The Clemson football team improved to 11-0 with a dominant victory over Wake Forest Saturday evening. Here’s a look at five takeaways from the win.
The Clemson football team remained undefeated on the season with a dominant 52-3 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons Saturday afternoon in Death Valley.
The Tigers entered the game looking to finish the regular season with a perfect conference record and the matchup was never in doubt.
The offense was the beneficiary of two short fields to begin the game- courtesy of an Amari Rodgers punt return and a Tanner Muse interception- and the Tigers took advantage, going up 14-0.
From that point on, Clemson never looked back and cruised to victory, building depth and making a statement along the way.
The Tigers will now have a bye week before playing in-state rival South Carolina to close the regular season. Clemson also clinched the ACC Atlantic Division a week ago, so the Tigers will play in Charlotte following the matchup against the Gamecocks.
Before we move forward and focus on what Clemson has left on the table as the Tigers trek towards a fifth-straight CFB Playoff appearance, let’s take a look back at this Wake Forest game. Here are five takeaways from the victory over the Demon Deacons.
5. Special Teams were positive and negative
The Clemson special teams have been a conundrum all season. That was no exception Saturday afternoon.
First, let’s start with the bad.
Will Spiers had a day he certainly will want to forget. Spiers had two punts for an average of 36 yards per punt. One of the punts carried just 30 yards and the other went 42. Not only did he have trouble actually punting the ball, but he had trouble catching the snap.
On the first punt of the game, Spiers dropped the ball and couldn’t get a punt off. The result was Wake Forest taking over in deep Clemson territory. The lone Demon Deacons points of the game- a field goal- came off that turnover on downs.
Now, the good.
Amari Rodgers had an explosive punt return of 52 yards on Wake Forest’s first punt of the game. That put the Tiger offense in good field position and, ultimately, gave Clemson an early 7-0 lead.
Also, BT Potter connected on a 35-yard field goal. He has had his troubles this season, but nailed that one through the up-rights, which is hopefully a good sign moving forward.
4. Injuries seem okay
Perhaps the most important news coming out of the game was that both WRs Justyn Ross and Amari Rodgers are seemingly okay.
Both Ross and Rodgers went down with injuries and never returned to the game. They were both later seen in the second half in street clothes.
Clemson Co-Offensive Coordinator Jeff Scott told the media that both Ross and Rodgers seem fine, but will be further evaluated.
Ross (back/ribs) and Rodgers (shoulder) are huge parts of the Tiger offense and hopefully there is nothing serious going on with either one of these starting wide receivers.
3. Travis Etienne quietly continues to impress
Travis Etienne didn’t have the huge highlight-reel run that normally fills the tape, but he still had an quiet, impressive performance.
Etienne rushed 16 times for 121 yards and a touchdown (7.6 YPC), while also having three catches for 37 yards.
Though he didn’t break off the 50-yard run, Etienne ran with power and was explosive. He did an excellent job fighting for extra yardage and keeping drives alive. One of the most underrated parts of the game today was what he did on the second offensive drive.
With Trevor Lawrence just coming out of the injury tent, the Tigers relied solely on Etienne to get into the end zone. Clemson took over on the Wake Forest 41-yard line and ran the ball with Etienne four-straight times on the way to a touchdown.
With his performance, Etienne is one step closer to becoming the all-time touchdown leader for the ACC and is approaching the Clemson record for all-time rushing yards. He’s currently at 3,638 yards, which is just 328 yards shy of tying Raymond Priester’s record (3,966) set back in 1997.
2. Trevor Lawrence-Tee Higgins connection was stellar
The performance put on by both Trevor Lawrence and Tee Higgins was impressive and encouraging as the Tigers move forward.
Lawrence threw three touchdown passes to Tee Higgins (4 catches, 64 yards) in the first half and it’s clear the chemistry between the two was elite today.
Higgins made a nice play on a jump-ball in the end zone where he went up and got the ball. Lawrence made some NFL-level throws over the course of this game, completing 21-of-27 passes for 272 yards and four touchdowns.
It was good to see Higgins have this performance after a couple of uncharacteristic drops last week against NC State.
It was also good to see Lawrence continue his impressive streak, though the national media continue to ignore him because of his play earlier in the season.
1. The defense continues its dominance
Dominance, dominance and more dominance. That’s the only way to describe this Clemson defense.
Wake Forest came into this game as one of the better offenses in the nation statistically and the Demon Deacons were completely shut down.
Wake Forest had just five first downs and 105 yards of total offense.
The Tigers forced two interceptions- one by Tanner Muse and one by AJ Terrell- that both resulted in touchdowns. The lone score of the game for Wake Forest- a 30-yard field goal- came on a drive where the Demon Deacons started at the Clemson 28-yard line following a dropped snap from punter Will Spiers.
Muse was all over the field during his Senior Day, accounting for four tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and the interception. Jamie Skalski led the Tigers with seven total tackles while Isaiah Simmons had five tackles and 0.5 tackle for loss. Xavier Thomas also accounted for tackles for loss.
You have to give Brent Venables his due. He has been tailoring this defense to its opponent’s weakness all season. He has been a mastermind and this defensive unit has proven to be just as effective- if not more effective- than last year’s team that led the nation.