Apparently, the Holy Bible and our Barbarians of the Bible Belt have more in common than just one word. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." While the Demon Deacon football team didn't have to worry about evil on their trip to Death Valley, the home of the Clemson Tigers, turnovers were another story. Five turnovers -- the final one at the Tigers' five-yard line with just over a minute left -- doomed the Deacon victory bid and sent a raucous crowd of 81,000 into a frenzy over the 31-23 Tiger Homecoming "W."

With a sea of orange hysterically supporting their every whim, Clemson burst out of the gate on their opening possession of the game. Running back Bernard Rambert and quarterback Willie Simmons slowly and methodically worked the Deac "D," culminating in a 13-yard scramble by Simmons for the touchdown. The Tigers were up 7-0 early, with 9:52 left in the first quarter.

Senior quarterback James MacPherson and company did respond, however. Keyed by a 30-yard pass to freshman running back Chris Barclay, the Deacon offense -- the tortoise from a favorite fable -- plodded away against a baffled Clemson defense. Sophomore kicker Matt Wisnosky put Wake Forest on the board with 5:30 left in the first with a 28-yard boot.

The Deacon offense would dominate statistically, gaining 365 yards on the ground and 158 in the passing assault.

"I think we go into every game with balance in mind. We're going to try to find ways to throw the football, we're going to try to find ways to run the football, we'll be creative as best we can to balance a little bit. Certainly we're a better running team than a throwing team," Head Coach Jim Grobe said.

After a three-and-out by the Tigers, punter Wynn Kupp pinned the Deacon "O" deep inside their red zone, at the 8-yard line. No matter. The Deacs methodically moved up the field for 92 yards, with a 28-yard scramble by MacPherson being the lone departure from the short-game mentality. The drive was capped with the second play in the second quarter when senior fullback Ovie Mughelli plunged in from the 1-yard line for the 10-7 lead.

Led by senior defensive end Calvin Pace, the Deac front three continually harassed the Tiger passing game and nixed the running attack. In fact, Pace even caused one biased Tiger reporter in the pressbox -- in between a string of obscenities -- to exclaim, "Those three (Pace, nose tackle senior Montique Sharpe and senior defensive end Rod Stephen) could stop our offense by themselves."

Anyways, the Deacon defense as a whole halted yet another Clemson drive prematurely, forcing another Kupp punt. This time, MacPherson resembled his PlayStation NCAA Football namesake, nailing a leaping senior wide receiver Fabian Davis for 36 yards on a key third-and-16 to keep the drive alive. Wisnosky soon hit his second chip-shot field goal of the day, this one a 26-yarder. The score now read 13-7 with 3:51 left in the half.

With the Tiger electric buzz now seemingly halted, Simmons rallied his offense and gave the Tiger -- and the man in orange overalls -- something to smile about at halftime. With limited time left, Simmons found receiver Kevin Youngblood thrice on a hurried drive, and J.J. McKelvey once for 25-yards to bring the orange-and-white to the doorsteps of the Deac end zone. One play later, Yusef Kelly fell in for the touchdown, giving the sons of Clem the lead 14-13 with eight seconds left in the half, sending both squads in for halftime.

Grobe's Gang opened up the second half with more pizzazz then the Trix Rabbit and the Kool-Aid Man combined.

After holding Clemson to yet another three-and-out offensive set, Davis decided to use his "as cool as the other side of the pillow" play, racing 51 yards on a reverse, only to be run down at the Tigers' 6-yard line.

But no worries. Senior running back Tarence Williams glided in for the score one play later, embarrassing Clemson's "Orange Crush" and seizing back the lead for the Deacs, 20-14.

Redshirt freshman Caron Bracy (who led the team with 10 solo tackles) and the rest of the defensive clan put on the record player for the Clemson offense, holding them to their sixth three-and-out series of the game. Unfortunately for the Deacons, the Tiger defense would find a way to reclaim the momentum, as Justin Miller picked off an errant MacPherson toss -- his first of the year -- and returned it 25 yards with 11:10 in the third remaining.

Kupp was forced to punt again, pinning the Deacs in their red-zone. While the powerful Deacon running game pounded the Orange Crush, a fumble by redshirt freshman Cornelius Birgs, and the subsequent recovery by Tiger Travis Pugh, allotted Clemson excellent field position at the Wake Forest 30.

After a huge sack on second-down pushed back Tommy Bowden's Boys, a questionable pass interference call gave the Tigers new life. Three plays later, Rambert bounded up the middle for a 3-yard score. The lead now belonged to Clemson 21-20, and Death Valley began to truly echo like Hell's Bells once again.

Grobe's offense would try to rebound and quiet the crowd, but a second MacPherson pick -- this time by Brian Mance --ended that Deacon drive like a Teletubby at Liberty University.

Clemson upped their lead with 9:38 left in the game with a 34-yard trifecta by Aaron Hunt. The scoreboard now read 24-20.

But Barclay, for one, wasn't about ready to call it quits. After back-to-back gains of 19 and 11 yards, the Deacs had driven to midfield. But yet another second-half blunder shook, rattled and rolled the offense, as Altroy Bodrick nabbed a third MacPherson interception across the middle with eight minutes left in the game.

With Clemson smelling blood, the Deacon defense continued to shuffle backwards ever so slowly. A fake field goal-turned-run, gave the Tigers renewed possession, and Rambert strutted in for a 3-yard score, his third, with 3:02 left in the game.

With the score now 31-23, and the fanatics of Death Valley frantically laboring to pop their ear drums, and knowing that they needed a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie the game -- the offense continued to plug away. A nine-yard crossing pattern catch by senior tight end Ray Thomas here. A two-yard push by Williams there.

And then, the team's hare -- Davis -- broke free from coverage on the left side, and MacPherson air-raided the Tigers for 34-yards, just the big play the Wake Forest faithful were hoping for. After a clutch catch by senior wideout Jax Lanfried for 11 yards, and a 13-yard scamper by Barclay, the gridiron

Deacons faced a third down and three at the Tiger 18, with just over one minute to go.

Barclay took the handoff, saw daylight, and was gone. He was darting into the end zone when Mance came out of nowhere. Instead of trying to tackle Barclay, Mance instead punched at the ball, jarring it free into the end zone, and sending players after it in a rabid scuffle. The ball eventually was kicked inadvertently out of the back of the end zone for a touchback, giving Clemson possession. The game ended 31-23 in the Tigers' favor and caused Death Valley to heave a huge collective sigh of relief.

"I think he was in a position where the (defender) made a good play, if he doesn't get the ball, he's not going to tackle (Barclay). I think it was just a good play on their part, and Chris was certainly going full speed trying to get in the end zone. (The defender) caught him off guard, Chris expected to get in the end zone," Grobe said.

Barclay finished with 89 yards on 14 carries and Williams garnered 97 yards on 20 carries.

Davis notched 200 total yards, while MacPherson threw for 158 yards on 10 completions. The Deacons, as a whole, finished with 523 yards, nearly doubling Clemson's total of 280 yards -- 208 of which came via the air.

Also in total, the Demon Deacons were penalized 14 times for a massive 125 yards, most of which came on holding penalties.

Wake Forest now ranks tenth in the nation in rushing yards with just a hair under 250 a game, with 249.9 per game.

Clemson improves to 4-3 on the fall, 2-2 in the ACC. The Deacons fell to 4-4 overall, 2-3 in ACC play.

The Deacons return home to the confines of Groves Stadium on Oct. 26 for Parent's Weekend when the in-state rivals, the Tar Heels of North Carolina, pay a visit. Kickoff is scheduled for noon.