With a short week of preparation and recovery, Wake Forest would have to be near perfect to drive away from Durham with a win. On Thursday night, the Demon Deacons were anything but.
Wake Forest (4-5, 1-5) went into the fourth quarter with a one-touchdown lead over Duke (6-3, 3-2). With a multi-faceted offense well in groove and a disruptive defense shutting down the opposing third-string quarterback, the game seemed to be Wake Forest’s to lose.
Then the fourth quarter began, and Wake Forest hit a wall. Hard.
On the final drive of the game, Wake Forest cornerback DaShawn Jones (3 tackles) committed two 15-yard penalties, giving the Blue Devils two automatic first-downs. The first — a defensive pass interference on an uncatchable ball — offset a Duke holding call that had pushed the Blue Devils back into their own territory. The second — an unsportsmanlike conduct from suplexing a Duke receiver behind the line of scrimmage — brought the Blue Devils into field goal range.
Todd Pelino kicked the game-winning 26-yard field goal as time expired, giving the home team a 24-21 comeback victory.
The loss overshadows an overall solid performance from both the offensive and defensive ends. Quick screens in the air and positive chunks on the ground allowed for deep shots to be taken over the top and for Thursday’s offense (400 total yards) to look like the Wake Forest offense of old.
Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson was blunt about the fourth-quarter crumble.
“The most selfish penalty you can ever commit is an unnecessary roughness or an unsportsmanlike penalty,” Clawson said. “And we had two of them in the fourth quarter that led to the game-winning field goal and led to a touchdown. It’s just really disappointing.”
Clawson continued: “We talked about it last night. It’s a rivalry game, it’s in November, you want to play with emotion — but you don’t want to play emotional. And we just made two really, really stupid penalties in the fourth quarter that, again, the one led to a touchdown, the other led to the game winning field goal. It’s a shame.”
Wake Forest incurred the first of three 15-yard penalties that quarter when freshman linebacker Aidan Hall shoved a Duke lineman off a pile after the play was blown dead. The very next play, third-string quarterback Grayson Loftis (7-for-19, 86 yards, TD, INT, 8 rush, 17 yds) connected with junior wideout Jordan Moore (3 rec, 43 yds, TD) on a 29-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 21. Loftis earned his first career start after junior Riley Leonard suffered a left toe injury during an Oct. 29 loss to Louisville, and backup Henry Belin IV was still out from an upper-body injury.
The three defensive penalties weren’t the only Wake Forest mistakes, however. A Mitch Griffis helicopter fumble and an interception that slipped out his hand bookended the fourth quarter for the Demon Deacons. Kicker Matthew Dennis missed two field goals, a 27-yarder blocked in the first quarter and a 39-yarder kicked wide in the third quarter, leaving six points on the field.
Clawson continued: “We had some turnovers in the second half, which is a shame because that was one of the better offensive performances that we’ve had in quite a while. We couldn’t finish drives, we didn’t convert short yardage, we missed a couple of field goals, and you know, that’s the football game.”
Just a week after the worst game of his career, Griffis was having his best game of the season. The redshirt sophomore (16-for-19, 241 yds, INT, 19 rush, 55 yds, 2 rush TD) started the game with 12 straight completions — his first incompletion was on the second-to-last play of the third quarter — including a 61-yard heave to wide receiver Taylor Morin (3 rec, 92 yds) to set up the quarterback’s second rushing touchdown of the game.
“As an offense, things were clicking much better than in weeks past,” Morin said. “We had two costly turnovers down the stretch, and we played a good 50 minutes of football, but we didn’t close it out. So, you know, part of being a great offense is being able to play four quarters of good discipline football. We’re almost there, but that’s not the standard. We’re here to win ballgames.”
Led by defensive end Jasheen Davis (4 tackles, sack, PBU, FF) and safety Malik Mustapha (11 tackles), the Demon Deacon defense was able to get consistent pressure on Loftis and the Duke running game. Linebacker Quincy Bryant (4 tackles, INT) got the only turnover of the night after a hit from lineman Kevin Pointer (6 tackles, 2 TFL, sack) forced a wobbly floater from Loftis.
Despite the defense’s discipline and effectiveness for the majority of the game, the mental lapses that caused three 15-yard penalties and set up 10 points for Duke will be in the front of most fans, players and coaches’ minds.
“[Losing] is obviously not a good feeling,” Mustapha said. “We let the game slip away. Guys are down, it’s really bad overall. We just really had control of the game, a lot of guys really gave a lot of heart, a lot of effort — it’s never an issue with this team — but personal fouls… So, just gotta be there to pick those guys up, no finger-pointing contests — just got to wash this from my memory and get ready to play next week.”
Wake Forest will play another Tobacco Road rival on senior night, Saturday, Nov. 11 when NC State (5-3, 2-2) travels to Winston-Salem. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. on CW Network.
