CLEMSON, S.C. - After four weeks of steady improvement, the football team had trouble explaining exactly what went wrong Saturday afternoon in Death Valley.
And what Duke did conclude was obvious to all 75,000 in attendance: The Blue Devils were simply dominated.
Clemson (5-4, 5-2 in the ACC) scored on its first five possessions and jumped out to a 31-0 lead en route to a 58-7 drubbing of Duke (2-7, 2-4). The Blue Devils could not get anything going offensively or defensively, and when all was said and done, Duke was left with its most lopsided defeat since a 59-0 loss to Virginia in 1990.
"We just didn't execute at all today," Spencer Romine said. "It seemed everything that could go wrong went wrong, and the beating that we took was the result of that.... We just got it handed to us today."
On the fourth play of the Tigers' first possession, Brandon Streeter threw a 42-yard lob pass toward Brian Wofford that was essentially a jump ball. Wofford outleaped Duke cornerback Lamar Grant and came down with the ball at Duke's 14-yard line.
The very next play, running back Travis Zachery took a hand-off up the middle and into the endzone easily for the quick 7-0 lead.
It would be more of the same on the Tigers' next possession when, on a third-and-goal from the Duke 8, Zachery scored the second of his four touchdowns, again untouched up the middle.
"We played a Clemson team today that had an outstanding day, a team we weren't ready for," Duke coach Carl Franks said. "We didn't give them much competition. They looked like they could do about anything they wanted to out there on the field."
Everything worked for Clemson coach and former Duke assistant Tommy Bowden and his no-huddle offense. The Tigers' third possession began with a 28-yard reverse and ended with a fourth-and-10 touchdown toss from Streeter to Mal Lawyer.
Thirty-five minutes later, the Tigers had scored eight touchdowns, Zachery had 141 rushing yards and the Clemson team had amassed 558 yards of total offense.
"They just beat us up pretty good," inside linebacker Ryan Stallmeyer said. "We felt confident coming into the game, and then the bullets started flying."
Things were no better on the other side of the ball as the Tigers' constant defensive pressure left Duke's surging passing attack little opportunity to get off the ground. And those times when Duke had good protection and open receivers, passes were misthrown.
After averaging more than 300 yards passing over the last four weeks, the Blue Devils' 171-yard, four-interception passing performance Saturday was a major setback.
Franks tried Romine, Bobby Campbell and Kevin Thompson by the time the game was finished, but none could do much of anything other than get hit hard. Clemson linebacker Keith Adams was a mainstay in the Duke backfield, finishing the game with five sacks and 11 tackles.
"Well, I was a running back in high school," Adams joked about his return to the backfield. "It was great.... We knew Duke threw for 400 yards last week, so... we just wanted to play top-notch Clemson defense, and today we did."
Adams' five sacks were a school record and his impact on the game undeniable. He knocked Romine out of the game late in the second quarter. Romine returned to start the second half, but on his third play back was again leveled by Adams. The ball popped loose, but Duke recovered for a 10-yard loss.
"We had a tough time protecting our quarterback, he was hit way too many times," Franks said. "They could line [Adams] up in the middle and blitz him, line him up outside and blitz him; we had a hard time doing anything with him.... He played a great game."
The contest was out of reach when the Tigers took a 31-7 lead into halftime but quickly got out of hand when Clemson added three more touchdowns in the final eight minutes of the third quarter.
Clemson's dominating period was capped by a 20-yard interception return by defensive tackle Terry Jolly. Under pressure, Campbell threw a low pass that defensive lineman Jason Holloman tipped into the hands of Jolly. The 6-foot-2, 285 pound lineman then slowly chugged his way into the endzone and began a victory dance that eventually drew an excessive celebration penalty.
Although not that important in the end, the image was symbolic of a day that just went horribly awry for the Blue Devils.
"They kicked us pretty good today," Franks said. "Hopefully we can get in the position one day where this stuff won't happen to us. Hopefully that will be soon."
Note: Following the game, it was believed that wide receiver Ben Erdeljac had torn his ACL and MCL after a first-quarter reception. Franks indicated that the junior would miss the remainder of the season.
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