
Tuesday November 13, 2007
The Wake Forest Game Worksheet
Offensive Goals Made
Red Zone Scoring-80%- 100%
More than 225 yards passing-266
Fewer than two turnovers-0
Fewer than 3 sacks per game-2
More than 4 yards per carry- 4.3
Red Zone-60% touchdowns- 100%
More than 27 points-44
More than 20 first downs- 25
Better than 60% pass completions percentage-75%
Offensive Goals Missed
More than 150 yards rushing- 145
Defensive Goals Made
Fewer than 125 yards rushing- 83
Fewer than 3.5 yards per carry-2.2
Fewer than 18 points- 10
More than 3 sacks per game- 5
Red Zone-40% touchdowns- 50%
Defensive Goals Missed
Fewer than 18 first downs-21
More than two turnovers-1
Fewer than 200 yards passing- 204
Less than 55% pass completion percentage- 68%
Red Zone Scoring-70%-50%
Penalty yardage fewer than 50 per game- 45
Overall Report Analysis-Grades and Comments:
Offense-Rushing
Interior running game- Wake Forest set out to shut down James Davis and C.J. Spiller and did a decent job. Davis was held to 3.0 yard per carry.
Perimeter running game-The Tigers were able to spring Tyler Grisham for a couple nice gains and Spiller did average 6.8 yards per attempt.
Option game- N/A.
Draws- Clemson opted to throw the ball and was successful instead of running the draw.
Short yardage running game- The Tigers were successful an all four of their short yardage runs.
Yards after contact- I thought Wake gang tackled fairly well.
Offense-Passing
Pass protection-Perhaps the best effort of the year. Harper was sacked only once all day and was not hurried two other times. He was able to stand in the pocket and pick apart the Wake secondary.
Underneath passing game- Clemson hit the check down receiver a few times but was more effective downfield.
Intermediate passing game- Perhaps the best of the year. Harper hit Kelly, Grisham, Palmer and Taylor all day. I thought this was a huge key to the offense.
Vertical passing game-The Tigers did not take too many shots down field because the intermediate game was so effective.
Screens- The bubble screen worked with Kelly.
Drops- I can’t remember a drop in this game.
Yards after catch- Kelly broke several tackles in the open field.
QB throws on time- Excellent. Harper took only one sack. He looked extremely comfortable in the pocket.
Offense-Overall
First down yardage- Wake actually did a nice job on first down. Clemson had four or more yards on only 14 of its 31 first down plays. Clemson was very successful on second down.
Third down conversion- Seven of 12 is excellent. The Tigers were excellent on second down and converted four third and longs through the air.
Big Plays- Wake kept most everything in front of them and tried to limit Clemson’s usual big play. Clemson hit only four plays of more than 20 yards. Instead it was much more methodical effort.
Trick plays- N/A.
Defense-Overall
Tackling-One of the best efforts of the year. Adams has great speed but Clemson tackled very well.
First down yardage- Wake moved the ball well on first down. They had four or more yards on 17 of their 31 first down plays.
Third down conversion- Holding Wake to 6 of 15 is pretty good.
Limit of Big Plays- Excellent. Clemson held Wake to a long of 10 yards on the ground and 20 yards through the air. This was a big key.
Defense-Running game
Interior running game- Wake’s running game was shut down. The Tigers were able to take away any interior threat.
Perimeter running game- Adams had little to no success getting to the edge.
Option game- N/A
Draws- N/A
Short yardage running game- Wake was 7 of 8 on short yardage runs.
Yards after contact- The Tigers tackled extremely well.
Defense-Passing Game
Pressure- The best of the season. Clemson had five sacks and ten tackles for loss. They also had three QB hurries.
Underneath passing game coverage- Watkins, Butler, Maxwell, Chancellor all tackled th skill well in the underneath passing game.
Intermediate passing game coverage-I would have thought Tereshinski would have been a bigger part of the game plan. Clemson was able to pressure the passer without having to blitz so the linebackers were able to play well in space.
Vertical passing game coverage- Wake’s longest pass was 20 yards. Moore was the leading receiver coming in but he was held in check.
Screens-In the past Wake has killed Clemson with screens but the Tigers played it Well Saturday.
Passes broken up- Watkins, Merling, Conner and Billie broke up passes for the Tigers Saturday.
Open field tackling-Perhaps the best of the year. Adams and Moore were held in check.
Special Teams
Kickoff returns- Spiller hit the jackpot for the second straight game. It was the first time in school history a Tiger returned a kickoff for a touchdown in two consecutive games.
Kick-off coverage- Considering Marion was a big threat, I thought the Tigers had a tremendous effort.
Punt return/block- Spiller also had a 28 yard punt return and had a career high in total yards.
Punt coverage-Snap, protection, punt, coverage- Moore had one excellent 55 yard return but the Tigers had to punt only twice.
Field Goals/extra points-snap, hold, protection, kick- The best of the season. Buchholz became the first Tiger to hit three field goals of 46 yards or more in one game. The 52-yarder was the longest in 10 years for the Tigers.
Overall Team
Energy, Enthusiasm, Leadership-This team was emotionally ready to play and the defense set the tone with a great effort on their first series.
Coaching
Emotionally prepared-Outstanding. Clemson came out and looked great early. It was the best overall performance in several years.
Game plan- Excellent on both ends. Offensively the staff knew Wake was prepared to stop the run at all cost. The passing game was sharp. Defensively Clemson was prepared for everything the Deacs threw at them.
Adjustments- I loved the aggressive play calling right before halftime that enabled the Tigers to kick the 52-yard field goal.
Personnel-I liked the way Spiller was used. Plus James Davis was inserted on the kickoff return team for the first time this season.
Time outs-N/A.

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Harper was excellent with the fakes throughout the game. He's clearly the missing element we needed last year. One one occasion, he reminded me of Weinke (you remember the 99 yard td pass many years ago) the way he portrayed the fake on the 20 yard TD pass to Kelly.
Just a smart smart player
Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=758>Shlomo</a> on November 13, 2007 at 11:50 AM EST #
Wake ran the underhand shuttle pass probably 5 times, and it worked great once but we stuffed it the other 4. Although it is technically a forward pass it works essentially like a draw and we stopped it even though it was theoretically a good call against our pressure.
The one big punt return for Wake, I believe, benefitted from, you guessed it, yet another illegal block in the back which was not called. This is the one right in front of Bowden that got him to toss his headset to the ground and set the whole stadium off.
So, much like in the VT game, if the the other team cheats on a return it will be a big one. That's why we have rules and referees...
Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=41846>Zeus</a> on November 13, 2007 at 12:20 PM EST #
I was also impressed by how well we covered the shovel screen pass; I saw them try it at least 4 times and only once did it result in more than about a 1-yard gain. Great job by the defensive line picking up on that little trick.
Posted by <a href=http://tigernet.com/view/profile.do?id=16701>grover173</a> on November 13, 2007 at 01:13 PM EST #