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Wake at Clemson - Saturday 11/20 Game Time Speculation

The old cliche, this game will be won in the trenches. It's true.

I bet we see a couple trick plays from both teams. Wouldn't surprise me to see less slow mesh and more predetermined plays. Will be a chess match between and Ruggiero and Venables
 
And a checkers match between Tony Elliott and Lyle Hemphill.
 
thatguy2016 said:
right, UConn is terrible. Clemson did not struggle against UConn. If they had, it would mean something. But they didn't.
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They were under 50% passing and averaged 3.1 YPC against Uconn. For a game where their defense dominated, and they had almost 100 plays against one of the worst defenses in division 1 football, gaining under 500 yards is pretty bad.
 
Have no idea what to expect from this game. I feel like UNC was a fairly predictable - not necessarily the outcome, but you had our strength (offense) up against their weakness (defense) and vice versa. If your defense is mediocre or worse the reality is Wake is going to torch you. Even with injuries there are just too many weapons - Perry, Roberson, Williams, Morin, Stewart, Banks, CBS, Ellison, Turner, and even Chapman/Whiteheart. You could pretty much guess that the UNC game was going to be high scoring, come down to a final possession, etc.

Here we have our strength going up against Clemson's strength for offense/defense, and our weakness against theirs. I'm not all that surprised to see Vegas look at the history in Death Valley along with the analytics of elite defenses being able to shut down elite offenses combined with our injury list. Seems like every year some amazing offense putting up 50+ on the regular runs into a top 5 defense and gets shut down. And let's face it, every media outlet and ACC rep on the planet would like Wake to lose this game, if only to set up an exciting end of the season with tons of possibilities instead of just Wake locking down their ACC Championship spot and trying to get healthy during an essentially meaningless BC game.

That being said, NC State is a really good football team and we just beat them with our B game. And Justyn Ross was like half of Clemson's offense when they lost to NC State, had 2 TD's and 70% of their receptions. My hunch is that we'll still be able to throw it against them even if Roberson and Williams are out, and that will be critical because to win I think we need to run it like we did in that long NC State drive that won the game. If we can run the ball I think we win. If not, I can see the scenario where our offense suffers a few quick exits and our defense wears down. Then it's like the opposite of the UNC game, a low scoring but also last possession type finish.

If we want to make the final and win it, we need to do what Pitt did. Get up a couple scores and stay there.
 
DCDeac said:
Have no idea what to expect from this game. I feel like UNC was a fairly predictable - not necessarily the outcome, but you had our strength (offense) up against their weakness (defense) and vice versa. If your defense is mediocre or worse the reality is Wake is going to torch you. Even with injuries there are just too many weapons - Perry, Roberson, Williams, Morin, Stewart, Banks, CBS, Ellison, Turner, and even Chapman/Whiteheart. You could pretty much guess that the UNC game was going to be high scoring, come down to a final possession, etc.

Here we have our strength going up against Clemson's strength for offense/defense, and our weakness against theirs. I'm not all that surprised to see Vegas look at the history in Death Valley along with the analytics of elite defenses being able to shut down elite offenses combined with our injury list. Seems like every year some amazing offense putting up 50+ on the regular runs into a top 5 defense and gets shut down. And let's face it, every media outlet and ACC rep on the planet would like Wake to lose this game, if only to set up an exciting end of the season with tons of possibilities instead of just Wake locking down their ACC Championship spot and trying to get healthy during an essentially meaningless BC game.

That being said, NC State is a really good football team and we just beat them with our B game. And Justyn Ross was like half of Clemson's offense when they lost to NC State, had 2 TD's and 70% of their receptions. My hunch is that we'll still be able to throw it against them even if Roberson and Williams are out, and that will be critical because to win I think we need to run it like we did in that long NC State drive that won the game. If we can run the ball I think we win. If not, I can see the scenario where our offense suffers a few quick exits and our defense wears down. Then it's like the opposite of the UNC game, a low scoring but also last possession type finish.

If we want to make the final and win it, we need to do what Pitt did. Get up a couple scores and stay there.
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Umm, no. If we beat Clemson, the BC game becomes gigantic. It would put us into contention for a playoff spot.
 
DeaconSig said:
Umm, no. If we beat Clemson, the BC game becomes gigantic. It would put us into contention for a playoff spot.
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Yeah, apologies. I'm still in the frame of mind where the UNC loss meant we had no shot at a playoff spot. Mainly because I don't want to get my hopes up, but also because I think it's probably true. Even if the dominos fall our way I still don't think they give it to us.
 
