Long story short, I did the work for a film review but it's too late in the week and there are too many other things going on for the N&O to take it ...
So instead of this being lost the editing room floor, I'm going to post the film review of the N.C. State game here. Hopefully it's coherent enough:
By Conor O'Neill
Slightly modified excerpt from “30 Rock.”
What a month.
It’s only Sept. 24.
Whirlwind, debacle, journey, whatever you want to call the past month for Wake Forest’s football team, the same applies for yours truly. I’ll tell ya, it’s some kind of rollercoaster to make a phone call to have your dog put to sleep on one Wednesday, and then the next Wednesday be laid off.
Maybe that’s why I’m pleased to have spent this Wednesday doing a simple re-watch of last weekend’s Wake Forest-N.C. State game – and why I ignored phone calls on Wednesday.
Here’s what I picked up on during the re-watch:
- The Bailey Hockman surprise start was certainly a surprise to me.
- ACC Network made a good decision to make Jordan Connette the host of their evening show, “The Huddle.” Nothing against the guy who split his hand open – just like how Connette facilitates conversation.
- It’s a detriment, though, to have Dave O’Brien and Tim Hasselbeck working from home.
- Easy to forget that a team scored 45 points with its first play as a backward pass that was dropped and was an 8-yard loss.
- Here’s the second play, the first of so many huge runs for the Wolfpack. There’s a lot of pre-snap communication for Wake – they wind up with Ryan Smenda Jr. out wide and he overpursues as Ricky Person Jr. cuts upfield. The other linebacker, Ja’Cquez Williams, was getting crushed by the left guard, Ickey Ekwonu.
Sidenote: Nasir Greer started this game at cornerback and Wake Forest desperately needs to get enough cornerback depth to move him back to safety. He’s just not nearly the same player out there.
- Next play is a 17-yard comeback to Thayer Thomas – Hockman shows good poise in the pocket, he didn’t have a ton of time.
- And … touchdown. Giving up runs of 33 and 30 yards on the opening drive, and then continuing to get gashed on the ground, made me think Wake’s defense overcorrected from the last week’s aerial assault by Trevor Lawrence.
Dave Clawson cleared that up: “No, Conor, I mean a lot of those runs were against run-stopping calls. We kind of did some things early that we were soft, and then we saw that they were coming out and running it, we were putting our corners on islands.
“We weren’t doing a lot of double-covering, we were putting the linebacker in the box, the safety in the box. They just ran that stretch play and they got seams and we missed some tackles, we did not create a new line of scrimmage at all.”
He sounded more exasperated than frustrated, though it probably reads the opposite.
- Also: Both long runs on the opening drive were to Boogie Basham’s side.
- Good read by Sam Hartman (I think) on first play to swing it out to Taylor Morin for a 15-yard swing screen. And good blocking in front of Morin by A.T. Perry.
- Wake went with a little more of a bunched formation look, at least in this first possession.
- 0-for-1 on deep shots – underthrown for Donavon Greene, though not much in the way of working back to the ball.
(going to keep a running tally on deep balls because it was a key talking point for Clawson after the game)
- Really good plays by Tyler Williams (having him back was a boost) and Ja’Sir Taylor on the first two plays of this drive, both runs.
- So it’s third-and-8, Hockman at this point has only thrown the backward pass and one 17-yard comebacker … and a simple little swing pass to Person gets 8 yards. Taylor doesn’t take the best angle and I’m not sure it’s the best spot in the world, looked like he stepped out when he was ½-yard short.
- N.C. State gets to third-and-1 after a 7-yard run by Bam Knight and it’s an hard-earned conversion.
Here come the floodgates …
- 32-yard pass-and-run to Dylan Parham, who’s just alone in the middle of the field. Ja’Cquez Williams got sucked in too far to play action, while I’ve got no idea where the safeties are (of if that’s their responsibility).
- Next play there’s good pressure applied by Chase Monroe, Hockman under duress throws it up for grabs – and the only player there to make a play is Devin Carter for a 21-yard catch.
- And a touchdown, 7-yard keeper by Hockman. It’s a pretty well-blocked play, though Luke Masterson gets held as he tries to knife through a block.
- Kenneth Walker III bottled up on his first carry – I don’t need to remind you he had a career-best 131 yards and three touchdowns. Here’s what he said earlier this week:
“I was seeing things much differently. Felt more comfortable in the backfield,” Walker said of the difference between the first and second games. “I felt kind of rusty (in) the first game, coming back for the first game. Second game I felt much better.”
For what it’s worth, Walker said he didn’t feel rusty in camp.
- Back-to-back passes of 10 and 9 yards to Jaquarii Roberson and A.T. Perry – the Demon Deacons need Perry to continue developing.
- Didn’t notice during game: Wake Forest’s jumbo package includes Taleni Suhren as an extra OL and Connor Hebbeler as a second tight end.
Last season’s wrinkle borne out of necessity has some staying power, it seems.
- Only one 9-yard catch for Donavon Greene; not sure this was his best game even before the injury, but keep in mind he’s only played six college games.
For the sake of comparison, Sage Surratt’s sixth game was a 0-catch game against Clemson.
- 0-for-2 on deep shots – Hartman delivers where it needs to be to Greene, who’s falling backward and can’t make the play.
