It took a heck of a long time to get there but get there Wake Forest eventually did. The Demon Deacons still have a lot of clean-up to do, but Wake Forest has enough to get by Vanderbilt 36-20 Saturday in a stormy Winston-Salem.
Start and Stop
The game was billed as a sellout, and surely the tickets were sold…just perhaps not to fans, as the actual attendance was about half of capacity. The two teams managed to get in all of five plays in 2:01 before being pulled off the field due to lightning being within an eight-mile radius. That storm moved in quickly and the stadium was evacuated as the lightning strikes moved right over the venue, followed by a torrential downpour. All in all, the two teams had to wait out a two-hour weather delay.
Head coach Dave Clawson quipped after the game that took five hours to get through, “So much for the rules to shorten the game.” Keeping the team focused, yet relaxed in the locker room was the task at hand for an extended period of time. “We knew the whole day those cells were coming,” he said. “We tried to keep the guys loose. And we weren’t even far enough into the game to make adjustments,” he added.
When play did resume, Wake Forest picked up where it left off, at the Vanderbilt six-yard line, following a Malik Mustapha interception of an AJ Swann pass. The drive ended with a Matthew Dennis 25-yard field goal.
The rest of the quarter was as sluggish as the weather delay. The two quarterbacks combined for all of 34 yards passing.
The Early Back and Forth
Wake’s Mitch Griffis managed to engineer an 80-yard drive early in the second quarter. He connected with Jahmal Banks in the deep right corner of the end zone for a seven-yard touchdown pass. It capped a nine-play, 80-yard drive that put the Demon Deacons up 10-0.
Swann answered for the Commodores with a 75-yard drive of his own. Jayden McGowan caught the pass at his own 48-yard line, plowed through Wake defensive back Dashawn Jones at midfield, and rumbled down to the Wake 14-yard line. Swann hit Will Sheppard along the right sideline in the middle of the end zone. Every replay angle looked like his shoulder hit first, out of bounds, but the touchdown call on the field stood and it was 10-7 Wake Forest.
Vandy Miscues
In a game that was neither pretty nor efficient in some ways, Vanderbilt’s defense made costly errors. Two pass interference calls, both on BJ Anderson, helped ease the Wake Forest path back onto the scoreboard. The second penalty put the ball at the Vandy two-yard line. Clawson put in the jumbo package and Tate Carney rolled over a couple of defenders to lunge into the end zone for the touchdown.
While both teams had some flashes and some lulls, that 10-point deficit, albeit still in the first half, was never overcome by Vandy. Case in point; Swann had a 48-yard completion to London Humphreys to Wake 10-yard line. He then hit Sheppard on a wide-open slant in the middle of the end zone to shrink the Wake lead to 17-14. Close game? Wake went three and out on its next possession. Not only did Vandy run into Ivan Mora on the punt, they also fumbled the punt. Brendon Harris, a transfer from Vandy, picked up the fumble and ran 40 yards for the touchdown and the 10-point lead again at the half.
Widening the Gap
Dennis added a 44-yard field to boost the lead to 27-14. Vandy had one more chance to climb back in, but on fourth and goal from the Wake Forest one-yard line, Quincy Bryant stuffed the Commodores’ Sedrick Alexander for no gain.
Griffis put enough distance between the two teams when he completed a 24-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Ke’Shawn Williams who had gotten behind the defenders in the end zone. With the failed two-point conversion, it was now a 19-point Wake lead at 33-14 in the fourth quarter.
As was the flow of the game, Vandy came back to score on a 30-yard touchdown ass from Swann to Humphreys. The two-point conversion failed, and it was still a two-touchdown lead for Wake at 33-20.
The Ability to Run
The offense had slightly more balance this week. Demond Claiborne started at running back in place of Justice Ellison who was reportedly out with a concussion. All Claiborne did was run for more yards by himself than the entire Wake offense did last week in the win over Elon. He picked up 165 yards on 26 carries. The total for the game was more than he had as a career total going into today. With Claiborne and Tate Carney, the run game netted 288 yards.
Claiborne said Ellison helped him get ready for the game as an extra coach throughout the week when he knew he was not going to play. He wrote JS on his cleats to honor his running back teammate. He said he was so amped up during the two-hour delay that Ellison was reminding him to breathe and relax.
Clawson called the victory, “One of the better overall team wins we have had here.” He said the defense played better. But he continues to have concerns about the explosive plays being given up by the defensive secondary.
Balance and Growth
Griffis finished the game 17 of 26 passing for 196 yards and two touchdowns. It was far below what he did last week, but he had a running game to rely on this week that was not there last week. “After the first quarter, I thought I might throw for 25 yards,” he joked after the game when asked about the running game’s productivity. “If that’s what wins the game, I am more than fine with that.”
He was asked to come up with one thing that he did better this week than he did last week. “It was managing the game a little better,” he said. “Clockwork and getting everybody set up. I thought I did a better job.”
Clawson said that scoop and score on the fumbled punt before the half was a decisive point in the game. “The special teams play, the touchdown before the half was really a game-changing play. You go up 10 and then you start with the football [in the second half] and you are forcing them to play from behind.
Photo courtesy: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
