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Liberty Checklist Review (not pretty for Wake Forest fans)

By Riley Johnston
Presswire

Samurai should have a recap up at some point detailing the finer points of Saturday's "victory" over Liberty. Obviously things didn't go as most us would have liked despite the 20-17 win that the Deacs pulled out. Last week I made a checklist to go over when the game was finished to give the fans a better look at what to expect for Wake Forest throughout the season.

Perhaps I overlooked the Flames a little bit, but I doubt goals from both the players and the fans were not met against an FCS caliber opponent like Liberty.

Click through the jump for a look at the checklist and how the Deacs fared compared to it.

Checklist

These are just things that I think Wake fans should look for on Saturday if the game gets out of hand. Fulfilling a majority of these things will at least reassure most that the Deacs have a chance at a promising year.

Offensively- 5 FAIL, 3 PASS- Pretty poor effort all-around by the offense all things considered.

  • First team offense score over 28 points- FAIL- 13 points
  • Average over 5 YPC- Fail- (2.6 YPC...woeful)
  • Accumulate over 400 yards of offense- Fail (293...once again terrible)
  • Maintain a healthy balance of rush and pass offense (250 yards passing, 150 yards rushing)- Fail (195, 98...smh)
  • Maintain time of possession- Can be hard in games like these, but try to get around 35 minutes-Pass (31:53, lost the 3rd and 4th quarter though)
  • Limit the turnovers (anything over 2 is too many)- Pass (1, although the Deacs got lucky with 2 fumbles recovered by the offense)
  • Allow no more than 2 sacks (coverage sacks excluded)- Pass (1 allowed)
  • Achieve at least 3 drives of over 50 yards- FAIL (2, had one other of 45)
Defensively- 5 FAIL, 1 PASS- While the Deacs limited Liberty to 17 points I don't think they would be happy with what they did all things considered.

  • First team allow no more than 7 points- FAIL (17)
  • Limit the Flames to 200 yards of offense (first team)- FAIL (363)
  • Force at least three turnovers- FAIL (2)
  • Score a TD defensively- This is a stretch, but the Deacs need the defense to score a good bit this year- PASS (Great INT by AJ Marshall)
  • Accumulate at least 3 sacks- FAIL (2)
  • Allow no more than one drive of over 50 yards FAIL (2...would have been 3 but LU's first TD was only 44 yards out to start)
Special Teams/Anything Else- 4 FAILS, 1 PASS

  • Make all FG's/XP's- FAIL (botched XP and a missed FG_
  • Punting average of over 40 yards- FAIL (although I consider Alex Kinal a success all things considered)
  • Limit Kevin Fogg's returns by managing at least 75% of all kicks to touchbacks- FAIL (2 TB's, 1 OB, 1 return to the 23)
  • Under 5 penalties- PASS
  • NO INJURIES!!!- FAIL (big time fail, JRoc hurt, Camp hurt, many others hurt for a short amount of time)
  • Kickoff return average of over 30 yards (could be tricky if it's a small number)- FAIL (22)


OVERALL: 14 FAILS, 5 PASSES- (5/19= 26%). By all accounts, this checklist was a complete fail for the Deacs.
T Some Thoughts:
  • Pretty bad game even for the first game of the year.
  • Interesting play calling and bad blocking led to woeful results on offense throughout the majority of the game.
  • DeAndre Martin looked pretty good out there at times and had he been spelled at all by Orville then I think he could have been even more effective.
  • Drops were out of control for Matt James, gotta get better.
  • Tanner was really up and down. Had some good runs and reads but the INT was awful, as were some of his other throws. I'll blame some on the rain but he has to get better.
  • O-line was shoddy and the playcalling really didn't do much to alleviate those concerns. The Deacs ran a lot of misdirections, but draws and zone reads don't play to this teams strengths at this point and it's very disconcerting to see that the coaching staff continued to rely on that throughout the game.
  • If Camp gets hurt for an extended amount of time this year then the Deacs are in serious trouble.
  • On defense the front 7 did a nice job in run defense, not so much on getting pass rushing.
  • A.J. Marshall was a MAN and without a doubt the MVP of the game for the Deacs.
  • The defense might be missing Bud, but they aren't missing him that much.
  • Olson and Haynes had really good games as well for the Deacs.
  • Jimmy Newman continues to struggle on kicks the Deacs need him to make.
  • Alex Kinal was exceptional for the most part, showing an ability to sky it, as well as bomb it when necessary.
Other thoughts are eluding me at this time, but needless to say Saturday was not what I expected. With UNC coming to town on Saturday the Deacs better turn it around quickly or it could be an ass-whooping. More articles to come throughout the week as usual.