout the game, Wake Forest QB Riley Skinner found paydirt when it mattered most.  He methodically rallied the Deacons on a long, clock eating drive before finding D.J. Boldin for a 7 yard TD strike that provided the final margin of victory.  Clemson could get no further than their own 39 yard line on their final drive.

The loss dropped the Clemson record on the year to 3-3, and once you drill down within the schedule the reality of the situation is even uglier—two of their 3 wins have come against 1-AA/FCS teams (South Carolina State and The Citadel) and their only win against a 1-A/FBS team was a far from dominant 27-9 triumph over NC State.  Making things more frustrating for Bowden is the fact that aside from an opening game loss to Alabama, Clemson hasn’t played that poorly either—they’ve now lost two straight (including their previous loss to Maryland) but the combined margin of victory in these games was 8 points.  The defense, in particular, has been solid—it’s tough to allow an average of 16 points against over a two game stretch and not have a win to show for it.

Clemson will try to bounce back a week from Saturday at home against Georgia Tech before heading on the road for two tough games against Boston College and Florida State.  Wake Forest will play at Maryland next Saturday and at Miami-FL the week after before returning home for a game against vastly improved in-state rival Duke.