forums

Day After the Storm: Wake Forest Observations

bdub2284 said:
Imo, Mali shouldn't be returning punts going forward. He's too important to the offense and anyway to give him a breather during the game is worth looking at.
Click to expand...
Agreed...except in big games (ND, ACC championship, playoffs). Outside of that I'm happy with Cooper calling for a fair catch and giving Mensah the ball
 
I wonder if OP has seen the other “Top” teams in the nation? Every team has flaws. It’s like we either blow every team out or we suck lol.
 
Elmer Leghorn said:
Mario and Dawson are easy to out coach. Wake made adjustments and we couldn't do anything. Those 2 are as big of a concern as anything. There is enough evidence for me to say that
Click to expand...
you lost your #1 wideout and #1 rb ... while i think we went too conservative, it's obvious that effected the game plan ... but you can't say their easy to outcoach when we were in the championship last season
 
Tinman64 said:
NYCCaneadian said:
A Friday night ACC game on the road is never easy. There’s always some chaos, and this one definitely had it.

Miami looked completely dominant for most of the first half, went up 31-7, and I was basically ready to see the backups come in and let Mensah chase 30 straight completions or whatever ridiculous number he was going to get to.

Then we inexplicably took our foot off the pedal and Wake fought back (give them a little credit);

My top observations:
  • This game was basically a mix of USF 2024 and FSU 2025. Miami looked completely in control early, then suddenly started showing some of the same weaknesses that better teams are going to attack. Wake exposed some things, particularly with LB coverage and how we were defending certain concepts, similar to what USF did in 2024. USF didn’t dominate us offensively, but they showed everyone some things that could be attacked. At the same time, Miami looked like two completely different teams, which reminded me of FSU 2025. At one point, we were cruising and I was wondering how quickly we could get the backups in. Then suddenly I’m sitting there thinking, “Are we really going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?” Thankfully, no.
  • Darian Mensah was absolutely ridiculous in the first half. 20-for-20, and 31 straight completions going back to the previous game. The offense looked completely effortless. He was taking what Wake gave him, hitting the checkdowns, staying on schedule and just methodically moving the ball. I know the second half was a different story, but just appreciate it for what it is. We aren’t going to see stretches of football from a QB like that very often.
  • In the first half, I actually liked seeing Mensah take what the defense was giving him. There was no need to force the ball downfield when Wake was giving him easy completions underneath. He did seem to get a little into his own head toward the end of that streak, though. His last 5-6 throws before it ended weren’t nearly as sharp.
  • One critique of Mensah is he’s more mobile than he seems to realize. There were a couple opportunities where he could have picked up some yards with his legs, but he still doesn’t seem to have much confidence in that part of his game. And with our current O line situation, we will need his mobility.
  • The offense is really, really good. The scary part for everyone else is that we haven’t even needed to force the ball to everybody. Barkate went from being a 1,100-yard receiver at Duke to looking like WR4 at times. That’s just how ridiculous this receiver room is. Having a proven ACC receiver get relatively quiet usage because there are so many other guys who can make plays is a pretty good problem to have.
  • I’m not going to completely bury the defense because they eventually made the plays they needed to make. But there were way too many missed tackles and too many situations where Wake was able to create something underneath. Mo Toure and Omar Thornton got targeted a few times in coverage, and Wake clearly liked that matchup. The missed tackle by Mo on the big fourth down to Hernandez to ice the game in Q4 was particularly frustrating.
  • The defensive line also isn’t nearly as bad as I was probably making it sound during the first 2 games. They got a ton of pressure late, and Wake was holding constantly. If all those holds had been called, Miami probably would have had a few more sacks. So I’m not sitting here thinking the DL is some disaster. They just need to be more consistent, especially against better offensive lines.
  • I really liked Hetherman’s calls on third down in the second half. He seemed to anticipate exactly what Wake wanted to do and set a trap for it. That’s the kind of thing you want to see from this defense. Don’t just react to what the offense is doing. Start dictating what they can do.
  • Damari Brown has given me plenty to complain about this season. Please get this man away from gunner duty before he injures Malachi Toney any more. He had one nice TFL on a screen pass but that’s about all the love I can give him.
  • Speaking of Toney, I noticed he seemed to be coming off the field on third downs. Hopefully that’s nothing. With the number of guys getting banged up in this game, I’m not interested in assuming anything until we know what’s actually going on. Also can we get him a better pair of cleats or teach him how to tie his laces?
  • The injuries are the biggest concern coming out of this game. Marty is a significant loss. He was becoming a really important piece of this offense, and the stretch-zone stuff was working pretty well before he went down.
  • The offensive line is probably still my biggest concern with this team.
    We’re not pushing guys around the way we did last year. There were too many plays where Wake was getting penetration, and against a really good defensive front, that’s going to become a much bigger problem. This offense is good enough to win the ACC. I’m still not sure it’s good enough to make a deep playoff run if the OL doesn’t improve.
  • I’m still trying to figure out exactly what this team is. I can see a path to winning the ACC. The offense is that good, and there is enough talent on defense to make this a very good team.
    But I’m not convinced yet that this is a team I’m comfortable projecting deep into the playoff. The OL needs to get better, the defense needs to clean up some of these issues, and we desperately need to get healthy.

