Wake Forest football blows past Syracuse to finish unbeaten month

In the spirit of Dennis Green, Wake Forest’s defense finally is who they thought they were.

And the Demon Deacons, after rolling through an undefeated October, know who they are.

“We’re not winning on offense, we’re not winning on defense. We are winning collectively as a team right now,” coach Dave Clawson said after Wake Forest’s 38-14 win at Syracuse on Saturday.

This win for Wake Forest (4-2, 3-2 ACC) was its fourth straight and featured a lot of the same elements that the previous ones have.

It was another performance by the Demon Deacons’ defense – three turnovers including a pick-6 by freshman Gavin Holmes, 221 yards allowed – that pushes memories of the first two games further into the ether. It was another turnover-free, one-touchdown game from Sam Hartman.

And it was another three-touchdown game by Kenneth Walker III and a combined 166 rushing yards between him and Christian Beal-Smith.

The Demon Deacons know who they are, and it’s translated into entering November as a two-loss team.

“Our whole team is playing really well,” Hartman said. “On defense they’re obviously making a lot of plays, creating turnovers. And then on offense … (we’re) playing consistent football.

“It’s a good feeling.”

Clawson said after the 45-42 loss to N.C. State dropped Wake Forest to 0-2 that he didn’t have as good of a feeling for what his team’s identity was. The COVID-19 pandemic robbed his developmental program of valuable time in the spring and summer and with Notre Dame set to arrive the following week, time wasn’t going to freeze and allow the Demon Deacons to make up lost ground.

Or maybe that’s exactly what happened.

The Notre Dame game was pushed back to December because of positive COVID tests for the Irish, and suddenly the Demon Deacons had a three-week stretch with their only game coming against Campbell.

It’s clear the time spent in the off weeks that sandwiched the dismantling of Campbell wasn’t wasted.

“We’re really improved on defense, I give a lot of credit to our defensive players and our defensive staff that when times got tough, they toughened up,” Clawson said.

Wake Forest’s defense, starting with the second half against Virginia, has given up 33 points and 809 yards (4.49 yards per play) in the last 150 minutes of football.

“This is the type of defense we had in our mind that this year,” senior rover Traveon Redd said. “The past couple of games, we’ve been executing at a high clip. … We’ve been studying film, putting ourselves in the best situation possible to make plays and limiting all of the mistakes that we made the first two games.

“That was a big thing. We’ve been limiting … the amount of mental errors.”

It’s allowed Wake Forest to have quite the memorable 31 days.

In Clawson’s six previous seasons, the Demon Deacons never won more than one game in October. As much as has been made about starting seasons strong and fading in second halves of them, it’s the middle month of the season that most often trips up Wake Forest.

Wake Forest went 4-0 in October with a combined margin of 101-53 against the three ACC teams. Last October, Wake Forest only played two games and gave up 62 points in one of them.

“After the first two games, we felt that we’re underperforming as a defense,” Redd said. “Even with injuries, we know that we’re better than what we played the first two games.

“We’re just coming in and we’re fired up, we’re executing and we’re bringing a whole lot of energy.”

The Carrier Dome hasn’t been the friendliest of locales for the Demon Deacons in years past; last season’s crushing overtime loss is the freshest example. It’s also been a matchup that yields a ton of points – the lowest total of the previous three seasons was Syracuse’s 41-24 win in 2018.

Wake Forest’s newfound sense of self allowed the Demon Deacons to control this game from the onset with two four-plus-minute scoring drives. While these teams’ offenses are typically at the bottom of the ACC in average time of possession – and atop the country in most plays run per game – Wake Forest held the ball for 36:14 on Saturday.

“That’s the sign of a good team, that you can find different ways to win high scoring, low scoring – but also the ability to run the ball or throw the ball,” Clawson said. “I think right now we’re hard to cheat against. You can’t just say, ‘Hey they’re going to throw it, ignore the running game,’ or ‘load up the box, they can’t throw it.’

“We’ve got a really good balance going right now and the challenge is going to be to keep that.”

That will be the question answered in two weeks with a trip to Chapel Hill.

This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 3:26 PM.