Wake 12, FSU 3: Holy Defense, Batman

Last night the Wake Forest defense put on the best performance I've seen in the last three years, while the offense and Sam Swank did just enough to ensure the 12-3 victory.

Although we'll spend plenty of time analyzing everyone's play and why things ended up the way they did, those things are not all that important right now. We could even make a big deal about how some blogger predicted Wake would win in a shootout 41-37, but that doesn't seem very important right now either. . .

What does matter is that the Demon Deacons are 3-0 overall, 1-0 in the ACC, and just defeated one of the stronger opponents in the division. FSU's offense was terrible last night, but their defense kept them in the game and put them in position to possibly escape with a win. There is plenty of tallent on that team and they will definitely be competitive in the conference. This is a really good early season conference win for the Deacs.

The win further establishes Wake in the driver's seat of the division. The Clemson game still looms large in the future, but one of the three biggest hurdles has been passed (I consider Clemson and at Miami to be the other two big hurdles). There was plenty of excitement leading up to this game, and I think it caused all Wake fans to become a bit anxious. Now we can all exhale.

After the Ole Miss game I was not very complimentary of the Demon Deacon defense. I was crititcal of the secondary for some missed assignments, soft coverage, and just about anything else I could give them a hard time for. Before this game I said several times that I was worried about Wake's defense, particularly the secondary. It was those concerns that led me to predict such a high scoring game.

They definitely shut me up last night. They put on one of the most stifiling defensive performances I've seen. They caused turnovers on two of FSU's first three offensive plays - not possessions, but plays. That's unheard of! When all the dust settled Wake had caused seven turnovers, including two forced fumbles (Ghee and Patterson) and five interceptions (two from Patterson, one from Curry, Smith, and Vaughn). Kevin Patterson was responsible for three turnovers all on his own. Incredible!

The turnovers are the statistic that jumps out at everyone, but even when they weren't forcing turnovers the defense were making big plays. In total they held FSU to 220 yards of offense, came up with two sacks (but were in the backfield causing problems on nearly every play), and swarmed the ball very well. The only thing I noticed during the game that could have been better was open field tackling, but at this point I couldn't really care less.

Things weren't quite as perfect on the offensive side of the ball, but the performance was good enough to get the job done. The endzone was elusive, but scoring position was not. The most glaring mistake was Riley Skinner's fumble at the two yard line, which could have been prevented pretty easily if Skinner carries the ball in his outside hand. It wasn't his best passing night ever, but 17-30 for 217 yards isn't anywhere close to being bad. The deep ball to Marshall Williams in the first half was one of the most perfect throws he's made all season.

The running game continued it's struggles, although I think film review may indicate that things are starting to improve. FSU's defense played a good game themselves and deserve a lot of credit for keeping the Seminoles in the game. The offense's sloppiness manifested itself in the form of penalties; there were many more last night than there have been in the prior two games. Wake was just lucky that FSU was even sloppier in that department.

Sam Swank definitely didn't have the best night of his career, but he still hit four field goals - and only would have needed two to win the game. When he came out to kick the final field goal to seal the victory I said that there was no way he would miss that one and that I had complete confidence in him. That's the incredible thing about Swank - even when he's not at his best, he seems to be able to completely block out whatever has happened before and focus solely on the kick he's about to make. It would have been nice to get 21 points out of him last night, but 12 were more than enough.

Finally, let's take a look at the three questions I asked in Friday's preview:

1. Will Florida State be prepared to play a game of this magnitude?
It doesn't seem that they were. Their domination of FCS schools didn't translate to last night's game, and their offense didn't seem the least bit prepared for the speed and pursuit of the Deacs. Their defense did a fine job, but the whole package wasn't there. Having their kicker, Gano, back from injury for his first game probably wasn't the best situation for them either. If he had made that first field goal we may have been looking at a very different game.

2. Will Wake get to Christian Ponder and D'Vontrey Richardson?
The defense did an excelent job putting pressure on the FSU's quarterbacks. They never had very much time to make throws and were forced to scramble on many occasions. FSU's offensive line was overmatched and didn't help out their quarterbacks at all. I was actually very impressed by Ponder's speed, but ultimately it wans't enough to avoid the Demon Deacon pursuit. The defensive line did an excellent job and deserves a lot of credit in this defensive performance.

3. Can the offensive line and running backs build on their second half success in the Ole Miss game?
Eh. . . not really I guess. This performance wasn't any worse than any other, and on review I think it may actually prove to have been a little bit better. Nonetheless, it wasn't "good" and still has a long way to go. Maybe I need to quit asking this question every week and then things will get better. Who knows at this point.

Predictions:
Umm. . . yea. . . 41-37. . . high scoring shootout. . .I don't think Vegas will be hiring me any time soon.

So that's that. A big win for the Deacs and an excellent defensive performance. I'll hole up in the "Replay Booth" over the next copule days so we can get a full breakdown of things. 3-0 for the second time in three years looks pretty good to me. Let's keep things rolling!