Well, at least the first 1st half was fun. The Deacs looked like they were on their way to picking up a big win over NC State early in the game, but a miserable second half allowed the Wolfpack to come back from 14 points down and ultimately win the game 34-24.
The 1st quarter was dominated by Washington State transfer receiver Chris Barnes, who took the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown to give the Deacs a 7-0 lead.
Barnes would lead the Deacs to a touchdown on their second drive with a 70 yard catch and run that would put Wake on the 4 yard line. Demond Claiborne punched it in 3 plays later to give the Deacs a 14-0 lead.
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That lead did not last very long, as the Wolfpack marched right down the field on their next possession and scored on a 5 yard pass from CJ Bailey to Justin Joly. A Robby Ashford pick 6 on the next drive tied things up before the 1st quarter even ended.
It was mostly downhill from there. The Deacs scored 1 more touchdown on a Robby Ashford run in the 2nd quarter, but that was pretty much it. I don’t know what Dave Doeren told the Wolfpack at halftime, but NC State came out and completely dominated the Deacs in the 2nd half. Wake got bullied at the line of scrimmage and allowed NC State to just rip off chunk play after chunk play on the ground and through the air. Hollywood Smothers, who finished with 163 rushing yards, was constantly getting 5 yards down the field before anyone on the Wake Forest defense made contact with him. The Deacs were also unable to get anywhere near CJ Bailey, who picked apart the Wake Forest secondary to the tune of 201 yards passing and 3 touchdowns.
The defense was far from the biggest issue in this game, unfortunately. The Wake Forest offense completely disappeared in the second half, gaining just 39 total yards and 2 1st down in the entire half—and one of the 1st downs came on a targeting penalty. It seemed like State just loaded up on stopping Demond Claiborne, who finished with just 12 carries for 35 yards, and dared Wake to beat them throwing the football. Robby Ashford and the Wake Forest receivers not named Chris Barnes struggled to do anything, and the Deacs started the 2nd half with 4 straight 3-and-outs. That allowed NC State to score 17 unanswered points and ultimately win the game 34-24. You simply cannot go a whole half without moving the ball at all and expect to win games.
I have said repeatedly after the games against Kennesaw and Western Carolina that we don’t really know how good this team is due to the talent disparity between the teams in those games. Unfortunately, we may now have our answer. This was Wake’s first game against a P4 level opponent, and they were abused on both sides of the line of scrimmage. The NC State defense has not even looked particularly good this season (they just gave up 500+ yards to Virginia), and Wake could not even muster a first down against them. We are 3 games into the season, and outside of the opening drive against Kennesaw, Wake really hasn’t scored on a sustained drive all season—all of their touchdowns against Western and NC State came on the back of explosive plays. That is probably not going to be a sustainable offense over an entire season.
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Wake now has 16 days off to prepare for their next game against Georgia Tech. They desperately need to use that time to work on their offense.
Onto the next.
Go Deacs.
