Wake Forest fans woke up Sunday still stinging from what could have been Saturday afternoon. The Demon Deacons lost 30-29 in overtime to Georgia Tech, in a game in which Wake had a 20-3 lead early in the second half. The Deacs’ offense continued its second-half struggles, there was a loss of players to injury, and of course, the missed call by officials in the last two minutes of the game that changed the course of the game for Wake. So it is time to catch up with what Wake said after the game.
Jake Dickert
Once again, while we captured much of his post-game press conference in our recap of the game on Saturday, the layers of the game require us to include more.
He gave his team credit for the way it competed throughout the game. “I thought our guys played with a little more resolve in this game than we did at the end of the NC State game. That’s growth,” He said it was just a play here or there that made the difference.
In terms of the play call on the two-point conversion, he said it would have been different if they could have had Demond Claiborne in the lineup in order to have a run-pass option. But Claiborne went out of the game after his 25-yard touchdown run that got them to the two-point conversion. He appeared to be in pain, having been nursing bruised ribs on the left side. Dickert gave GA Tech credit for the coverage on the pass play.
The missed opportunities were a big topic for Dickert. “We’re going to see a bunch of one-play things. In close ball games, in the ACC, the margins are thin. You’ve got to make those plays if you want to go win ball games.”
The No-Call
On one play of the entire game that seems to matter most to Wake fans, Dickert talked about the GA Tech offsides that wasn’t called. On third and five at the Wake 32-yard line, with under two minutes left, GA Tech clearly jumped offside. Quarterback Robby Ashford saw it and assumed a flag was to be thrown. But a quarterback often cannot see whether a flag was thrown or not. “There’s no way he can see the flag,” Dickert said while not engaging in the conversation of the blown no-call. “Robby did what he was trained to do, and that’s take a shot, and he doesn’t know if it’s offsides or not.”
If the flag had been thrown, it would have been enough for a Wake first down, and they could have ended the game. But the game of “ifs” doesn’t look at the bigger picture. The throw to Berkhalter was incomplete. It stopped the clock when the clock was the enemy of a GA Tech team that had no timeouts left.
Running the ball, even if they did not get the first down, would have burned another 35-40 seconds off the clock. After a Wake Forest punt, GA tech would have had the ball with only one minute left. Instead, they took over with 1:41 left. There was enough time left on the clock for the Yellow Jackets to run nine plays for 47 yards and run the special teams fire drill to tie the game at 23-23 with two seconds left. Shortening the game could have been more effective than assuming a penalty and attempting a low-percentage throw.
“I put them in that situation,” Dickert said. You know, you just go call the play. Don’t risk that situation and go find a way to get a first down and win the game,” he said.
The ACC issued an official statement Saturday acknowledging that the officials got the no-call wrong. But that is of little consequence to anyone now.
Jayden Loving
Defensive lineman Jayden Loving gave credit to Georgia Tech for making the changes at halftime that turned it from a 17-3 Wake Forest lead to a Yellow Jackets win. The defense had been keeping GA Tech quarterback Haynes King corralled pretty well. He was 13 of 19 passing in the first half for only 50 yards. “They changed the scheme more in the second half, just trying to get him involved more with designed runs for him.” King had a net 58 yards rushing in the second half to go with 176 passing yards. He had eight rushing yards in overtime, including the game-winning touchdown run.
He said it hurt to lose that game to a decided favorite, having been that close. “We’ve just got to take it on the chin. There’s not much we can do about it. We control what we can control, take it one day at a time, and just be ready to go next week.”
He said fixing the mistakes is an immediate project. “I feel like that starts tomorrow [Sunday/today]. The attitude you come into the facility with, just being ready to go,” he said. “We’ve got to go fix our future.”
Robby Ashford
The quarterback talked about the two-point play. He said Wake had a “Good play called,” but Georgia Tech defended it well. “It was one of those where the ball has to go in the air. So you’re running around trying to find somebody because everybody was covered.”
He gave credit to Dickert for going for two and the win. “It sucks [the loss] but I’ve got a lot of 4respect for Coach Dickert for having the confidence in us to go for it,” he said. “At some point it’s going to turn into wins,” he added, talking about the effort of the team.
As for the leg injury he suffered on the first drive of the second half, “I don’t want to say I feel great, but I’m not dead.” He is getting the knee looked at on Sunday.
Wake takes its first road trip of the season Saturday in Blacksburg against Virginia Tech.
Main Image: Zachary Taft-Imagn Images
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