- 5-yard run followed by a 13-yarder on third-and-5 by Walker, and you can just tell his body language was different for this game. He got into a rhythm this early.
- The fake-screen, throw-deep play doesn’t work – normally one of my favorites from Warren Ruggiero, just don’t know that I like it too much when you do it from the opponent’s 20.
- For the life of me, I don’t know how this wasn’t ruled a fumble.
But isn’t replay review great?
- What a throw and catch for the touchdown. Hartman put it in a perfect position for Roberson, where only he could make the play, and he gets everything – catch, foot, secure – in the same motion.
As I tweeted during the game, I feel like I’ve seen Roberson make that play at least five times in practices we’ve been allowed at. It’s just a matter of him being in position to seize his opportunity.
- Shovel pass goes left for 15 yards – N.C. State picked up a lot of yards running wide left in the first quarter.
- Same play, this time JaCorey Johns reads it for a TFL. Can’t get beat by the same play twice (that quickly).
- Good play on second down, Smenda pressures Hockman into checkdown and Masterson pushes Knight out of bounds for a 3-yard loss.
- Third-and-14: Three-man rush with Smenda as a spy, Smenda gets blocked, Basham stumbles in pursuit. Not great, but worse is that there’s nobody to step up from a mid-level or secondary and make a play before Hockman gets 14 yards and the first down.
Just a back-breaking play.
- “Nasir Green.” Drink.
- This extended shot of the press box coming out of commercial wasn’t fun for me. This halted a 41-game streak of covering Wake Forest, which started with the Military Bowl (while I was with the Burlington Times-News).
- Third-and-9 and it’s a simple 15-yard pitch-and-catch to Emeka Emezie. He’s right between zone coverage of Chase Jones and Shamar McCollum – better throw than anything, good anticipation from Hockman.
- Next play is a 30-yard pass to a wide-open Cary Angeline – tight ends are going to continue to salivate while watching Wake’s defensive film until something changes.
- Wake’s defense doesn’t seem that fooled by motioning Hockman out of formation – just that Person powers into the end zone from 1 yard out.
- Surprising that Greene fair-caught the kickoff when it was farther back because of the celebration penalty and because he catches it at the 14. That should’ve been returned – or could’ve been let go because it’s a few steps from out of bounds.
- Donald Stewart was a lot more of a factor in this game (five catches, 41 yards) than in the Clemson game and that’s a good sign.
- Payton Wilson’s first of two personal fouls of the night.
- Just noticing: Michael Jurgens wasn’t in for this drive, it was Sean Maginn moving to center and Suhren at right guard. So, tinkering on OL continues or Jurgens had a minor injury – feel like he didn’t miss the rest of the game, but will monitor.
- Wilson crushes Christian Beal-Smith in the backfield; I can’t tell if the pulling right side of the line is late or if Blake Whiteheart was supposed to pick up. Either way, blown play for the offensive line (plus Whiteheart).
- Third-and-13 screen to Stewart … not my favorite idea from Ruggiero.
But …
- Fourth-and-11 from Wolfpack’s 38, really good throw down the seam from Hartman to Taylor Morin. And note the situation: Down two touchdowns, early second quarter, defense has been porous – aggressive call pays off.
- As noted during the game, such a good play from Hartman on Beal-Smith’s touchdown run. The snap isn’t terrible but it’s off-center, Hartman catches, hands off, gets enough of a block to get Beal-Smith to the corner.
- Stewart also had a really nice block on the outside.
- Traveon Redd with a good first-down TFL on a bubble screen. But then you can’t give up a 7-yard run as easily as this is on second-and-11.
- Third-and-4, starts with an empty backfield but Knight motions into it and it’s a run to the left, again. Wake’s defense strings it along, just can’t make a play.
You know, maybe this is an oversimplification, but watching this defense sometimes just feels like everybody is waiting for somebody else to make the big play. It’s like, “OK I’m doing what I need to be doing, somebody else will go above and beyond and make a play.”
Again, maybe an oversimplification. But that’s how it sometimes looks to my untrained eyes.
- A second “Nasir Green.” Drink two.
- First game action for freshman cornerback Caelen Carson, and it’s on a force-out that converts third-and-3.
N.C. State went to 6-for-6 on third downs at this point; it finished 6-for-12. The Demon Deacons plugged that hole but were susceptible in other ways in the second half.
Hockman went to 12-for-12 for 141 yards on this pass; he finishes 16-for-23 for 191 yards.
- Miles Fox is a really good defensive tackle.
Explain: He’s lined up for second-and-10 at defensive end (Johns is standing as fourth DL on field), middle screen goes to other side. Fox was coming on a twist with Johns, reads the screen, gets the middle of the field and makes the tackle with Sulaiman Kamara, who also gets credit for reading screen.
- First third-down stop is a low throw more than anything, but decent coverage by Carson. Looking forward to seeing more of him.
- Good route by Roberson on a 14-yard catch-and-run on this drive’s first play.
Jurgens back at center, btw.
- Strong step-up-and-deliver play from Hartman, firing over the middle to Perry for 11 yards while two defenders swipe at him from behind.
- Good blitz and poor pickup from Wake’s offensive line leads to the second-down sack. Not much Hartman could’ve done here.
- This was my favorite sequence of the game: Hartman-to-Roberson for 24 yards. Negated by penalty. Same play. Hartman-to-Roberson for 23 yards.
