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Samurai Snippets, Week 5: Clemson

Samurai is back with yet another collection of Deep Thoughts from a week in Wake Forest football. This week, he powers through a tough outing against Clemson. God be with him.

By SamuraiFoochs
Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

Authors Note:

"I'm starting to write this at halftime because I mostly believe I've seen all I need to see to assess a performance, barring an absolutely historic collapse.  And now as we speak, it's even more of a blow out.  I really don't feel comfortable talking about much of anything that happened in the second half, considering it was just extended garbage time."

The Good

Michael Campanaro's Good.  Who Knew? As of the half, 5 catches for 58 yards.  This is with him pretty much being the only threat on the field offensively and Clemson being all over him.

The Defense Did Some Things. Oh, there were bad bad things on defense, and I'll get into that, but around the middle part of the half, they actually shored up a little bit in non-garbage time, and proceeded to get several stops in a row.  It was nice, and our D-Line continues to impress.  They held Clemson to 3-8 on third down as well.  That's pretty good stuff.

Offense Less Offensive? 10 first downs, a red zone TD, decent play calling. almost 150 yards of offense in the half, and winning the TOP battle.  Sure, small things, but I'll take it, especially against a team as good as Clemson on the road.

The Bad

Three Clemson TD's in Less Than Eight Minutes. Enough said, honestly.  It's a testament to the defense that they managed to shore up after that, but oofah.  Also they gave up 381 yards of offense.  In a half.

2-10 On Third Down. I don't think I need to say more here, do I?

Not Taking Advantage Of Gifts.  It was 28-7 late in the first when Clemson roughed Alexander Kinal, giving Wake a new set of downs in good field position.  They proceeded to do nothing with it, then Clemson scored again.  If Wake scored there, and got the ball back to start the second half, it's an entirely different game.

The Funny

This is more darkly funny than ha ha funny, but people have been clamoring for a different QB for much of the season, and what happens?  Our second string QB fumbles, and the third stringer gets Josh Harris absolutely murdered in the backfield on a screen pass.  Now I'm not saying conclusively that none of them would be better than Tanner, but still.  Not a cure-all, folks.  Jussayin'.

That ended up worse than I expected somehow.  Next!  Go Deacs.