Overall, this was a weird one. Miami showed us exactly how good it can be, and then showed us exactly what can happen when a good ACC team starts figuring out the weaknesses.

It’s a win, and a road ACC win is a road ACC win. But this is probably a game we’re going to want to forget pretty quickly.

Hopefully next week is boring as **** and we can get some guys healthy.
Click to expand...
Great write up !
Click to expand...
Wow- real life sunshine pumpers!
 
ssvir said:
What I saw from Texas OL/DL vs what we have is a WIDE gap.

Not sure who else in the country has trenches like UT but hopefully it's not many.
Click to expand...
Against OSU they started destroying OSU in the comeback. Sabans old 5 star James Smith/Russaw recruits that DeBoer happily let leave without a fight graded as THE WORST on that defense and some clips of the UT line are shown destroying those two.
 
RemainMack is back said:
Against OSU they started destroying OSU in the comeback. Sabans old 5 star James Smith/Russaw recruits that DeBoer happily let leave without a fight graded as THE WORST on that defense and some clips of the UT line are shown destroying those two.
Click to expand...
The Texas OL gave Arch forever to throw and was opening up holes for the running game all night.
 
Canesince02 said:
I wonder if OP has seen the other “Top” teams in the nation? Every team has flaws. It’s like we either blow every team out or we suck lol.
Click to expand...
Except our biggest flaw is a season killer. Our OL hasn’t dominated against much inferior competition. The fact that 65 lines up all night should be a massive indictment on our OL personnel.
 
After I had the chance to digest what I saw last night, I forgot to mention that Bryce Fitzgerald is HIM. He was all over the place last night.
 
1983cane said:
It seems like he was adjusting for our players getting banged up.

Aaand our O line is a work in progress. It's not as good as we hoped in the off-season/ camp.
Click to expand...
Football is a funny game. Depth is so temporary. in pre-season it was “how are we going to find touches for the RB room?” and “how are we gonna have enough reps to keep the CBs happy?” after 3 games both rooms facing crazy pressure.
 
HighPerformance said:
Except our biggest flaw is a season killer. Our OL hasn’t dominated against much inferior competition. The fact that 65 lines up all night should be a massive indictment on our OL personnel.
Click to expand...
SJ has not been good but he has 3 starts in his career. If he improves to average like Buchanon because he was trash first game too. If he improves to average we can win the title. He obviously needs to improve and he will.

With the injuries depth is being tested and we are finding different ways to win that’s important too.
 
I don’t understand the coaches continuing to roll out SJ. He simply not playing to “the standard” in real games. If the younger players have more upside, why not play them? They need their reps and can learn from their mistakes. I don’t see the upside to SJ.

The film doesn’t lie.
 
bdub2284 said:
Imo, Mali shouldn't be returning punts going forward. He's too important to the offense and anyway to give him a breather during the game is worth looking at.
Click to expand...

He shouldn't be returning punts if we aren't going to block worth a ****. If we put forth an effort to let him actually return one then yes. If the plan is just to fair catch then no
 
Back
Top