- The rest of this drive becomes the KW3 show.
- Ooh, forgot about the questionable injury. What makes this one questionable? Daniel Joseph goes down with an ankle injury. OK, fine.
But they come out of commercial break and as he’s talking with teammates on the sideline, he’s not with trainers or anything, he’s just talking with teammates and moving around with no hindrance.
- Another decent run block by Hartman to help Walker pick up 12 yards.
- It’s worth noting here and now: Wake Forest needs Walker and Beal-Smith to remain healthy for as long as possible. Kendrell Flowers opted out. Quinton Cooley, from social media indications, is out for an extended period of time, possibly the year. That leaves Justice Ellison and Ahmani Marshall as the only other scholarship running backs; Ellison got garbage-time carries against Clemson and Marshall hasn’t played yet.
- Outstanding scramble by Hartman on third-and-4. He makes Wilson miss in space and gets to the edge.
- Beal-Smith took a direct snap in the jumbo package earlier, this time it’s Walker. Versatility in that package can only help. Good blocking by, let’s see … Je’Vionte’ Nash, Hebbeler, Beal-Smith are the ones who stand out on the touchdown.
- You just can’t give up 21 yards on a get-us-to-halftime run. Gets an extra 6-7 yards because of a blatantly missed tackle by Smenda.
- Wake’s only sack of the night is by Boogie Basham and it comes on the final play of the first half. Really good move.
Here’s the thing: Wake Forest has four sacks this season; Opponents have 12. That probably says more about Wake’s offense than its defense, but that’s a crippling disparity for a program that needs to lean on an experienced front-7.
- Hockman has four incompletions at halftime and three of them were basically throwaways rather than take sacks.
So … why wasn’t he going to be the starter?
- OK, second half starts – for Wake, you were down 14 and got to halftime tied, this is the possession you need to take the lead. And …
- Wilson’s second personal foul (you can’t suplex people).
- Two plays and you’re at the 50.
- Here’s the play where Greene gets hurt. Just took a hard hit to the back, but was down for less than the commercial break. I’d be curious if he would’ve been a full go this weekend, but not surprised.
- 0-for-3 on deep shots: Hartman underthrows it and Perry doesn’t come back to the ball – he might get the pass interference call he’s asking for if he made more of an effort to work back to the football.
- Not that there’s ever a good time for a 5-yard punt … but this was a bad time for a 5-yard punt. Punting from the 50, you’ve gotta pin N.C. State inside the 20.
Pretty awful coverage from ACCN to barely address it. I think Ivan Mora rushed it because he had a couple of guys in his face.
- First play. Person runs wide left. Gains 30.
Wake’s defense is in need of a serious remedy.
- Person bottled up on the second play, and then loose again for 21 yards down to Wake’s 1. Some poor angles taken on this one. Person almost scores, but Greer jars the ball free at the goal line.
Also a reminder: The dumbest rule in football is that if Person had fumbled ½-yard farther, it would’ve been Wake’s ball at the 20 coming out.
- You can always appreciate a good jump pass. It’s got to be just demoralizing for a defense; you’ve got a run bottled up and all of a sudden the ball is in the air to the one guy who’s not locked up on a block.
- Wake Forest needs to respond after going back down – first two plays are a bottled-up run and a sack. The sack was probably equal faults offensive line and Hartman; he holds the ball a little too long, protection breaks down all around him.
- 0-for-4 on deep shots: Hartman put this right where it needs to be for Greene – didn’t realize he came back so quickly after the shot to his back – and he can’t make the leaping play. That’s a play he made twice against Clemson.
- Mora was good, with maybe one or two exceptions against Clemson. And his only punt in the first half was good. But in the second half of this game: 5, 33 and 32 yards. Yikes.
- Hockman scrambles for 13 yards, followed by a 20-yard run by Knight. Just losing contain, losing the edge, poor pursuit angles … these are the aspects that bring 2018 to mind.
- Touchdown, Hockman-to-Angeline. Masterson comes up the field too far on the play-action and Zion Keith is late with help from the other side.
- Another sack, this one an RPO and Hartman doesn’t pull the trigger. He was so sharp for most of the first half and then N.C. State starts getting a little more pressure and things unravel here.
This was part of a six-play span in which Wake Forest gave up three sacks.
- Stewart appears to at least have earned the No. 3 wide receiver role and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start over Perry in the next game.
- There’s the third sack; Wilson just goes around Brandon Chapman.
- 0-for-5 on deep shots: Just an overthrow by Hartman here. Not a chance for Stewart to make a play or sell pass interference.
- This is just such a rewarding play for Ja’Sir Taylor. A fantastic break on the ball. And I’m amazed at how early he knew he was going to score – he puts his arm up at about the 25-yard line. But nobody comes close to tackling him.
Complete with the Bermuda Boyz thumbs-down celebration.
- Only the second returned kickoff by Jack Crane this season (to this point).
- Hockman throws the pick-6 and the next possession is three dives into the line for 7 yards and a punt.
- The third-down stop was a really good play by A.J. Williams to hold contain and come off his block to make a tackle. Really promising things from him two games in.
- 31-yard run by Beal-Smith on the first play, what stands out to me is how hard he hits the hole. I don’t think he does that quite as often as he should – of course, there has to be a hole to hit, and this is blocked really well.
