By Heath Bradley.

By Heath Bradley

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Following No.13 Clemson’s 42-13 victory over Wake Forest Thursday, Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris told members of the media that due to the coverage schemes Wake Forest was showing, the offense took a few more risks down the field.

“If they are going to come after us and leave our guys in man coverage, we are going to be aggressive,” Morris said.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney also discussed the coverage style saying that the Tigers were able to capitalize when given the opportunity.

“We just made the plays that presented themselves and took advantage,” he said.

Those risks seemed to pay off, and they paid off a lot. Quarterback Tajh Boyd was 27 of 38 for 428 yards and five touchdowns. The 428 yards set a single-game Clemson record, breaking Charlie Whitehurst’s record of 420 which was set versus Duke in 2002. Boyd shared the wealth, hitting five different receivers for his five touchdowns in the first half, which also tied the single-game record for touchdown passes in a half, a record he already owned.

”Tajh was lights out,” Swinney said.

Following a game that saw Boyd struggle at times against Virginia Tech, Boyd was nearly perfect against Wake Forest. While Boyd only completed passes to three different Tigers versus the Hokies, he completed passes to nine different Tigers Thursday, eclipsing the 400 yards passing mark for the first time in his career.

“I went to Coach, and I said, ‘Coach! I have 391. I need nine yards.’ I just wanted to get to 400 and I didn’t know anything about the record,” Boyd said. “The first two plays the crowd started booing a little bit and (Martavis Bryant) did a good job coming back to the football and it broke the record.

“It’s fun doing that and all, but the main thing is winning the game.”

Boyd and the Tigers were also very careful with the football. The Tigers did not commit a turnover, while totaling 85 plays for 534 yards, an average of 6.3 yards per play. Boyd averaged 15.9 yards per completion and converted 15 of their 26 first downs by means of the pass.

Clemson was also 10 of 17 on third down.

While Boyd was on target with his passes, and the receivers made several spectacular grabs, the offensive line played the largest role in the success of the Clemson offense. After overcoming some early struggles with the Wake Forest odd-man front and blitzing schemes, the offensive line settled down and gave Boyd plenty of time to find open receivers.

The ability of the offensive line to give Boyd ample time to look down the field gives the Tigers the opportunity to run deeper routes as well as take advantage of double moves against opposing defensive backs.

With the defense improving and the performance of Boyd and the Clemson offense is potentially just a starting point for the remainder of the season. If both sides of the ball continue to play the way they did against Wake Forest, Clemson fans will continue to have plenty to be happy about.