{"id":63857,"date":"2024-09-08T17:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T21:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=63857"},"modified":"2024-09-08T10:38:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T14:38:43","slug":"63857-what-wake-forest-said-after-the-heartbreaking-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/09\/08\/63857-what-wake-forest-said-after-the-heartbreaking-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wake Forest Said After the Heartbreaking Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

You do this job long enough and you are in plenty of post-game interviews with a wide array of emotions from jubilation to cautious optimism, to disappointment. Saturday night after the 31-30 loss to Virginia<\/a>, the emotions in the post-game press conference were palpable. There was plenty of disbelief, disappointment, and a strong dose of bewilderment for good measure. So let\u2019s revisit what Wake Forest said after the heartbreaking loss that didn\u2019t have to be.<\/p>\n

It is common practice throughout the country for players and coaches to have a cooling-off period after the game before meeting with the media. Waiting for the coaches and\/or players for about 15 minutes after the final play is pretty standard. Saturday night, Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson was in the press conference room ready to go before all of the media was even in there. And who could blame him for wanting to get this over with?<\/p>\n

Dave Clawson<\/h3>\n

He was gracious in giving credit to an improved Virginia team. He had told everyone at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the talent for the Cavaliers was there to be significantly better than in 2023.<\/p>\n

But with all the ways we tend to complicate the game of football, the answers from Clawson were much simpler. \u201cThey made a few more plays than us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t make enough plays. And obviously, the turnover at the end of the game was a critical one.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no hiding the feeling that comes with losing a game that was there for the taking. \u201cThis one stings,\u201d Clawson said.<\/p>\n

Settling for three points instead of getting touchdowns in the red zone was a big issue for Wake Saturday night. Matthew Dennis was three for three on field goals for the Demon Deacons. But two of those were when drives stalled out inside the red zone. \u201cWe went for the jugular a little bit on the double pass, (Taylor Morin throwing a pass), and that didn\u2019t work. And then we settled for a field goal. We were up 13 instead of 17. I thought that may come back to burn us,\u201d Clawson explained.<\/p>\n

But again, it is a simple game. Quarterback Hank Bachmeier hits Morin with a completion to get it down to the Virginia 35-yard line, with Wake down by one point in the closing minutes. Morin gets hit and fumbles. Receiver Donavon Greene tries to scoop the ball up when falling on it would have been sufficient. Virginia recovers and that is that. Clawson spends time every camp on what he calls clean versus dirty; ball security. \u201cThey made a play and we didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hank Bachmeier<\/h3>\n

The sixth-year quarterback<\/a> is usually at ease when talking football. He has been there and done that in so many games for so many years. But it was clear that he was emotionally downtrodden when he took the podium Saturday night. \u201cThe mark of a great quarterback is the ability to be consistent and execute on every single play. For myself, I don\u2019t think that I did that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In assessing the mood of the team, he said, \u201cWe just lost a freaking heartbreaker, so it stinks.\u201d He added of these kinds of losses and what it takes to rebound for the next week, \u201cThey always kind of sit with you. There\u2019s always going to be those moments. They do always kind of stick with you. But you\u2019ve got to be in the moment, in the present moment. You can\u2019t sit in the past. Because you\u2019re always going to have another two-minute drill. You\u2019ve got to just play the next play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bachmeier was sacked six times during the game. Again, as quarterbacks do, he shouldered the blame. \u201cYeah, you know, I\u2019ve got to do a better job on some of those and getting rid of the ball, and not hanging on to the progression,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nick Anderson<\/h3>\n

Defensive back Nick Anderson talked about the pace of the Virginia offense. Beginning in the second quarter, the Cavaliers were using only 10-12 seconds of the play clock to get the snap off. It left Wake without any real adjustments or substitutions for several plays at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the tempo hurt us a little bit,\u201d Anderson said after the game. \u201cIt\u2019s something we have to get better at, dealing with tempo.\u201d The logical follow-up was that Wake practices with tempo, so was it surprising that they were hurt by it during a game? \u201cTheir tempo was fast. It wasn\u2019t the same thing we see at practice, in terms of the plays that come off of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result was a handful of pass plays where the middle of the defense was wide-open for Virginia receivers.<\/p>\n

Luke Petitbon<\/h3>\n

Center Luke Petitbon struggled with the emotions of characterizing the mood of the locker room after the game. \u201cNo one\u2019s happy. If you\u2019ve ever been a part of something like this, it\u2019s really hard. It\u2019s silent. It sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to have it \u201csuck,\u201d had to end quickly. Sunday is generally a day to go over the specifics of the previous night before turning the page. And then there is a looming shadow as Heisman candidate and Top Five ranked Ole Miss comes to town for Wake\u2019s homecoming game Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy: Wake Forest Athletics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You do this job long enough and you are in plenty of post-game interviews with a wide array of emotions from jubilation to cautious optimism, to disappointment. Saturday night after the 31-30 loss to Virginia, the emotions in the post-game press conference were palpable. There was plenty of disbelief, disappointment, and a strong dose of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":63860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[102,1135,33429,33534,1249],"class_list":["post-63857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","tag-acc","tag-dave-clawson","tag-luke-petitbon","tag-nick-anderson","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}