There is no such thing as a bad win. It may not be pretty. The team’s play could have been better. There may be a long laundry list of things that need improving. But when you have only won 33% of your games over the last year-and-a-half, you don’t turn your nose up at any win. So, what did Wake Forest say after the win at UConn on Saturday?
Dave Clawson
“I got a little tight at the end, but we played the rest of the game with lead,” Clawson after the game. He was happy with the win, but pragmatic about his team’s performance. “We did what we wanted to do against the run game. Obviously, the pass defense, that’s still a work in progress.
Indeed, the run defense was a difference-maker Saturday. UConn went into the game averaging 220 yards per game on the ground. Saturday the Huskies were held to just 40 yards rushing. “We did a good job on the stretch play,” Clawson explained. “I thought our guys maintained really good gap integrity. We did a nice job of tackling the backs. I thought our linebackers tackled firm.”
The Huskies picked up 264 yards passing. Clawson said he knew if Wake stopped the run, it was going to mean sacrificing some on pass defense. “We hung our corners out there a little bit more. The pass yardage wasn’t unexpected. We just didn’t want them to get balance, and we prevented that.”
Work Ahead
There is some cleanup needed on offense. The Deacs got two touchdowns in six red zone trips. “I thought our defense set us up with great field position early in the game,” he said. “And we just kept pissing those opportunities away. I thought that would catch up with us.” He said the team was happy to get out of Storrs with the three-point win. “You prefer to clean these things up after a win.”
Part of the cleanup will be with quarterback Hank Bachmeier’s performance. The sixth-year senior was 21 of 36 for 274 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. The interception came at the end of the first half with Wake driving to put some separation between the two teams. Bachmeier threw it into the front of the end zone on the right side, intended for Micah Mays.
But it was the kind of throw Bachmeier had made in past years where he tried to thread a tight needle that was probably best left alone. There was little window to get it through to Mays, and the ball was picked off by Cam Chadwick, ending the scoring threat. “I thought he maybe missed throws. I thought he did not throw the ball on the run as well as he has,” Clawson said.
Hank Bachmeier
Speaking of the quarterback, Bachmeier said, “I thought there was a couple of missed throws here and there. Obviously, the pick at the end of the half wasn’t a good one. But I thought the guys did a great job being there for me and helping me out.”
Bachmeier got the Deacs out of some tight spots, keeping plays alive with his running. “It was some Coach R (offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero) brought up. He was like, ‘Use your legs when you can, you know if the progression isn’t there.’ Credit to Coach R for reminding me of that.”
Taylor Morin led all receivers with 104 yards on six catches. Bachmeier said of his veteran receiver, “He’s just got an incredible feel and understanding of our option game. Just find grass, and find lanes and get open,” the quarterback said. “He understands space and how to get open.”
Taylor Morin
The sixth-year receiver said after the game, “It wasn’t pretty, but we got it done and we’ll take it.”
When you are 2-4 and have lost a couple of close games, coming out on the other side is not be understated, Morin said. “It was huge. Just thinking about all the goals we have for our football team, coming in here we knew we had to get this one to keep those goals alive. It was a great win. Again, not pretty, but a win is a win, so we’ll take it.”
He gave due credit to the other side of the ball. “The defense, all credit to them, just hung in there and made a play when we needed it.”
Evan Slocum
The defensive back talked about what Clawson had said earlier about stopping the running game. “That was one thing we were really focusing on. They came into the game running a lot of stretch. So we knew we had to fit our gaps really good this week and stop the stretch.”
At the end of the season, the glamour of any win is not measured. Just the wins themselves. In another week or two, there will be few who remember what this game looked like, other than, as Clawson likes to call it, on the left side of the ledger.