- I forgot there was a fourth-down conversion on this drive: Fourth-and-5, Wolfpack brings a ton of pressure, Hartman stands in and throws strike to Roberson over the middle. Excellent execution. Hartman takes a sizable hit, too.
- 10-yard pass to Roberson along the sideline. You can just see him exude so much more confidence than at any point in games for the last two seasons.
- Matt Colburn II is still the most-patient running back I think I’ve ever seen in person – Walker might change that by the time his career is finished. He really waited for things to develop on this 13-yard touchdown.
- Hockman throws two incompletions to the sideline, and then the third-down shovel is read perfectly by Smenda and Redd.
Wake Forest has to have more of this from Smenda and less of the big-hit hunting that leads to missed tackles. It sounds simple and it’s easy for me to say – I’ve never played linebacker, though.
- 26-yard return by Morin, what strikes me is how he’s able to keep his center of balance. For a smaller guy (5-10, 174), he’s able to get free from a fair amount of arm tackles.
Everything at this point says it’s Wake’s game to lose. You’ve just rallied from down 14 with a pick-6 and lengthy touchdown drive. Your defense was getting gashed and just forced back-to-back three-and-outs. Morin’s return gives you the best starting field position you’ve had all night (pretty bad, considering it was your own 39). Katie George even reports that an N.C. State defensive player was “joking” that they didn’t even have a chance to get a drink of water because the three-and-out was so quick. And then …
- Beal-Smith fumbles. I can’t even tell where he loses it. But this was just such a cold stop of momentum.
- 17-yard run by Knight on the first play – N.C. State offense gets its first first down in nine plays.
- Miles Fox continues to impress.
- Basham makes a great play to come off of his block and make a third-down stop.
This should’ve been a win for Wake’s defense to hold N.C. State to a field goal.
- Walker got stronger as this game went.
If you follow along on Twitter, you know I’m a big Beal-Smith fan. I still am. But based on this game, Walker needs to be fed at least 20 carries per game.
- It felt like Stewart had a lot bigger of an impact on this game than five catches for 41 yards. This was his last one and it went for 13 yards.
- Weird to have the first pass interference call of the game, unless I missed one on the Yellow Pad (I didn’t), come with 11:13 left … and then we’ll get the second one four plays later.
- Motioning Stewart into the backfield to serve as an extra blocker is a wrinkle I can’t say I remember seeing with Sage Surratt or Scotty Washington.
- Blake Whiteheart’s first career catch – I think he’s a talented tight end, it’s worth keeping an eye on whether his chances increase as we go through the season.
- Jumbo package, touchdown. Yeah that set isn’t going anywhere.
- Houston breaks off a 20-yard run on the second play – it’s losing gap integrity and safeties either playing too deep or unable to identify run quickly enough.
- There might not be a team in the ACC with a better three-pronged backfield than N.C. State. Person, Knight and Houston all look really good.
- Screen to Knight for 27 yards, really good time for it. Pre-snap motion to the other side shifted the linebackers a bit, and then Ja’Cquez Williams and Taylor are left to try to get through three offensive linemen blocking.
- Just too easy for N.C. State to pound the ball into the end zone on these two plays. Nine yards around the left edge (left, again) and 3-yard touchdown.
- Another strong throw by Hartman for a first down – things don’t go well from here.
- Third-and-7 QB keeper: I don’t hate this call as much as most of you. It’s not great, but this fails more because of execution – there isn’t much – and because N.C. State gives a defensive look that it would work against, and then brings a cornerback blitz.
Not a great play call. And certainly has a better chance of succeeding if your QB is 6-4, 240 and a power runner. But not the cataclysmic error you might think it is.
- The fourth-and-5 throw goes to Perry short – it should’ve gone to Roberson, who was the deeper route over the middle.
- Two TFLs by Fox on N.C. State’s first two plays – there’s a case to be made he’s been Wake’s best defensive lineman this season.
- Good stand by the defense to get the ball back.
- Wake’s situation in this game: Down three, ball on the 11, 2:25 left, two timeouts.
Wake’s situation in 2018: Down three, ball on the 20, 1:39 left, zero timeouts.
- Good throw for 8 yards on the first play, good run by Walker to pick up the first down and get moving.
- Maybe Zach Tom’s only bad play of the night to this point, gets beat around the edge and Hartman throws wild and high to Chapman on the sideline.
- Nolan Groulx’s usage in this game, going from playing a few first-half series against Clemson to not even being on the field for offensive snaps until the final possession, is confounding.
He wasn’t good against Clemson – who was? He’s seemingly only in the game here because Greene was banged up and … I’ve got no idea why Stewart wasn’t on the field for this drive.
- This is where it goes sideways – Hartman sacked because Nash gets beat.
- And there’s the second sack, Ngassam Nya gets beat inside.
Can’t take sacks in the two-minute offense, that’s one of Clawson’s main tenets – but not sure either one of those is really Hartman’s fault.
- Fourth-and-21 is a pass over the middle to Morin that might not have even picked up the first down if he’d caught it.
That’s obviously not ideal, but when you’re 0-for-5 on deep shots and haven’t protected the QB long enough for a deep shot to develop, it’s basically what you’re stuck with.
