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WHEW: Deacons do a U-turn after halftime
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Published: September 13, 2009
Around halftime yesterday, the soft blue sky looked more appealing to many Wake Forest fans than football developments on the artificial green field.
Down two touchdowns, some patrons stared at those daring planes from the Winston-Salem Air Show. Some returned to the parking-lot buffets. Some simply went home.
The flailing Deacons hung around, and then they executed a steeper U-turn than any antique jet, shutting out Stanford in the second half and driving 91 yards for Riley Skinner's winning touchdown with two seconds left.
Plucked from a magician's hat, the 24-17 victory turned Coach Jim Grobe's anguished frown into a relieved grin and turned Stanford's Jim Harbaugh into a curt officiating critic.
The comeback achieved more than that. It rescued Wake Forest from a second straight home defeat that could have jeopardized a season of considerable promise.
Grobe much relieved
"What this does, more than anything, I was afraid that we could start 0-2 with all these inexperienced guys and be looking uphill the rest of the season," Grobe said. "This is really huge for us, to be able to make as many mistakes as we made over the first two games and find a way to play the way we did in the second half and win a football game. I don't think anything could be more important for us right now."
Twice in the previous five years, the Deacons dropped the first two games. In 2005, they sputtered to a 4-7 finish. In 2007, Skinner separated his shoulder during the opening loss at Boston College. With Brett Hodges at quarterback the following Saturday, Wake Forest missed a solid shot against Nebraska 20-17. Skinner returned, and the Deacons beat Connecticut in Charlotte's bowl game to finish 9-4.
Things can go either way. Yesterday, the Deacons' offensive fortunes soared in the second half because Skinner rediscovered his touch. He completed 13 of 17 after halftime, foremost among them the 44-yarder to freshman reserve Lovell Jackson that whisked Wake Forest to the Stanford 2-yard line with just under a minute left.
Skinner's forceful voice and resourceful repertoire produced another milestone. On the same day he broke the school record for career completions, Skinner manufactured a winning fourth-quarter drive for the seventh time. He performed a similar trick in the second game last season, moving the offense into position for Sam Swank's deciding field goal against Mississippi.
"It's huge," Skinner said. "I can't even explain it. If we go 0-2, not only does your team start to hang its head and start to think: ‘What are we right now?' A lot of the fans get out of it, and the support. I think we showed ourselves that we just need to come out and play four quarters....
"Games like this can do a lot. If we would've lost that, I think it could've done a lot on the downside, but winning like this can do a lot for the program. It can do a lot for the confidence of everybody. Come-from-behind wins sometimes are the best. It's much better than blowing somebody out. You really come together as a team. That was awesome, to see our team backing each other up."
Tough second half
Stanford merely backed up. After gaining 275 yards in the first half, with freshman quarterback Andrew Luck of Houston and senior runner Toby Gerhart flourishing, Stanford managed only 38 yards in the third period and 78 yards in the fourth.
Judging from Harbaugh's view of the ACC officiating crew, the Cardinal deserved at least 36 more yards and a clear shot at breaking a 17-17 tie late in the final period. Gerhart ran from midfield to the Wake Forest 15, but a clipping penalty wiped out the play and led to the punt that preceded the winning drive.
"I got a good look at it," Harbaugh said. "It was a good block from my perspective. Toby was off, ran about another 10 yards and then the flag came out. It looked like a clean block to me.... They called clipping on (Chris) Marinelli. Marinelli appeared to cut him cleanly. There was no chop."
Harbaugh didn't dispute the delayed signal on Skinner's third-down sneak for the winning touchdown, but he strongly suggested that Stanford needed a thicker cushion to overcome several calls.
"That was a common thing," Harbaugh said. "We did a good job converting on third down, but they would find something to throw the flag about. It took two touchdowns off the board, and it needed to be won decisively."
The Deacons judged the 24-17 scoreboard math sufficiently decisive yesterday and, most likely, for the autumn days ahead.
■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com
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