Florida State did not have a conference win yet this season. The resolution appears to have been pretty simple. Play a Wake Forest team that has the habit of shooting itself in the foot with penalties and abuse them for the effort. Wake Forest showed a staggering lack of discipline with penalties and gave FSU every opportunity the Seminoles could have asked for in the 42-7 Florida State win in Tallahassee Saturday night.
“We just got our ass kicked in every phase,” head coach Jake Dickert said after the game. If we were allowed to leave our article at just a few sentences, that would pretty much summarize the night for Wake Forest.
Stopping Yourself
The Demon Deacons went into the game with the chance to get bowl eligible for the first time in three years. Instead, they walked out having been hammered by a Florida State offense that had been mostly mediocre all season. The Deacs committed 11 penalties for 93 yards. But that does not even begin to tell the story of how bad it was. Demond Claiborne had runs of 25 and 53 yards taken off the board with holding penalties. “When you’re constantly behind the chains, you’re never really able to get explosive plays,” Dickert said of the impact from the penalties.
In the third quarter, Wake had a center snap that went wide of quarterback Robby Ashford and rolled backward. It was recovered by FSU’s Ja’Bril Rawls and returned seven yards to the Seminoles’ 38-yard line. Ashford made matters worse by body slamming Rawls out of bounds on the tackle. That added another 15 yards for the personal foul. The loss of yardage and resulting turnover were already bad enough. Tack on the penalty, and FSU was in Wake territory at the 47-yard line. They eventually scored their third touchdown of the night from that.
The Particulars of the Bloodletting
Wake stayed close to Florida State for one quarter. It was 0-0. The Deacs had 92 yards of total offense to 81 for FSU. That was the highlight of the evening for Wake Forest. Because the Deacs also had four penalties already at that point. At the end of the first quarter, FSU quarterback Tommy Castellano hit receiver Duce Robinson on a 65-yard pass play, the longest play Wake Forest had given up all year. And what was about to come was clear.
Three plays into the second quarter, Castellano ran up the middle from six yards out for the touchdown and the 7-0 lead, and the route was on.
Wake could have answered. But the next series was when Claiborne had a 53-yard run wiped out by a Micah Mays holding penalty. The drive died four plays with a punt. Florida State responded with a seven-play 72-yard drive that ended with Samuel Singleton rushing it in from 10 yards out for the touchdown and the 14-0 lead. The only thing noteworthy from the Wake Forest perspective was that it did not contribute to the FSU yardage with defensive penalties.
Even though it was only 14-0 Florida State at the half, there was not a real feeling that Wake Forest was competitive. The third-down conversion rate for the first half was only 42%. And the penalties were piling up for Wake Forest, with six of them for 50 yards.
From Bad to Worse
Wake’s first drive of the third quarter went all the way down to the FSU 17-yard line, but that ended with the bad snap/FSU fumble recovery/personal foul by Ashford. That led to a one-yard touchdown run by Sawchuk and the 21-0 Florida State lead.
The Deacs, now being badly up against it, went for it on fourth down and five from their own 41-yard line. Ashford’s pass to Sterling Berkhalter was incomplete. Florida State took over on downs and needed just two plays to score on a one-yard touchdown run by Sawchuk for the 28-0 lead.
Ashford threw an interception toward the end of the third quarter. Four plays later, Randy Pittman ran for seven yards for the FSU touchdown and the 35-0 lead. Ashford was hit hard on the play and was done for the night with a 12 for 21 throwing performance for 93 yards, no touchdowns, and the one interception.
Deshawn Purdie came in and engineered a three-and-out drive. Castellanos took FSU downfield and threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Robinson for the 42-0 lead. Just for good measure of the evening, Wake was even called for a personal foul on the PAT.
Wake got its one touchdown on a six-yard pass from Purdie to Mays to get to the final score. Purdie finished the game six of nine, throwing for 69 yards and the touchdown.
The Numbers
The numbers are going to get ugly in the rearview mirror. Wake came into the game with the 23rd-ranked defense in the country. There is going to be some plummeting from that ranking. The Deacs’ two previous losses this season were by a combined 11 points. That average is going to skyrocket. Wake was already ranked as one of the worst teams in the country in red zone offense (129th out of 134). The red zone touchdown percentage for the season will be about 34% when Saturday’s stats get added to the calculations. Wake averaged eight penalties per game going into Saturday night. That was 100th in the country. With the 11 against FSU, that ranking is likely to get worse, also.
Wake Forest drops to 5-3 overall, 2-3 in ACC play. And to put things into a greater perspective, Wake Forest now has to travel to Charlottesville next week to take on the number one team in the conference, the Virginia Cavaliers.
We will have more post-game coverage from the loss to Florida State on Sunday.
Main Image: Melina Myers-Imagn Images
