A week after struggling to finish off drives in the red zone and being held to seven straight field-goal attempts in their 29-13 road win at Florida State, the 10th-ranked Clemson Tigers had no trouble finding the end-zone in Saturday’s 49-14 victory over Wake Forest at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium in Winston-Salem.
Clemson Thrives in Red Zone Opportunities
Clemson (5-1 overall, 4-0 ACC) put together four scoring drives in the second quarter against Wake Forest (2-4, 1-2) to take a 28-7 lead into halftime. On one of those drives, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney elected to go for it on 4th and goal from the 2-yard line.
With defensive tackles DeMonte Capehart and Peter Woods checked in as part of the Tigers’ jumbo package, Phil Mafah took a handoff and rushed in for a Clemson touchdown to put the Tigers ahead 21-7 to that point.
The offense got the ball to start the second half and picked up right where they left off. Cade Klubnik capped a 75-yard drive in 10 plays with his third touchdown pass of the afternoon, a nine-yard drop-off to Adam Randall in the flats that put the Tigers up 35-14 at the 9:52 mark. Klubnik completed all seven passes for 75 yards on the drive.
On its next series, offensive coordinator Garrett Riley dialed up a little trickery. With a first down at the Wake Forest 28-yard line, Klubnik threw out wide to Antonio Williams, who then found an open Jake Briningstool for a 28-yard touchdown to make the score 42-14 with 7:03 still to play in the third quarter.
Briningstool had seven catches for 104 yards to lead the Tigers’ receiving corps. Four different receivers caught touchdown passes in Clemson’s win.
In the fourth quarter, sophomore running back Keith Adams scored his first touchdown of the year on a four-yard rush to cap the scoring at 49-14 with 8:55 to play. Adams’ run finished a 17-play drive that went 87 yards and took eight-plus minutes off the clock.
Defense Steps Up
Wed Goodwin’s unit forced two first-half turnovers…
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