Agreed with all that - we also have to get TD’s when in red zone - and as we all know- That’s difficult for us because you can’t out-scheme as much and have to play straight up power football. While not as deep and talented - we were able to do that against Wolf pups- think only TD we scored outside of 10 was that first long one to ATP. Gonna have to utilize RB out of backfield and TE’s more.
 
DCDeac said:
Yeah, apologies. I'm still in the frame of mind where the UNC loss meant we had no shot at a playoff spot. Mainly because I don't want to get my hopes up, but also because I think it's probably true. Even if the dominos fall our way I still don't think they give it to us.
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Need a big statement win like the one over FSU that broke the "never shut out at home" streak.
 
JKW385 said:
Agreed with all that - we also have to get TD’s when in red zone - and as we all know- That’s difficult for us because you can’t out-scheme as much and have to play straight up power football. While not as deep and talented - we were able to do that against Wolf pups- think only TD we scored outside of 10 was that first long one to ATP. Gonna have to utilize RB out of backfield and TE’s more.
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Yep.

Wake is 11th in red zone attempts, #8 in red zone scoring percentage, and #23 in TD percentage.
 
For me the biggest unknown is our defense. After attending the NC State game I rewatched it - our defense played really damn well. Minus the botched coverage TD, most of the other points were special teams as has been well discussed. But more than that, a lot of their big plays like that first possession 60+ yarder, were really great plays. When a QB drops a ball over the back right shoulder at 60 yards or puts a pass exactly 7 ft' high over the endzone sideline against tight coverage, you just have to give them credit and keep going. Which our guys did, and made plays like that sideline interception which is still one of the most baffling catches I've seen in recent memory.

Plus you have Perry dropping the bomb down the middle that hit his hands, dropping the 15 yard cross in space, the TD catch that came loose when hit the ground... Add the perfect throw to Morin that right when he was squeezing it for a TD the defender blindly and perfectly throws his arm up, hits the ball dead center and it drops into the 2nd coverage guy's hands.

I think at full strength we're a solid tier above Clemson this year. Banged up we may still be, but it's a much closer call. I'll feel better if CBS is 100% or close to it, really missed his power game against NC State.
 
On a neutral field or at home- we win this game by 2 TD’s
 
ChrisL68 said:
They were under 50% passing and averaged 3.1 YPC against Uconn. For a game where their defense dominated, and they had almost 100 plays against one of the worst defenses in division 1 football, gaining under 500 yards is pretty bad.
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playing without their top 2 backs, they had 350+ yards 4:30 into the second half, at which point they led 37-7 and the game was over

then the 6th string played out the game while everyone focused on trying to get ready to do what they can to win the ACC Atlantic tomorrow

this is a tremendous opportunity for WF, and I will be there. I just am concerned that if we are without Roberson, Williams, and CBS, Clemson can focus on Perry and force us to complete deep balls to Stewart (not convinced that is a recipe I want to follow). And if we are without Carson, Greer, and Holmes, and Clemson has 16 possessions, they will score.
 
Deaconblue said:
Need a big statement win like the one over FSU that broke the "never shut out at home" streak.
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Right, but that's the problem. Clemson was down a score with the ball in UGA territory in the 4th quarter, and has 2 other losses against ranked teams... And they're kept unranked. If we beat them the story will be an unranked win against a bad Clemson team. BC is even less valuable. And if we win the ACC Championship they'll point to a historically weak ACC or some shit like that and Wake's record will be evidence of how bad the ACC is as a whole.

Basically they removed the chance of a statement win to make up for anything short of an undefeated season.
 
ChrisL68 said:
They were under 50% passing and averaged 3.1 YPC against Uconn. For a game where their defense dominated, and they had almost 100 plays against one of the worst defenses in division 1 football, gaining under 500 yards is pretty bad.
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They rested everyone that game for us
 
jamesda3 said:
They rested everyone that game for us
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Thier RBs but actually lost their best receiver and their backup QB in the game.

Their offense wasn't good in this game. DJ was 21/44 agianst a defense much worse than ours.
 
ChrisL68 said:
Thier RBs but actually lost their best receiver and their backup QB in the game.

Their offense wasn't good in this game. DJ was 21/44 agianst a defense much worse than ours.
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Which means he is likely due a big game tomorrow
 
doesn't matter, his big game still isn't going to keep up with wake. 52-24.
 
ChrisL68 said:
Thier RBs but actually lost their best receiver and their backup QB in the game.

Their offense wasn't good in this game. DJ was 21/44 agianst a defense much worse than ours.
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Why do they need a QB or WRs if against us they can run the ball up the middle for 7+ yards a carry? This is going to be like the Army and Cuse games only with a better line and better RBs.
 
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