Unit Grades from Wake Forest's loss to UNC
Wake Forest lost a heartbreaker on Saturday night, falling to UNC 36-34 for their fourth loss of the season. While the team fought valiantly and bounced back from some early adversity, the effort wasn’t enough to win. Here’s how each unit graded out in the loss.
READ: Key Stats from Wake Forest's 36-34 loss to UNC
Offense: B+
The offense got off to a slow start on Saturday night, punting on its first two possessions. After that, Warren Ruggiero’s unit woke up and executed at a high level for the majority of the contest. Sam Hartman was fantastic most of the way, throwing for 320 yards and four TDs. On the receiving end, Taylor Morin hauled in five catches for 105 yards and a score, while Donavon Greene chipped in 85 yards and 2 TDs, one off a 60-yard bomb from Hartman.
The run game was the liveliest it’s been in weeks — Justice Ellison and Christian Turner combined for 28 carries, 122 yards and a touchdown (4.35 ypc). Quinton Cooley was efficient in a limited role, taking his 6 carries for 36 yards (6.0 ypc).
The only thing keeping this unit from an A-caliber performance was the end of the game. With just over four minutes left in the game, Sam Hartman had Donavon Greene open on an in-breaking route but threw it late, right into the hands of UNC safety Cam’Ron Kelly. The pick set up a field goal and put UNC up 36-34.
Wake got the ball back with just over two minutes to go and three timeouts but couldn’t make anything happen, turning it over on downs.
Defense: B+
It’s tough to assign an accurate grade for this unit because they were so shorthanded. Safety Malik Mustapha, LB Jaylen Hudson and DL Kendron Wayman were ruled out prior to the game, while DE Rondell Bothroyd and CB Caelen Carson couldn’t finish the contest due to injury. DB A.J. Williams was also ejected due to a targeting call.
For the personnel they had available, I thought Brad Lambert’s team did an exceptional job for most of the game. They got punched in the mouth early, giving up three touchdowns on the first three drives of the game. After that, though, they settled in — in the second half, they gave up just 9 points to the vaunted UNC offense.
Some of the biggest plays of the game were made by the defense — they forced a turnover on downs on the goal line and a punt in the fourth quarter to give the offense extra possessions.
Granted, Drake Maye still threw for 448 yards and accounted for four total touchdowns. Josh Downs also had 154 receiving yards and 3 touchdown catches. It was by no means perfect, but the defense had the odds stacked against them from the start.
Special Teams: A
There’s really not much to report here. Matthew Dennis was perfect on his PATs and Ivan Mora averaged 44 yards per punt, pinning one of his three kicks inside the UNC 20.
Wake Forest didn’t attempt a field goal on Saturday, and special teams didn’t impact this game the way it has in some of Wake’s other contests. Even so, it’s noteworthy that the Deacs kept things clean in this phase of the game and didn’t make any major mistakes.
Coaching: B+
For the most part, I thought Dave Clawson and his staff coached a solid game. When things started off poorly, the team found their footing on both sides of the ball and fought until the very end. You could argue that Drake Maye still torched them, but the bend-don’t-break mentality was in full effect, especially in the second half.
However, Wake was haunted by some of the same problems that have plagued them all season. At the end of the first half, they got the ball with 2:22 left and all three timeouts. Three plays and -14 yards later, they punted it away. They also ran the clock out with over a minute remaining in the half and a full complement of timeouts. At the end of the game, Wake was down two points and had the ball with 2:12 left and once again all three timeouts. Again, they failed to get anything going and turned it over on downs.
Hindsight is 20-20, but it’s tough not to wonder how the game would have turned out if even one of those possessions had yielded positive outcomes.
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Ben is a managing editor and lead contributing writer for Deacons Daily. Ben has a year of experience as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black, and a year of experience as the publication’s print managing editor. He has a journalistic profile of over 40 published news and sports pieces for the Dayton Daily News.