N.C. State drains the rest of the time, as you likely know.
The end.
So instead of this being lost the editing room floor, I'm going to post the film review of the N.C. State game here. Hopefully it's coherent enough:
By Conor O'Neill
Slightly modified excerpt from “30 Rock.”
What a month.
It’s only Sept. 24.
Whirlwind, debacle, journey, whatever you want to call the past month for Wake Forest’s football team, the same applies for yours truly. I’ll tell ya, it’s some kind of rollercoaster to make a phone call to have your dog put to sleep on one Wednesday, and then the next Wednesday be laid off.
Maybe that’s why I’m pleased to have spent this Wednesday doing a simple re-watch of last weekend’s Wake Forest-N.C. State game – and why I ignored phone calls on Wednesday.
Here’s what I picked up on during the re-watch:
- The Bailey Hockman surprise start was certainly a surprise to me.
- ACC Network made a good decision to make Jordan Connette the host of their evening show, “The Huddle.” Nothing against the guy who split his hand open – just like how Connette facilitates conversation.
- It’s a detriment, though, to have Dave O’Brien and Tim Hasselbeck working from home.
- Easy to forget that a team scored 45 points with its first play as a backward pass that was dropped and was an 8-yard loss.
- Here’s the second play, the first of so many huge runs for the Wolfpack. There’s a lot of pre-snap communication for Wake – they wind up with Ryan Smenda Jr. out wide and he overpursues as Ricky Person Jr. cuts upfield. The other linebacker, Ja’Cquez Williams, was getting crushed by the left guard, Ickey Ekwonu.
Sidenote: Nasir Greer started this game at cornerback and Wake Forest desperately needs to get enough cornerback depth to move him back to safety. He’s just not nearly the same player out there.
- Next play is a 17-yard comeback to Thayer Thomas – Hockman shows good poise in the pocket, he didn’t have a ton of time.
- And … touchdown. Giving up runs of 33 and 30 yards on the opening drive, and then continuing to get gashed on the ground, made me think Wake’s defense overcorrected from the last week’s aerial assault by Trevor Lawrence.
Dave Clawson cleared that up: “No, Conor, I mean a lot of those runs were against run-stopping calls. We kind of did some things early that we were soft, and then we saw that they were coming out and running it, we were putting our corners on islands.
“We weren’t doing a lot of double-covering, we were putting the linebacker in the box, the safety in the box. They just ran that stretch play and they got seams and we missed some tackles, we did not create a new line of scrimmage at all.”
He sounded more exasperated than frustrated, though it probably reads the opposite.
- Also: Both long runs on the opening drive were to Boogie Basham’s side.
- Good read by Sam Hartman (I think) on first play to swing it out to Taylor Morin for a 15-yard swing screen. And good blocking in front of Morin by A.T. Perry.
- Wake went with a little more of a bunched formation look, at least in this first possession.
- 0-for-1 on deep shots – underthrown for Donavon Greene, though not much in the way of working back to the ball.
(going to keep a running tally on deep balls because it was a key talking point for Clawson after the game)
- Really good plays by Tyler Williams (having him back was a boost) and Ja’Sir Taylor on the first two plays of this drive, both runs.
- So it’s third-and-8, Hockman at this point has only thrown the backward pass and one 17-yard comebacker … and a simple little swing pass to Person gets 8 yards. Taylor doesn’t take the best angle and I’m not sure it’s the best spot in the world, looked like he stepped out when he was ½-yard short.
- N.C. State gets to third-and-1 after a 7-yard run by Bam Knight and it’s an hard-earned conversion.
Here come the floodgates …
- 32-yard pass-and-run to Dylan Parham, who’s just alone in the middle of the field. Ja’Cquez Williams got sucked in too far to play action, while I’ve got no idea where the safeties are (of if that’s their responsibility).
- Next play there’s good pressure applied by Chase Monroe, Hockman under duress throws it up for grabs – and the only player there to make a play is Devin Carter for a 21-yard catch.
- And a touchdown, 7-yard keeper by Hockman. It’s a pretty well-blocked play, though Luke Masterson gets held as he tries to knife through a block.
- Kenneth Walker III bottled up on his first carry – I don’t need to remind you he had a career-best 131 yards and three touchdowns. Here’s what he said earlier this week:
“I was seeing things much differently. Felt more comfortable in the backfield,” Walker said of the difference between the first and second games. “I felt kind of rusty (in) the first game, coming back for the first game. Second game I felt much better.”
For what it’s worth, Walker said he didn’t feel rusty in camp.
- Back-to-back passes of 10 and 9 yards to Jaquarii Roberson and A.T. Perry – the Demon Deacons need Perry to continue developing.
- Didn’t notice during game: Wake Forest’s jumbo package includes Taleni Suhren as an extra OL and Connor Hebbeler as a second tight end.
Last season’s wrinkle borne out of necessity has some staying power, it seems.
- Only one 9-yard catch for Donavon Greene; not sure this was his best game even before the injury, but keep in mind he’s only played six college games.
For the sake of comparison, Sage Surratt’s sixth game was a 0-catch game against Clemson.
- 0-for-2 on deep shots – Hartman delivers where it needs to be to Greene, who’s falling backward and can’t make the play.
- 5-yard run followed by a 13-yarder on third-and-5 by Walker, and you can just tell his body language was different for this game. He got into a rhythm this early.
