After suffering the wrath of ranked Ole Miss, Wake Forest Head Football Coach Dave Clawson didn’t hold back about the lopsided level of competition his team faced. 

“They’re just a lot more talented than us across the board,” Clawson said after the loss. “They’re better than us.” 

Put just as plain, Wake Forest just couldn’t keep up with the No. 5 team in the nation as they fell 40-6 at home on Saturday. While Ole Miss found ways to score five touchdowns from all over the field, the Demon Deacons disappointed on offense, failing to find the end zone even once. 

After just one minute of football, the feared blowout for Wake Forest appeared imminent. Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart (377 YDS, 2 TDs, 26/34) threw from a perfectly clean pocket before running back Henry Parris Jr. dashed through Wake Forest defenders for a touchdown. It looked like it would be a long night for the sold out home crowd at Allegacy Stadium. 

“That was a mismatch,” said Clawson. “Our kids played hard but like I said, they’re really, really talented. They’re certainly a level above us right now.” 

The Demon Deacons defensive line was something to celebrate after the blowout loss. While Wake Forest’s secondary bled yardage to Dart and Ole Miss, the Demon Deacons defensive line didn’t come so quietly. A botched snap and fumble recovery by Wake Forest defensive lineman BJ Williams gave the Demon Deacons defensive front their second consecutive game recording a turnover. Other defensive contributions included Bryce Ganious’ single sack of the game for Wake, and linebacker Dylan Hazen’s third quarter interception. 

Despite much-needed defensive play-making to keep Wake Forest in the game through the first half, Hank Bachmeier (239 YDS, 22/39) and the Demon Deacons couldn’t recuperate hardly any points on offense, despite making it deep into the red zone on multiple occasions on each side of halftime. 

“I think it potentially could be a different game, might be a lot closer,” Bachmeiersaid said, addressing his team’s failures in the red zone. ”When you play a great team like this you can’t get in your own way, and I think a couple times we did.” 

Clawson and his team also attributed their offensive impotence to Ole Miss’ apparent slew of injuries. As Clawson and others observed, time taken to address injuries interrupted gameplay, delaying the Wake Forest offense after almost every first down they picked up midway through the game.

“In some of those cases, guys were clearly flopping,” Clawson said. “I’m sure the SEC isn’t gonna address it because it’s against an ACC team, [but] I’ve always been in favor of if a guy gets hurt in a drive, he should be out the entire series.” 

While Clawson and his players addressed college football’s larger problems, a more obvious issue — one more pertinent to this program — remains: Wake Forest’s offense has big problems finishing out critical drives. 

Bachmeier says that’s the biggest part of his game that he plans to address as Wake Forest heads into their first of two bye weeks this season. 

“We’re close, we’re really, really close to being a very, very good offense,” Bachmeier said. “I think we’re an extremely explosive offense. We just got in our own way tonight.” 

After their week off, Wake Forest will face the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns at home in Winston-Salem on Saturday, September 28th.