The Demon Deacons were in the game for the first portion of the game, but North Carolina's explosiveness proved to be too much, and the Tar Heels defeated the Demon Deacons by a score of 50-14. It was a complete and utter domination during the final 45 minutes of this contest.
Wake Forest got off to a hot start in this contest, but could not sustain enough for a victory. The defense had two interceptions on the first two North Carolina drives. Both Brad Watson and Demetrius Kemp made the plays for the Demon Deacons defense. Mike Weaver missed a long field goal after Brad Watson's interception, but Wake Forest capitalized after Kemp's interception, as quarterback John Wolford connected with tight end Cam Serigne to give Wake Forest a 7-0 lead.
The beginning of the second quarter, however, was absolutely brutal for Wake Forest. The Deacs surrendered 22 points in just over 3-and-a-half minutes. The Heels scored on plays of 57, 13, and 34 yards. Those were the explosive plays that we were discussing in our previews. The most unacceptable play during this sequence came when Carolina converted a two-point conversion. They ran an "Oregon" play, and simply had numbers on Wake Forest's defense. That should never happen. It's simply a matter of numbers, and we were not prepared for that play.
For Wake Forest, it did not get much better after that. Tabari Hines capped off a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive with an excellent catch to make it 14-22. Unfortunately, that was just about the only positive thing to happen the rest of the night for Wake Forest.
The second half was complete domination by the Tar Heels, as they outscored Wake Forest 21-0, and it could have been much worse.
This performance was unacceptable. I know that North Carolina was coming off of a bye week, and that Wake Forest was coming off of a physical game against Boston College, but 50-14?!
Carolina is a more talented and experienced team; there's no denying that. Still, the defensive effort in this game was horrific. Carolina's receivers were wide open, and they played pitch and catch all evening. It was the worst performance I've seen out of Wake Forest since last year's game against North Carolina State.
North Carolina finished the game with 538 yards compared to Wake Forest's 310 yards. Wake Forest dominated time of possession, 37:00 to 22:56, but we all know that football is more about explosiveness than just time of possession. Wake Forest even won the turnover battle one to two, but Carolina gained yards in bunches. Carolina averaged 6.4 yards/rush and 11.6 yards per pass attempt., while Wake averaged just 6.2 yards/pass and 2.6 yards/rush.
John Wolford went 16-22 for 176 yards and 2 touchdowns, while Tyler Bell ran the ball 13 times for 48 yards. Interesting to see that Matt Colburn, who had a critical fumble in last week's contest against Boston College, had just one carry on the evening. Cam Serigne had 6 receptions for 65 yards, while Cortez Lewis had 4 receptions for 58 yards.
Wake Forest will look to rebound next week against North Carolina State, while North Carolina will host Virginia. We'll have more thoughts tomorrow on Blogger So Dear.