The 60-yard field-goal attempt died in the mist, and the gloom set in.
Wake Forest needed to fall through every trap door imaginable to lose the Miami game, but the Deacons pulled off the long shot yesterday. They lost 28-27, and then they trudged across the home field looking sadly out of place, helmets and shoulder pads sagging.
Coach Jim Grobe, his jaw muscles tense, walked into the crossing traffic and beyond earshot of the fellow screaming at him.
"Go to Ohio, Grobe," the less-than-saintly patron yelled. "You should've went to Arkansas."
Jobs departed and jobs rejected hardly entered Grobe's playbook as he contemplated a sure win that turned into a deflating defeat, dropping Wake Forest (4-5 overall, 2-3 ACC) into dire bowl straits.
Nobody knows yet whether quarterback Riley Skinner will overcome a concussion before the kickoff at Georgia Tech next Saturday. Skinner left with 6:22 to play, the engine behind an offense that rolled up 555 yards but failed to score during the final 20 minutes.
Grobe dismissed the yardage windfall as fluff, in scoreboard terms. The failure to convert joined Skinner's overtime fumble at Boston College, opening-night turnovers against Baylor and a late holding call in the driving rain at Navy as milestones of a fractured season. The Deacons have lost four games by a total of 10 points (and the fifth by 35, at Clemson).
"We're playing people that will beat you if you don't make plays late," Grobe said. "That's kind of where we've been the whole time I've been here. We're a competitive football team. We're typically not going to go out and blow anybody away, but we're going to be hanging around with a chance. We've probably had seven games that have been late fourth-quarter games, and we haven't won our share this year. That's the bottom line."
During Grobe's nine seasons, the Deacons are 26-26 in games decided by seven or fewer points (and 15-11 in games decided by three or fewer points).
The Deacons didn't lose because Skinner went down, absorbing the force of a hard hit that cracked his face mask. He was replaced by senior Ryan McManus.
It took much more than a quarterback shuffle to waste the 27-14 lead: Jimmy Newman's missed 45-yard field-goal attempt; Devon Brown's fumbled fair catch on a punt at the 2-yard line; a midfield holding call that wiped out the second first down of McManus' debut series.
All that transpired before Miami's drive for glory, sustained by 29-yard completions on third down from the 18 and on fourth and 16, hauling the Hurricanes to the Wake Forest 30. Two more passes, a conversion kick and just enough defense to dodge a field goal finished the job.
"I think we're going to cringe when we see how many opportunities we had to make plays at the end," Grobe said, previewing the videotape in his mind.
"And, it would only take one or two and you've got no clock left."
Defensive tackle John Russell insisted that the clock hasn't run out on Wake Forest's bid for a fourth straight bowl, but he lamented the persistent inconsistency.
"It's kind of been the mantra in some of these losses," Russell said. "The defense will be playing good and the offense won't, or we'll be playing good at times. But it's really disappointing to know that you have that ability there, but you haven't even come close to putting it together for the full four quarters.... The ball bounces a few different ways and you could easily be sitting here with a team that's only lost one game, but the reality is, we haven't."
The reality fell harder than the rain, and more relentlessly.
lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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