Wake Forest blown out at Florida State
Wake Forest’s season of steady improvement took a step backward.
One step backward in the record column, at least. It felt like several steps in Florida State’s 42-7 bludgeoning of the Deacons on Saturday night at Doak Campbell Stadium.
“I know we’ve got a bunch of men in that locker room that are not happy with this result,” first-year coach Jake Dickert said via Zoom. “They’re going to show up with an attitude on Monday to get better and grow.
“This is the first time in the course of the season we haven’t gotten better. Sometimes you need this and we just got our ass kicked in every phase.”
This was a scoreless game after one quarter. Wake Forest (5-3, 2-3 ACC) actually had some ball control in the opening frame, with 92 yards and five first downs.
But FSU (4-4, 1-4) connected on a 65-yard pass to Duce Robinson on the penultimate play of the first quarter. Seventy-six seconds into the second quarter, Tommy Castellanos skipped into the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown.
The Seminoles added a Samuel Singleton Jr. touchdown run of 10 yards before halftime, taking a 14-0 lead to the locker room.
And then FSU ran away with things by scoring touchdowns on four straight possessions. The first three all started on Wake’s side of the 50-yard line, placed there by grace of three turnovers — one by downs, one fumble, one interception.
The Deacons’ defense gave up a season-high 42 points. Some of those were obviously via short fields—but Wake Forest also gave up season-highs of 421 yards and 7.4 yards per play.
“I feel like we had a lack of focus. That’s all I have to say,” defensive tackle Jayden Loving said.
He continued …
“We’re a much more disciplined defense than that. As we’ve shown, week in, week out. It’s just lack of focus.”
Wake Forest’s lone score came with 6:49 left. Deshawn Purdie — who replaced an injured Robby Ashford — threw a 6-yard touchdown to Micah Mays Jr. That meant Wake Forest avoided its first shutout loss since 2013.
