Haynes King<\/a>. Ashford was seven of 14 passing for 139 yards and a rushing touchdown at halftime. King was held to 13 of 19 passing for 50 yards. To save you the math, Ashford was averaging 19.9 yards per completion, while King was just under four yards per completion.<\/p>\nAnd then the second half hit.<\/p>\n
Ashford<\/h3>\n
In the first series of the third quarter, the ball was snapped on the ground. Ashford fielded it like a skilled shortstop and took off running. He had picked up 29 yards to the Georgia Tech 23-yard line on the busted play. But he went down with an injured right knee. Wake settled for a 24-yard Calvert field goal for the 20-3 lead. But Ashford was in and out of the injury tent, back to the locker room, and eventually had a brace on the knee.<\/p>\n
Deshaun Purdie replaced him but couldn\u2019t move the offense effectively. That put more pressure on the Wake defense and left a huge void with the offense yet again. Meanwhile, the adjustments made by GA Tech head coach Brent Key at the half were paying off in a big way.<\/p>\n
On third and 10 from the Wake 14-yard line, King found Eric Rivers in the far right corner of the end zone to cap the 78-yard scoring drive and close the gap to 20-10.<\/p>\n
Wake, with Ashford still on the sidelines, went three and out.<\/p>\n
Rejuvenated Yellowjackets<\/h3>\n
Georgia Tech jumped on the opportunity. King faked a pitch at the Wake five-yard line and took it up the middle himself for the touchdown. It was now 20-17, and Wake was clinging to what was left of its confidence.<\/p>\n
Georgia Tech hit a 20-yard field goal to tie at 20-20. Wake was still head-spinning. Calvert\u2019s 27-yard field goal attempt plastered the left upright.<\/p>\n
As Georgia Tech took over with time winding down in the fourth quarter, Jamal Haynes carried up the middle and was hammered by Wake linebacker Dylan Hazen. The ball popped out and was recovered by Karon Prunty at the Yellow Jackets’ 24-yard line. A touchdown could have put the game away. But Wake settled for another field goal, this one a 30-yarder to go up 23-20 with just over five minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
The two teams traded unproductive drives before GA Tech took over on its own 30-yard line with just 1:41 left. Nine plays later, including a pass interference call on Wake, the Yellow Jackets converted a 33-yard field goal from Aidan Birr with two seconds left to tie the game and force overtime.<\/p>\n
Overtime<\/h3>\n
King scored on a two-yard run on GA Tech\u2019s possession to make it 30-23. On Wake\u2019s first play from scrimmage in overtime, Claiborne sprinted to the left from 25 yards and just hit the pylon before being pummeled to the ground. The beating his left side was taking (where he had injured his ribs in week one) was apparent. He couldn\u2019t so much as lift his left arm.<\/p>\n
The Decision<\/h3>\n
Dickert made the decision that will be debated on social media for days. He said there was no doubt he was going for two points and the win. The Deacs were now without their starting running back. Their starting quarterback was hobbling but playing. The threat of a run for the two points was gone. \u201cI would make the same decision,\u201d Dickert said after the game. \u201cWe talked about how tough Georgia Tech was. We\u2019re a pretty damn tough team too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashford was looking for Eni Falayi in the end zone, but Georgia Tech had him covered. Ashford\u2019s pass was intercepted in the end zone, ending the game and Wake\u2019s chance at a win over a quality team. \u201cWe had an opportunity to go win the game and didn\u2019t.\u201d He said the decision to go for two was not about analytics. \u201cIt was my decision.\u201d He added, \u201cWe took the chance to win the game and I\u2019d do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dickert<\/h3>\n
Dickert talked about the changes GA Tech made at halftime. \u201cWe knew in the second half, we\u2019d get Georgia Tech\u2019s best, and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dickert put the blame on himself for Wake not closing games in the second half. \u201cWe continue to learn and teach guys how to finish and win. Look at me as a head coach. I\u2019ll take it on me too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wake goes on the road for the first time this season when it plays Virginia Tech in Blacksburg next Saturday.<\/p>\n
Last Word will have more of the post-game coverage on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Main Image: Zachary Taft-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The games that are the could-have\/should-have ones tend to hurt the most. Wake Forest gave up a 17-point lead in the second half at home Saturday against Georgia Tech and lost 30-29 in overtime when the Deacs’ two-point conversion failed. Once again, Wake struggled to play a complete four quarters. As a result, they are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":80578,"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":[35633,2,17,35643],"tags":[9462,10629,35087,9582],"class_list":["post-80575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","category-featured","category-news","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-brent-key","tag-demond-claiborne","tag-eni-falayi","tag-jake-dickert"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80575","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=80575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80579,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80575\/revisions\/80579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}