Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson: ‘We got beat bad. … It was a thorough ass-kicking’

Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson began his press conference after NC State’s 26-6 win over the Demon Deacons with an apology. He was not proud of how his team played against the Wolfpack, who Wake Forest had beaten in its last three trips to Winston-Salem. 

“I want to apologize to our fanbase, our students, everybody,” Clawson began his postgame press conference with. “That was just an awful, awful performance. We were flat, we had no energy, and that is 100% on me. I’ve got to do some soul-searching and look at our team. … That was not even a competitive football game.”

NC State’s defense did not allow a first down for the first 25 minutes of the contest, and it forced six Demon Deacons three-and-outs. The Wolfpack also held the home team to 1-for-12 on third down, its best percentage since it held East Carolina to 1-for-15 in 2018. 

The Wolfpack defense logged five pass breakups as its secondary limited the Demon Deacons to 16-of-29 passing for 156 yards and a touchdown. And Clawson was not happy with how his wide receivers played against the Pack’s cornerbacks. 

“They outcoached us, I thought they were more physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage,” Clawson said. “Their defensive backs, I thought, outplayed our receivers. We had a chance to make contested catches, and I don’t think we made one of them, other than Deuce for the touchdown.”

Outside of NC State’s secondary outplaying the Wake Forest wideouts, the Wolfpack’s pass rush was able to live in the backfield for most of the afternoon. NC State logged a sack on each of Wake Forest’s first three drives. 

The red and white logged those three sacks, and had a total of five tackles for a loss in the dominant effort at Wake Forest. 

“The bottom line, they just dominated us on both sides of the line of scrimmage,” Clawson said. “And when you do that, there’s a lot of things that you can do. It just seemed like every time they ran the ball, they got push and the cut was two or three yards deep into the line of scrimmage. Conversely, every time that we ran the ball, they had two or three guys in our backfield.”

Not only did the Wolfpack defense control the game, its offense did too. NC State outgained Wake Forest 379-163, including 268-7 in rushing yards. Graduate quarterback Brennan Armstrong paced the Wolfpack offense with 207 total yards of offense with two touchdowns as the team rushed for a new season best on 50 carries, another season high. 

Clawson did not hold back about how far behind the Demon Deacons were from the Wolfpack this season.

“It’s my job to field a more competitive team, and clearly I’m failing this season, and in this game,” Clawson said. “I’m not getting the job done right now. It’s on me. It’s game 10, and to show up like that is really disappointing.”

Not only was he unhappy with how his team played, but he was not pleased with the shoving that occurred at the end of the game. The Wolfpack moved the ball inside the 10-yard line in the final minute of the contest, but NC State knelt to end the contest. That’s when some Wake Forest players started pushing and shoving some NC State players. 

That irked Clawson the most. 

“I thought they outplayed us, outcoached us,” Clawson said. “And at the end of the game, they could have scored there, but they took a knee. I thought Dave showed a lot of sportsmanship and class by doing that. And then we want to get in fights with them. It’s really ugly, really disappointing. I’m not happy, but I take full responsibility for it.”

It was an ugly game for the Demon Deacons, and a pretty dominant one for the Wolfpack. For Clawson, there was no sugar coating it: NC State outplayed Wake Forest by a wide margin.

“We got beat bad, guys,” Clawson said. “There’s no other way to put it. There’s no bright spot of today. It was a thorough ass-kicking.”