- The fake-screen, throw-deep play doesn’t work – normally one of my favorites from Warren Ruggiero, just don’t know that I like it too much when you do it from the opponent’s 20.
- For the life of me, I don’t know how this wasn’t ruled a fumble.
But isn’t replay review great?
- What a throw and catch for the touchdown. Hartman put it in a perfect position for Roberson, where only he could make the play, and he gets everything – catch, foot, secure – in the same motion.
As I tweeted during the game, I feel like I’ve seen Roberson make that play at least five times in practices we’ve been allowed at. It’s just a matter of him being in position to seize his opportunity.
- Shovel pass goes left for 15 yards – N.C. State picked up a lot of yards running wide left in the first quarter.
- Same play, this time JaCorey Johns reads it for a TFL. Can’t get beat by the same play twice (that quickly).
- Good play on second down, Smenda pressures Hockman into checkdown and Masterson pushes Knight out of bounds for a 3-yard loss.
- Third-and-14: Three-man rush with Smenda as a spy, Smenda gets blocked, Basham stumbles in pursuit. Not great, but worse is that there’s nobody to step up from a mid-level or secondary and make a play before Hockman gets 14 yards and the first down.
Just a back-breaking play.
- “Nasir Green.” Drink.
- This extended shot of the press box coming out of commercial wasn’t fun for me. This halted a 41-game streak of covering Wake Forest, which started with the Military Bowl (while I was with the Burlington Times-News).
- Third-and-9 and it’s a simple 15-yard pitch-and-catch to Emeka Emezie. He’s right between zone coverage of Chase Jones and Shamar McCollum – better throw than anything, good anticipation from Hockman.
- Next play is a 30-yard pass to a wide-open Cary Angeline – tight ends are going to continue to salivate while watching Wake’s defensive film until something changes.
- Wake’s defense doesn’t seem that fooled by motioning Hockman out of formation – just that Person powers into the end zone from 1 yard out.
- Surprising that Greene fair-caught the kickoff when it was farther back because of the celebration penalty and because he catches it at the 14. That should’ve been returned – or could’ve been let go because it’s a few steps from out of bounds.
- Donald Stewart was a lot more of a factor in this game (five catches, 41 yards) than in the Clemson game and that’s a good sign.
- Payton Wilson’s first of two personal fouls of the night.
- Just noticing: Michael Jurgens wasn’t in for this drive, it was Sean Maginn moving to center and Suhren at right guard. So, tinkering on OL continues or Jurgens had a minor injury – feel like he didn’t miss the rest of the game, but will monitor.
- Wilson crushes Christian Beal-Smith in the backfield; I can’t tell if the pulling right side of the line is late or if Blake Whiteheart was supposed to pick up. Either way, blown play for the offensive line (plus Whiteheart).
- Third-and-13 screen to Stewart … not my favorite idea from Ruggiero.
But …
- Fourth-and-11 from Wolfpack’s 38, really good throw down the seam from Hartman to Taylor Morin. And note the situation: Down two touchdowns, early second quarter, defense has been porous – aggressive call pays off.
- As noted during the game, such a good play from Hartman on Beal-Smith’s touchdown run. The snap isn’t terrible but it’s off-center, Hartman catches, hands off, gets enough of a block to get Beal-Smith to the corner.
- Stewart also had a really nice block on the outside.
- Traveon Redd with a good first-down TFL on a bubble screen. But then you can’t give up a 7-yard run as easily as this is on second-and-11.
- Third-and-4, starts with an empty backfield but Knight motions into it and it’s a run to the left, again. Wake’s defense strings it along, just can’t make a play.
You know, maybe this is an oversimplification, but watching this defense sometimes just feels like everybody is waiting for somebody else to make the big play. It’s like, “OK I’m doing what I need to be doing, somebody else will go above and beyond and make a play.”
Again, maybe an oversimplification. But that’s how it sometimes looks to my untrained eyes.
- A second “Nasir Green.” Drink two.
- First game action for freshman cornerback Caelen Carson, and it’s on a force-out that converts third-and-3.
N.C. State went to 6-for-6 on third downs at this point; it finished 6-for-12. The Demon Deacons plugged that hole but were susceptible in other ways in the second half.
Hockman went to 12-for-12 for 141 yards on this pass; he finishes 16-for-23 for 191 yards.
- Miles Fox is a really good defensive tackle.
Explain: He’s lined up for second-and-10 at defensive end (Johns is standing as fourth DL on field), middle screen goes to other side. Fox was coming on a twist with Johns, reads the screen, gets the middle of the field and makes the tackle with Sulaiman Kamara, who also gets credit for reading screen.
- First third-down stop is a low throw more than anything, but decent coverage by Carson. Looking forward to seeing more of him.
- Good route by Roberson on a 14-yard catch-and-run on this drive’s first play.
Jurgens back at center, btw.
- Strong step-up-and-deliver play from Hartman, firing over the middle to Perry for 11 yards while two defenders swipe at him from behind.
- Good blitz and poor pickup from Wake’s offensive line leads to the second-down sack. Not much Hartman could’ve done here.
- This was my favorite sequence of the game: Hartman-to-Roberson for 24 yards. Negated by penalty. Same play. Hartman-to-Roberson for 23 yards.
