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WINSTON-SALEM While Wake Forest was turning back the clock on its offense by 60 years, Clemson was going all the way back to the stone age.
Wake Forest dug the old single wing out of a playbook somewhere in the back of Jim Grobe's closet. Clemson was reduced to banging two rocks together and hoping for sparks, to no avail.
By going backward, the Deacons took a big step toward the Atlantic Division title with a 12-7 win Thursday night.
Clemson just went backward, period.
The preseason favorite in the ACC is going to be lucky to get to the blue turf of Boise, let alone Tampa Bay for the ACC championship game.
Wake Forest, meanwhile, has beaten Clemson and Florida State, which should give the Deacons the early edge in the Atlantic.
They had the early edge Thursday when they came out in a modern variation of a formation usually seen in black-and-white films.
After Riley Skinner threw four interceptions in a loss to Navy last time out, the Deacons took him out of the equation entirely, snapping the ball directly to Josh Adams and Brandon Pendergrass on most plays and lining Skinner up at wide receiver.
Clemson figured out the scheme soon enough, but it worked long enough to shake loose Wake Forest's stalled running game.
“It was something we wanted to do, something we wanted to try,” Deacons coach Jim Grobe said.
“It was not something we could stick with.”
They didn't have to, because Skinner took over. He ran for 73 yards and threw for 186 – with no interceptions – converting a third-and-24 from deep in his own territory with a pass to D.J. Boldin before finding Boldin again for the game-winning touchdown with 51/2 minutes remaining in the game.
Only the lack of a killer instinct in the red zone and the absence of sore-legged senior kicker Sam Swank left Wake Forest with a tiny 3-0 lead at halftime.
Swank's replacement, redshirt freshman Shane Popham, went 1-for-3 in the first half, with one a virtual drop kick after a bumbled snap.
Clemson had minus-3 total yards in the first quarter – and managed to move backward 10 more yards in the first eight minutes of the second.
The Tigers almost got away with it when Cullen Harper threw a 10-yard touchdown to Jacoby Ford late in the third quarter to close out Clemson's only decent drive of the game and put the Tigers in an unlikely lead.
But another Popham field goal brought Wake Forest within a point before Skinner put the Deacons ahead for good.
They didn't win by much, but they didn't give up much either. That's good news for Wake Forest and more bad news for Clemson.
A team with this much talent shouldn't go four quarters without scoring.
That's where the Tigers were coming off of a second-half shutout by Maryland.
If their touchdown had come a play or two later, the drought would have reached five quarters.
A team with this much talent shouldn't go a combined 3-for-18 on third and fourth down.
A team with this much talent shouldn't be going nowhere this fast.
Two of Clemson's three wins have come against FCS teams, and the Tigers are 1-2 in the ACC.
Clemson came into the season with the ACC's widest array of offensive weapons – on paper.
In reality, an inexperienced offensive line has sabotaged whatever hopes Clemson had of playing in the ACC title game.
James Davis and C.J. Spiller ran all over defenses last year. Now, they just run into their own linemen.
Aaron Kelly and Ford are dangerous receivers, but only on the rare occasions Harper has time to throw, which hasn't been often this season and wasn't often Thursday.
Back to the drawing board for the Tigers?
Probably.
Back to the ACC title game for the Deacons?
After Thursday, just maybe.
luke.decock@newsobserver.com
