Track meet
WINSTON-SALEM -- Dabo Swinney and his coaching staff wanted to get back to a sense of normalcy this week.
The last two weeks since we left Atlanta felt like an entire season in itself with what Clemson has gone through.
And if "normal" meant Clemson’s offense stalling on the first few drives of its game against Wake Forest, then the Tigers were back on track. However, that wouldn’t last long.
On the first play of Clemson’s fourth drive of the game, Travis Etienne ran untouched 59 yards to the end zone. As the sophomore crossed the goal line, he leaned his head forward and stretched his arms out as if he were sprinting for an Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter dash.
And that’s just what Clemson’s sixth victory of the season turned out to be: a track meet.
No. 4 Clemson raced past the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 63-3 behind 698 yards of total offense. 471 of those yards came on the ground.
“Our goal this week was to put it all together and build on what we did last week,” Swinney said after his tenth consecutive victory over the Demon Deacons.
“We just controlled the line of scrimmage. It’s that simple.”
That was the understatement of the evening. Clemson didn’t just own the line of scrimmage, it buried the opposition six feet under. And there was nothing Wake Forest could do on either side of the ball to keep the dirt from falling.
The 60-point margin was the largest margin of victory in school history in an ACC game. Ever.
On the week of C.J. Fuller’s sudden passing, you could feel the former Clemson running back’s fingerprints all over this game.
A total of three players rushed for over 125 yards for the first time in school history. The Tigers were led by Etienne’s 167 yards on only ten carries (16.7 yards per carry). He scored three touchdowns for the third consecutive game, which hadn’t been done since 1999.
Etienne is the first player to rush for over 100 yards in four consecutive games since Woodrow Danztler accomplished the feat in 2000. With all the great running backs Clemson has had on campus since then, his accomplishments so far have already built a strong legacy.
If he hadn’t before, Clemson’s starting running back has made his claim that he’s one of the best running backs in the country.
Coming into the game, all eyes were on quarterback Trevor Lawrence making his second career start after being knocked out of his first start against Syracuse a week ago. You could feel the tensions within Clemson fans early after Lawrence was unable to get anything going at first, then went to the injury tent after coming up gimpy.
But it didn’t matter who was quarterback for Clemson. Hunter Renfrow - or anybody sitting in the front row of BB&T Field - could have handed the ball off to Clemson’s running backs and the result wouldn’t have been different.
Renfrow told us earlier this week that he wouldn't have been nervous if the game came to a point where he needed to play quarterback for a series. All he’d have to do was hand the ball off to Etienne, he noted.
Or any other member of the stable of workhorses that reside in Clemson’s running back room.
Lawrence had a fine day throwing the football, even with a rocky start sustaining drives. There were plenty of horizontal screens for offensive coordinators Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott to get their bearings of what Wake Forest would throw at them. One the offense settled in, the offense reached its peak performance of the season.
This was the outing Lawrence would have liked a week ago. He was incredibly efficient, throwing for 175 yards on a 20-of-25 clip and two touchdowns. The first being a 55-yard bomb to Justyn Ross. The second, a 20-yard strike to Tee Higgins right before halftime.
But it wasn’t about Clemson imposing its will offensively. Brent Venables’ defense stonewalled the second-best rushing attack in the conference. The boys up front limited Wake Forest’s running game to barely 100 yards after three quarters.
At halftime, Clemson was leading 28-0 and had put up 312 yards of offense to Wake Forest’s 77. The combined penalty yardage from both teams in the first half was 83.
“They flat-out whipped our butts up front,” Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson said. “We couldn’t have played another quarter.”
True freshman quarterback Sam Hartman only completed seven passes on 20 attempts for 74 yards and one interception. And it appeared Clemson did have a plan for Greg Dortch, Wake Forest’s most legitimate threat on offense.
It was to stick Isaiah Simmons to the starting receiver like glue, and punish him with Xavier Thomas if he were to get the ball in the backfield. The defensive play was consistent and efficient, sucking the life out of Wake Forest with eight three-and-outs.
It wasn’t just a track meet for the offense. Swinney even admitted that he never minds having to punt the football. That just means it gives the offense a chance to collect itself while the defense gets to go in and carry the load.
“I don’t really get that frustrated when we have to punt it,” Swinney said. “That’s just a big, long offensive play. Then we get to run our defense out there and I love that. I don’t mind seeing our defense go on the field because they are really good.”
But Saturday was about Clemson’s ability to hit the explosive plays. The Tigers connected on six touchdowns of 50-plus yards. And it didn’t look like any of the players broke a sweat while doing so.
Not when Ross hauled in his 55-yard grab to score his fourth career touchdown on his 11th career catch.
Not when Etienne ran away from the defense on his last carry of the day for 70 yards to start the second half.
Not even when Adam Choice scored from 64 yards out straight up the middle to give him over 100 yards on the day. The senior finished with 128 yards on ten carries.
OK, maybe Lyn-J Dixon did after his two scores in the fourth quarter - one from 65 yards out. The other from 52. His ten carries in garbage time almost eclipsed Etienne’s numbers with 163 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.
Saturday's game felt like we were watching the 4x100 relay - with Christian Wilkins begging to be the anchor.
“Clemson wasn’t trying to run (the score) up. They were just trying to run the clock out,” Clawson added.
The second half had to be about as fun of a game for Swinney to coach. With everything that has gone on the past two weeks within his program and the emotional win last Saturday, the team in its entirety looked like it was having a ball.
Whether it was Chase Brice coming in and leading an 8-play scoring drive in the fourth quarter. Or Kyler McMichael and Mario Goodrich getting some passes thrown their way while playing in the secondary.
Or even Renfrow punting the ball away for 42 yards just to get some practice. Then, stepping in to play quarterback to lead a three-play scoring drive on Clemson’s final possession. He did what he told us he was going to do if he were ever in that situation. Except, Etienne wasn’t in the game.
After a two-yard completion to Will Swinney, Renfrow simply handed the ball off to Dixon who knifed his way for a three-yard gain. The next play, Dixon flashed left, then broke free down the right sideline. From out of nowhere, Renfrow ran through the play like he was shot out of a cannon to lead block and free up Dixon for the final score.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Swinney said. “That’s going on the ‘extra effort’ tape.”
The highlight of the day had to have been late in the second quarter when Wake Forest was driving to try and get back in the game down 21 points. The Deacons faced fourth-and-1 but elected to go for it.
The home faithful was excited Clawson was rolling the dice and rose to their feet. Wake Forest’s starting center Ryan Anderson tried to quiet the crowd so he could hear the call, but it wasn’t the Wake Forest fans making the noise.
It was what seemed like over 15,000 Clemson fans in attendance on their feet as if it were a home game. Clelin Ferrell and Tanner Muse stopped the play short of the first down, and some fans started to head for the exits before halftime.
The fans left in attendance after halftime didn’t see much a football game anyway. They saw what was a track meet.
They saw Clemson get back to normal.