WINSTON-SALEM — Through the first two games of Wake Forest’s football season, what was expected to be a strength of the team has reared its head in the form of a frustrating weakness.
A Demon Deacons defense featuring a bevy of returnees sputtered in losses to top-ranked Clemson and North Carolina State, leaving coach Dave Clawson honest about his level of concern in that aspect following last Saturday’s defeat at the hands of the Wolfpack.
“I’m very concerned,” Clawson said. “Going into it, I really thought that would be the strength of our football team.
“We’re a little young and short at corner, but that didn’t hurt us (against N.C. State) at all. You have all those guys coming back on the D-line and all those linebackers coming back. (N.C. State) is a team a year ago that we didn’t let run the ball against us at all. That right now is problem No. 1 that we got to get fixed.”
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After communication issues in the secondary plagued the Demon Deacons in the season opener, when Clemson threw for 376 yards, it was the N.C. State running game (270 yards) that Wake Forest couldn’t slow down in Week 2.
“After that game, we knew that we've not been playing at the level that we needed to,” ri Traveon Redd said. “And it's kind of very disappointing. We know that the season is just beginning, we have a whole lot more games to play and a whole lot more work to do. It pushes us to a different level because we want to actually prove that this defense is what people expected to be.
“We have so many people returning. Front seven is supposed to be top level and the past few weeks, we haven't shown that. It all lies back on us to actually come out each and every week and prove to everyone that this defense is here to stay and here to make plays and here to stop the offense from scoring.”
Perhaps the postponement of the Notre Dame game, previously scheduled for today before COVID-19 cases within the Irish program forced a shutdown of football-related activities, provides helpful additional time to fix those defensive inefficiencies.
“Coming into the year, we knew that our defense is gonna be something special,” Redd said. “But after the past couple weeks, after analyzing the film after each game, we just noticed that we're not playing at the level that we need to. We’re not coming out with the same type of mental focus and attention to detail that we pretty much expected us to have. We're not playing to the level that we need to.”
An 0-2 start to the season is uncharted territory for the Demon Deacons, who started last season 5-0. Wake Forest last started a season 0-2 in 2007, when it then won nine of its final 11 games to finish the season at 9-4.
“This is a tough time going 0-2 beginning the season,” Redd said. “We’re not really used to this. Normally, we'd come up with a fast start, but with the season now and the competition that we had early on, we need to come out with a better execution and more attention to detail on what we need to do.”
Redd said he believes the mistakes are “easily correctable,” and with a date against Campbell of the Football Championship Subdivision coming up on Friday night of next week, Wake Forest's next game could present an opportunity to get back on track.
“They're just more mental errors than physical errors,” he said. “Those can be fixed with just being more locked in, more focused in preparation. And throughout the week, you just got to be more detail-oriented in what we do and be more focused, and actually just come out and execute. I feel like we haven't executed at the optimal level that we needed to the past couple weeks.”
Despite the frustrating start from the defense, Clawson said he still sees plenty of potential if the ship can be righted.
“I think we’re getting better,” Clawson said. “I think we have the makings of a good football team. This team is a work in progress.”
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Time off could help Demon Deacons defense get back on track
