Wake Forest vs. Army: Offensive Play Calling

I typically like to watch a horror film on Halloween, but instead of watching Friday the 13th I decided to rewatch Wake Forest’s offensive plays against Army. I wanted to discover whether Wake’s anemic offensive performance against Army was mostly due to play calling or execution. If you’re so inclined to go on the journey with me, let’s dive right in.

1st Quarter

Wake Forest showed balance in the 1st quarter, as the Deacs ran and threw 8 times each. For the most part I thought that the play calling was very good in this quarter. Wake utilized more tempo than usual on the opening drive, and was moving the ball well, but ended the drive on a bad interception by Wolford. The ball hit Serigne in the hands, but it was pretty high, and he was wide open. That pass absolutely should have been made.

The second drive was more conventional for Wake, as the first two plays of the drive we runs. Third down was questionable, as it was a deep shot to Bachman, but the camera angle made it difficult to see what other options (if any) were available. Having the delay on 4th down was unacceptable, and I’m guessing it was a product of having a relatively new long snapper.

Wake Forest began its third drive by converting on a deep vertical pass to Tabari Hines after a play-action. 3 receivers went vertical, and it’s unclear to tell if Carney was supposed to go on a delay route. This play obviously worked extremely well, as Wake gained 48 yards, but this was an all-or-nothing play design. Unfortunately Wolford threw well behind Tabari Hines on the next play and Army got another interception. Hines was open, and it appeared that Serigne was open on an underneath route. Hard to blame the play call on this one.

The 4th drive was a more conventional Wake offensive scheme, as we saw a draw by Wolford, another run by Colburn, and a short pass to Bachman. Wake failed to convert on a 3rd down rushing attempt because Charles Argenzio could not pick up a blitzing linebacker. Wake did not go for it on 4th-and-1 from its own 42, and I am very much against that decision.

2nd Quarter

I didn’t have any major complaints with the play-calling on the opening drive of the second half, but will say that Wolford was extremely fortunate not to turn it over when he attempted to throw it out of a sack. Carney needed to do a better job of blitz pick up, and that was unfortunately a theme throughout the game, but Wolford just needed to take the sack. I also liked the quasi triple option on second down, but I absolutely hated Wake’s decision to punt on 4th-and-1 from the Wake 49.

The second drive of the quarter was an excellent mix of runs and short passing attempts, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it resulted in Wake’s only touchdown of the game. Wake had a lot of timely draws, as well as some swing passes that got Tabari Hines the ball in space. If Wake ran this type of mix on every drive, I believe it would be a lot more efficient.

The key problems on the final drive of the quarter were the two false start penalties. Wake doesn’t have a good enough offense to overcome procedural penalties. Wake finished the quarter with 8 rushes and 9 passing attempts.

3rd Quarter

In the second half I thought that Wake went away from its offensive identity. The Deacs finished the quarter with 13 passing attempts, to just 5 rushes, which is not a recipe for success.

Wake’s first drive began in Army territory after Duke Ejiofor recovered a fumble forced by Thomas Brown. I liked the first several plays of the drive, but once Wake got inside the red zone I thought there were too many throws just to the end zone, instead of any underneath or short routes. It’s certainly harder to call plays in the red zone, but Wake has to be able to take advantage of the red zone opportunities that they do get.

This next drive was incredibly frustrating, and had it gone differently I think Wake Forest wins this game. I’ll skip right to the originally ruled touchdown pass to Scotty Washington. Wolford threw a nice ball where Washington could go up and get it. At 6’5”, he’s meant for those kinds of plays. He caught it, and even came down with it, but then made the mental mistake of not finishing the play and taking his right hand off the ball as he was rolling over, which caused him to lose control and not maintain possession long enough. It’s easy for me to sit here with my laptop and criticize, but that was a mental mistake. He did the extremely difficult part, but just needed to focus for another half second. If he holds on, then Wake goes up 10 and I don’t think they look back. This mistake was made worse after Mike Weaver pretty badly pushed a 45-yard attempt.

Army’s defense played pretty well on Wake’s final drive of the quarter and blew up a few of Wake’s attempts.

4th Quarter

I was incredibly disappointed in and confused by Wake’s opening drive of the 4th quarter. Wake got the ball on its own 20 with nearly 12 minutes left and down only 4, yet acted like it was the final minute of the game. They immediately took a deep shot to Bachman who was in double coverage. If Wake is going to throw all of these deep balls, which they shouldn’t do, then they should be thrown to Cortez, Washington, or Tabari. They need to be thrown to someone with size or leaping ability. Wake went for it on 4th and 1 from their own 29. I don’t necessarily have a problem with the decision, but it’s puzzling why Wake went for this one, yet punted on 4th and 1 from the 49 yard line. The conversion was for naught, however, as Wolford thew an interception several passes later. In Wolford’s defense, it appeared that Bachman ran an incorrect route.

It’s difficult to complain too much about the final drive because Wake’s hand was forced. Wake was down 11 points with just under 3 minutes to go. They were essentially forced to throw on every play. My only complaints were that once again when Wake got into the red zone they did nothing but throw passes to the end zone. I realize that time is part of that, but it really crowds the field.

Overall

I thought that Wake tried to do too much against Army. Had Wake Forest stuck with balance, then I think the offense would have been a lot more successful. Wake had success rates (staying on schedule) above 50% in each of the first two quarters, but were below 35% during the second half. The national average for isoPPP (a measurement of passing explosiveness) is 1.48, and Wake’s was just 1.07 on Saturday despite the number of deep shots taken. That’s a sign that Wake isn’t meant to play that way with this personnel. Alex Bachman was targeted 16 times, yet hauled in just 6 receptions. I’m not necessarily blaming Bachman for that, but there needs to be far more balance in targets. That will come from different play design, but that will also come from Wolford not locking onto one receiver, as he has a tendency to do. Wake has to get back to balance, even being run heavy, if the offense is going to be successful in the final month of the regular season.

I’ve given my take on Saturday’s plan and performance. What did you all think?