There’s not much else Wake Forest’s offense could have asked for when facing Louisiana this past Saturday.
But even scoring five touchdowns, allowing zero sacks and seeing four opposing defenders ejected couldn’t tip the scale far enough in Wake Forest’s favor. The Demon Deacons (1-3, 0-1 ACC) still lost their third consecutive game and dropped to their worst start to an ACC season in Head Coach Dave Clawson’s time at Wake Forest.
“I have a hard time saying right now that anyone on defense played well,” Clawson said. “When you don’t get a good pass rush and routes can develop, they have receivers and they have a good quarterback.”
The Demon Deacons appeared to click after the exit and remarkable return of Demon Deacons running back Demond Claiborne. After being carted off of the field with a kneecap injury in a harrowing second quarter scene, Claiborne (94 YDS, 12 ATT, TD) re-entered in the second half and took off for a 60-yard rushing touchdown. Claiborne’s exceptional arc ignited the offense led by quarterback Hank Bachmeier (254 YDS, 30/36, TD) and running back Tate Carney (59 YDS, 17 ATT, 3 TDs).
But any conversations about Wake Forest’s third 30+ point offensive outing this season were once again drowned out by more difficult ones surrounding the defense.
Even with Claiborne’s return and Wake Forest’s ensuing offensive achievement, Louisiana was able to keep pace, encountering little resistance from Wake Forest’s defense. The Demon Deacons gave up 20 points in the second half, including a touchdown and field goal that gave Louisiana the lead twice in the game’s last ten minutes.
“When those guys make mistakes, the results are fatal,” Clawson said. “When the secondary makes mistakes, it’s 20- and 80-yard touchdowns.”
It was a familiar situation that left Bachmeier and the Demon Deacons offense to complete a game-saving drive in just under one minute. But while Bachmeier and his squad completed their mission of reaching field goal range for kicker Matthew Dennis to tie the game, Dennis’ 42-yard kick wobbled square into the left goal post as time expired.
“We got ourselves where we wanted to, and we had the chance to get in field goal range,” Clawson said. “It’s never one play that costs you the game, and all that would do is get you to overtime.”
The moment may have been heartbreaking, but Clawson said the loss couldn’t be attributed to a single bad kick. Points accumulated from mistakes made on defense once again put Wake Forest in a position where they were playing from behind. Clawson again addressed Wake Forest’s swelling struggles in the secondary, attributing them to inexperience at the position and difficulties acquiring new players from the transfer portal.
“Just to fix problems, you need a lot of money,” Clawson explained. “And we recruited what we could afford, and I think those guys will get better … but it’s a little bit of baptism by fire right now.”
Whatever the issue in the secondary may be, it’s now cost Wake Forest two games of their last three games that the offense had kept competitive. The Demon Deacons have given up 991 air yards and eight passing touchdowns in their past three games. With the countdown to conference play, the defensive problems get louder with each passing week.
“These are really tough situations, but the only way is through,” Bachmeier said after the game. “And I think for us to continue to be successful and push through this is you just gotta be together and go to work.”
Wake Forest will have to go to work especially hard this week ahead of their next conference game at NC State this upcoming Saturday, Oct. 5 in Raleigh. Kickoff is set for 12 p.m. on The CW.