- The rest of this drive becomes the KW3 show.
- Ooh, forgot about the questionable injury. What makes this one questionable? Daniel Joseph goes down with an ankle injury. OK, fine.
But they come out of commercial break and as he’s talking with teammates on the sideline, he’s not with trainers or anything, he’s just talking with teammates and moving around with no hindrance.
- Another decent run block by Hartman to help Walker pick up 12 yards.
- It’s worth noting here and now: Wake Forest needs Walker and Beal-Smith to remain healthy for as long as possible. Kendrell Flowers opted out. Quinton Cooley, from social media indications, is out for an extended period of time, possibly the year. That leaves Justice Ellison and Ahmani Marshall as the only other scholarship running backs; Ellison got garbage-time carries against Clemson and Marshall hasn’t played yet.
- Outstanding scramble by Hartman on third-and-4. He makes Wilson miss in space and gets to the edge.
- Beal-Smith took a direct snap in the jumbo package earlier, this time it’s Walker. Versatility in that package can only help. Good blocking by, let’s see … Je’Vionte’ Nash, Hebbeler, Beal-Smith are the ones who stand out on the touchdown.
- You just can’t give up 21 yards on a get-us-to-halftime run. Gets an extra 6-7 yards because of a blatantly missed tackle by Smenda.
- Wake’s only sack of the night is by Boogie Basham and it comes on the final play of the first half. Really good move.
Here’s the thing: Wake Forest has four sacks this season; Opponents have 12. That probably says more about Wake’s offense than its defense, but that’s a crippling disparity for a program that needs to lean on an experienced front-7.
- Hockman has four incompletions at halftime and three of them were basically throwaways rather than take sacks.
So … why wasn’t he going to be the starter?
- OK, second half starts – for Wake, you were down 14 and got to halftime tied, this is the possession you need to take the lead. And …
- Wilson’s second personal foul (you can’t suplex people).
- Two plays and you’re at the 50.
- Here’s the play where Greene gets hurt. Just took a hard hit to the back, but was down for less than the commercial break. I’d be curious if he would’ve been a full go this weekend, but not surprised.
- 0-for-3 on deep shots: Hartman underthrows it and Perry doesn’t come back to the ball – he might get the pass interference call he’s asking for if he made more of an effort to work back to the football.
- Not that there’s ever a good time for a 5-yard punt … but this was a bad time for a 5-yard punt. Punting from the 50, you’ve gotta pin N.C. State inside the 20.
Pretty awful coverage from ACCN to barely address it. I think Ivan Mora rushed it because he had a couple of guys in his face.
- First play. Person runs wide left. Gains 30.
Wake’s defense is in need of a serious remedy.
- Person bottled up on the second play, and then loose again for 21 yards down to Wake’s 1. Some poor angles taken on this one. Person almost scores, but Greer jars the ball free at the goal line.
Also a reminder: The dumbest rule in football is that if Person had fumbled ½-yard farther, it would’ve been Wake’s ball at the 20 coming out.
- You can always appreciate a good jump pass. It’s got to be just demoralizing for a defense; you’ve got a run bottled up and all of a sudden the ball is in the air to the one guy who’s not locked up on a block.
- Wake Forest needs to respond after going back down – first two plays are a bottled-up run and a sack. The sack was probably equal faults offensive line and Hartman; he holds the ball a little too long, protection breaks down all around him.
- 0-for-4 on deep shots: Hartman put this right where it needs to be for Greene – didn’t realize he came back so quickly after the shot to his back – and he can’t make the leaping play. That’s a play he made twice against Clemson.
- Mora was good, with maybe one or two exceptions against Clemson. And his only punt in the first half was good. But in the second half of this game: 5, 33 and 32 yards. Yikes.
- Hockman scrambles for 13 yards, followed by a 20-yard run by Knight. Just losing contain, losing the edge, poor pursuit angles … these are the aspects that bring 2018 to mind.
- Touchdown, Hockman-to-Angeline. Masterson comes up the field too far on the play-action and Zion Keith is late with help from the other side.
- Another sack, this one an RPO and Hartman doesn’t pull the trigger. He was so sharp for most of the first half and then N.C. State starts getting a little more pressure and things unravel here.
This was part of a six-play span in which Wake Forest gave up three sacks.
- Stewart appears to at least have earned the No. 3 wide receiver role and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start over Perry in the next game.
- There’s the third sack; Wilson just goes around Brandon Chapman.
- 0-for-5 on deep shots: Just an overthrow by Hartman here. Not a chance for Stewart to make a play or sell pass interference.
- This is just such a rewarding play for Ja’Sir Taylor. A fantastic break on the ball. And I’m amazed at how early he knew he was going to score – he puts his arm up at about the 25-yard line. But nobody comes close to tackling him.
Complete with the Bermuda Boyz thumbs-down celebration.
- Only the second returned kickoff by Jack Crane this season (to this point).
- Hockman throws the pick-6 and the next possession is three dives into the line for 7 yards and a punt.
- The third-down stop was a really good play by A.J. Williams to hold contain and come off his block to make a tackle. Really promising things from him two games in.
- 31-yard run by Beal-Smith on the first play, what stands out to me is how hard he hits the hole. I don’t think he does that quite as often as he should – of course, there has to be a hole to hit, and this is blocked really well.
