Three Up, Three Down: Presbyterian

The Ups

Greg Freakin’ Dortch. Our entire offense put in work, but the standout of the game for me was rookie receiver Greg Dortch. He had 4 catches for 55 yards for a 13.8 YPC average and two touchdowns. He also racked up 4 punt returns for 76 yards, a more than respectable 19 yards per return, a long of 29, and this doesn’t even factor in a 90+ yard return TD that was called back by a penalty. I hope Greg can keep it up, because if so he could be an absolute star.

Defense Buckling Down. The Demon Deacons held the Blue Hose to 4-14 on third down and 0-2 on fourth. That’s...really good, especially when you consider that most of their firsts came when the game was already well in hand. There were a couple breakdowns, but over 60 minutes of football, it was honestly a really great job by the defense as well.

Getting Plenty Of Reps For Non-Starters. There were virtually no starters in the game by the start of the second half. I don’t need to tell anyone here why that’s such a great deal. The starters get rest, and depth guys get a chance to execute in game time. That’s just a good time all around.

The Downs

Can’t Really Glean Much From This. I mean,, we know we’re definitely not bad, it’s not like struggling against Tulane last season, but we don’t really know how good we are yet, either. You don’t know your strength until you’re tested. I’m not complaining about a 51-7 victory so much as I’m saying we don’t really know how this team will hold up against more formidable foes, which is just a little challenging.

The Missed XP. Listen, Mike Weaver put in work last night and was mostly flawless, so I don’t want to complain too much, but missing thee first extra point of the season was an unfortunate blunder that against (much, much) stiffer competition may come back to bite the team just a little bit. I don’t know if it was the snap, the hold, the kick, or a mixture, but it wasn’t great, and I need to get to three downs somehow!

A Few Breakdowns. There were two defensive breakdowns that led to PC’s only score (though credit to our secondary for an awesome chasedown tackle on the first breakdown that prevented the TD temporarily), and there was a gorgeous pass by Jamie Newman shortly before that that absolutely should have put Wake up 58-0, but it was dropped. I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus because these were our depth guys, and God bless them, they work as hard or harder than anybody day in and day out, but it was still a little unfortunate.

The Bottom Line

That was a squash match, if you will. No two ways about it. Tons of guys looked good,, many guys looked great, and I absolutely loved Wake Forest running the up-tempo offense. It worked really well and was extremely fun to watch. I have no idea what to anticipate in #TheRivalry, but I’m darn sure pretty bullish on this season if this game was even half of what can be expected against tougher foes. Only time will tell. Got any ups or downs of your own? Leave them in the comments!

On to the next. Go Deacs.

—SF