Recap: Wake Forest Decimates SMU 49-7

The Deacs have done it AGAIN. For a 5th straight game, Wake Forest has completely dominated their opponent, beating SMU on their home field by 42 points.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the Deacs basically won another game in the 1st quarter. SMU won the toss and elected to receive the ball, which turned out to be a costly error. The Wake Forest defense forced a 3 and out, and the Deacs quickly went up 7-0 in about 2 minutes on a 27-yard touchdown run by Ty Clark.

For a 4th straight week, a 1st quarter touchdown to take a 7-0 lead was enough to not lose the game. From that point on, it was just all Deacs—everything went Wake’s way in the 1st half. The Deacs stopped SMU on a 4th and 1 on their own 26 yard line and quickly converted that into 7 points. Gio Lopez hit his favorite target Carlos Hernandez for a big 44 yard touchdown pass. Wake recovered an SMU fumble on the SMU 21 yard line—Lopez ran that into the endzone 5 players later. The Deacs even recovered the rare 44-yard onside kick when the Mustangs failed to field a kickoff. By the end of the first half, Wake was up 42-0 and had outgained SMU 248 to 120. That is just complete domination.

To emphasize just how dominant this Wake Forest team is, over their last 4 games, Wake is outscoring their opponents 145-0 in the first half. The Deacs were the first team since 2013 Alabama to score 20+ points in the first half and give up 0 points over a 4 game stretch.

The game was so out of hand, it was even booted from ESPN to ESPN News. I have a hard time believing that would every happen to SEC game, but the Deacs were winning by so many points it was really hard to be mad about anything.

I said all week this was a massive game with ACC Championship implications, and the Deacs showed up in the best way. It has been so enjoyable to continually watch Wake blow the doors off teams in the first half, and then relax and watch them coast to a win in the 2nd half.

Gio Lopez was maybe a step slow with that brace on his leg, but he looked really good in his return after sitting out last week—Lopez finished with 201 passing yards and 3 total touchdowns.

The Deacs completely dominated the line of scrimmage as well, outgaining the Mustangs 286 to 66 yards on the ground—Wake had more rushing yards than SMU had total yards (275). SMU’s defense had no answer for the Wake offense, which punted just twice in the whole game. The Mustangs were so desperate for way to keep the Deacs out of the endzone, they even tried having the mascot poop on the goal line just before the 4th quarter. Even that didn’t work, as Steele Pizzella, who entered the game in the 3rd quarter, scored on a 25-yard run right after the “accident.” Thankfully, he was nowhere near where the incident took place.

Give a ton of credit to the Wake Forest defense, too—the Deacs completely disrupted an SMU offense that was putting up 37 points and 475 yards per game. SMU finally scored a touchdown in the 3rd quarter after a Jack Foley fumble, but Wake shut them out for 2 and half quarters. That included a goal line stand right at the end of the first half to block any chance the Mustangs had of gaining some momentum right before the half. Wake held Kevin Jennings, who entered the game averaging 307 passing yards per game, to 209 yards and picked him off 1 time. Hopefully Wake will lock down DC Scottie Hazelton the same way they locked down Dickert and Ezell in the coming weeks, because this defense has been playing phenomenally all season long.

With Duke, SMU, and Clemson all losing today, the only 2-loss ACC team remaining is Louisville, who the Deacs have already beaten. That means Wake Forest can clinch an ACC Championship Game berth with a win over Georgia Tech next week or Duke in 2 weeks. The Deacs have a chance to turn what has been an already incredible season into something truly historic. Wake should move up into the playoff field after thumping SMU on the road, but with the way the committee views the ACC, I won’t hold my breath.

What a week for the Wake Forest!

Go Deacs!