- I forgot there was a fourth-down conversion on this drive: Fourth-and-5, Wolfpack brings a ton of pressure, Hartman stands in and throws strike to Roberson over the middle. Excellent execution. Hartman takes a sizable hit, too.
- 10-yard pass to Roberson along the sideline. You can just see him exude so much more confidence than at any point in games for the last two seasons.
- Matt Colburn II is still the most-patient running back I think I’ve ever seen in person – Walker might change that by the time his career is finished. He really waited for things to develop on this 13-yard touchdown.
- Hockman throws two incompletions to the sideline, and then the third-down shovel is read perfectly by Smenda and Redd.
Wake Forest has to have more of this from Smenda and less of the big-hit hunting that leads to missed tackles. It sounds simple and it’s easy for me to say – I’ve never played linebacker, though.
- 26-yard return by Morin, what strikes me is how he’s able to keep his center of balance. For a smaller guy (5-10, 174), he’s able to get free from a fair amount of arm tackles.
Everything at this point says it’s Wake’s game to lose. You’ve just rallied from down 14 with a pick-6 and lengthy touchdown drive. Your defense was getting gashed and just forced back-to-back three-and-outs. Morin’s return gives you the best starting field position you’ve had all night (pretty bad, considering it was your own 39). Katie George even reports that an N.C. State defensive player was “joking” that they didn’t even have a chance to get a drink of water because the three-and-out was so quick. And then …
- Beal-Smith fumbles. I can’t even tell where he loses it. But this was just such a cold stop of momentum.
- 17-yard run by Knight on the first play – N.C. State offense gets its first first down in nine plays.
- Miles Fox continues to impress.
- Basham makes a great play to come off of his block and make a third-down stop.
This should’ve been a win for Wake’s defense to hold N.C. State to a field goal.
- Walker got stronger as this game went.
If you follow along on Twitter, you know I’m a big Beal-Smith fan. I still am. But based on this game, Walker needs to be fed at least 20 carries per game.
- It felt like Stewart had a lot bigger of an impact on this game than five catches for 41 yards. This was his last one and it went for 13 yards.
- Weird to have the first pass interference call of the game, unless I missed one on the Yellow Pad (I didn’t), come with 11:13 left … and then we’ll get the second one four plays later.
- Motioning Stewart into the backfield to serve as an extra blocker is a wrinkle I can’t say I remember seeing with Sage Surratt or Scotty Washington.
- Blake Whiteheart’s first career catch – I think he’s a talented tight end, it’s worth keeping an eye on whether his chances increase as we go through the season.
- Jumbo package, touchdown. Yeah that set isn’t going anywhere.
- Houston breaks off a 20-yard run on the second play – it’s losing gap integrity and safeties either playing too deep or unable to identify run quickly enough.
- There might not be a team in the ACC with a better three-pronged backfield than N.C. State. Person, Knight and Houston all look really good.
- Screen to Knight for 27 yards, really good time for it. Pre-snap motion to the other side shifted the linebackers a bit, and then Ja’Cquez Williams and Taylor are left to try to get through three offensive linemen blocking.
- Just too easy for N.C. State to pound the ball into the end zone on these two plays. Nine yards around the left edge (left, again) and 3-yard touchdown.
- Another strong throw by Hartman for a first down – things don’t go well from here.
- Third-and-7 QB keeper: I don’t hate this call as much as most of you. It’s not great, but this fails more because of execution – there isn’t much – and because N.C. State gives a defensive look that it would work against, and then brings a cornerback blitz.
Not a great play call. And certainly has a better chance of succeeding if your QB is 6-4, 240 and a power runner. But not the cataclysmic error you might think it is.
- The fourth-and-5 throw goes to Perry short – it should’ve gone to Roberson, who was the deeper route over the middle.
- Two TFLs by Fox on N.C. State’s first two plays – there’s a case to be made he’s been Wake’s best defensive lineman this season.
- Good stand by the defense to get the ball back.
- Wake’s situation in this game: Down three, ball on the 11, 2:25 left, two timeouts.
Wake’s situation in 2018: Down three, ball on the 20, 1:39 left, zero timeouts.
- Good throw for 8 yards on the first play, good run by Walker to pick up the first down and get moving.
- Maybe Zach Tom’s only bad play of the night to this point, gets beat around the edge and Hartman throws wild and high to Chapman on the sideline.
- Nolan Groulx’s usage in this game, going from playing a few first-half series against Clemson to not even being on the field for offensive snaps until the final possession, is confounding.
He wasn’t good against Clemson – who was? He’s seemingly only in the game here because Greene was banged up and … I’ve got no idea why Stewart wasn’t on the field for this drive.
- This is where it goes sideways – Hartman sacked because Nash gets beat.
- And there’s the second sack, Ngassam Nya gets beat inside.
Can’t take sacks in the two-minute offense, that’s one of Clawson’s main tenets – but not sure either one of those is really Hartman’s fault.
- Fourth-and-21 is a pass over the middle to Morin that might not have even picked up the first down if he’d caught it.
That’s obviously not ideal, but when you’re 0-for-5 on deep shots and haven’t protected the QB long enough for a deep shot to develop, it’s basically what you’re stuck with.
N.C. State drains the rest of the time, as you likely know.
The end.
