Good Wake Overcomes Undisciplined Wake

It wasn’t pretty, and no one is going to care. Wake Forest still hasn’t scored a fourth-quarter touchdown this season, and for one day, it won’t be the headline topic. The Demon Deacons went on the road for the first time this season and squeaked out a 30-23 win over Virginia Tech. At the end of the day, good Wake was able to overcome undisciplined Wake for the win.

Issues

The issues are still there. Wake has been outscored 53-36 in the second half in all games this season. And the Deacs committed a staggering 11 official penalties (subtracting offsetting and declined penalties). But after losing back-to-back games and being 0-2 in conference play, Wake gets a decent bus ride home Saturday. Head coach Jake Dickert was so pumped up in the post-game press conference that it is going to be well into the evening before the needed corrections become clearer to him.

The health questions are also still there. Running back Demond Claiborne missed the entire second half with what appeared to be a left knee injury. There is a decent chance he just gets referred to as day-to-day every week for the rest of the season.

Back and Forth

Wake’s Connor Calvert opened the scoring with a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter. But it wasn’t that easy. Dallas Afalava intercepted a Kyron Drones pass at Virginia Tech’s 13-yard line. But Wake had two false starts and two incomplete passes to go with a short run by Claiborne. They had four plays for -3 net yards of offense before relying on the field goal.

Later in the quarter, VA Tech answered with an eight-play, 43-yard drive that ended with a three-yard touchdown run up the middle by Marcellous Hawking to give the Hokies the 7-3 lead.

Wake’s quarterback was missing his receivers high early on. But the running game was there. Claiborne danced his way through the middle of the line for an 11-yard touchdown run to cap a 75-yard drive early in the second quarter for the 10-7 Wake Forest lead.

Drones responded with a rifle of a short pass to Takye Heath in the front of the end zone from nine yards out to cap a six-play, 75-yard drive. It put Virginia Tech back out front 14-10.

Penalties, Penalties, and More Penalties

Wake was going to make it hard on itself as it has been prone to doing this season. The Deacs had it third and five at the Virginia Tech 24-yard line. Receiver Sterling Berkhalter was called for a block in the back, which pushed them 10 yards farther back. On the next play, Ashford only picked up six yards on his scramble. But he was hit out of bounds by Kaleb Spencer, and it gave Wake new life. Ty Clark would push his way up the middle from three yards outs for his first touchdown of the season and the 17-14 Wake lead.

The Deacs had one more first-half drive in them in the half. Starting at the VA Tech 44-yard line with the clock under two minutes, they needed just seven plays with Ashford throwing on a rope to tight end Eni Falayi in the back of the end zone for the 24-14 lead.

The Defense Was the Thing

While it probably felt like an improvement on offense, the Deacs still had six first-half penalties, with five of them being on the offense. The real difference to that point was what the defense was doing to VA Tech. Drones was six of 10 passing for only 35 yards. The pressure in the backfield was intense, and it was coming from all over. The defensive line was impactful, and defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton had linebacker and defensive blitzes coming from every angle. “We came into the game thinking their offensive line was their weakest point and we had to take advantage of it,” Dickert said after the game. “All we had to do was earn third down.”

But the second half has been anything but kind to Wake this season. The Deacs have been outscored 44-30 in the second half going into this game, and 34-6 in the last two games.

VA Tech got a 32-yard field goal from John Love on its first drive of the half. Wake then had to punt and committed a kick catch interference penalty on a VA Tech fair catch. After giving up a 24-yard reception to Donavon Greene, the Wake defense hunkered down and ceded only a 38-yard field goal, which shrunk the lead to 24-20.

The Deacs were apparently living well. Calvert missed a 29-yard field goal. But there were offsetting penalties that forced the play to be done again. On the second chance, he made the field goal for the 27-20 lead.

Too Close

There was no cruise control for Wake Forest. In the third quarter, Ashford was throwing from the middle of his own end zone. While fading backward as he threw the pass, the ball was tipped by the Hokies’ Jaden Keller and intercepted by Isaiah Brown-Murray. The VA Tech drive was starting at the Wake four-yard line. But the Hokies had a rush play for no gain. And then another for a loss of a yard, which was made worse by an unsportsmanlike penalty against Greene. After knocking on the end zone door, VA Tech had to settle for a 34-yard field goal.

Wake still had its challenges. The Deacs were punting from midfield in the fourth quarter and got called for their third illegal formation penalty of the game. On the re-snap, they got called for a false start.

But the defense stiffened up one more time. They held VA Tech to a 49-yard field goal attempt, which Love missed.

Killing the Clock

The rest was on the Wake offense. The Deacs put together a 12-play drive that burned six-and-a-half minutes off the clock. Calvert hit a 27-yard field goal for the 30-23 lead. The Hokies were left with two minutes and no timeouts. The Wake defense shut them down on four plays to seal the win.

After the game, Dickert called the locker room “Ecstatic.” He referred back to the GA Tech last week with the missed defensive offsides call near the end of the game. “Last week, they took it from us. Our guys went out there and they frickin’ earned it.”

He said when the game got close, he said the Deacs toughened up. “They could have been saying, ‘Here we go again.’ And they didn’t. They just ground it out and found a way to win a big football game.”

Questions for Another Time

Wake still has not scored a fourth-quarter touchdown this season. They had one first down in the entire third quarter. They had 11 penalties for 85 yards. There is so much to clean up to play complete football. But reporters usually know how to read the room. And after getting his first ACC win, there was going to be another, different time to address those issues with Dickert.

The Deacs are now 3-2 on the season, 1-2 in ACC play, and travel to Corvallis next week to play Oregon State.

Last Word will have more post-game coverage on Sunday.