The Wisconsin Badgers rode a four-interception performance by the defense and a few splash plays on special teams to a 42-28 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons yesterday in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
The win puts the Badgers at 4-3 to finish the year, and even though the team struggled at times as well and missed games due to COVID-19, they finished the season strong and now have momentum to carry into 2021.
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When Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson spoke after the game he had nothing but good things to say about the Wisconsin football program and the way they executed on the field yesterday.
“First off congratulations to Wisconsin. Good win for their program,” Clawson said. “Football is usually a game where the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins. They made a lot less mistakes than us, they played much better fundamental football. I’m proud of the way we compete to the very end. I thought our guys battled physically. But we just made too many fatal mistakes to overcome.”
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The story of the game was Demon Deacon quarterback Sam Hartman’s four third-quarter interceptions, those coming after the team had only thrown one pick all year.
The Wake Forest coach discussed the turnovers, citing both mistakes from the quarterback and crediting the Badger defense for capitalizing.
“We threw one interception all year,” Clawson said. “I just think we telegraphed some things, I thought [Sam Hartman] held on to targets too long and Wisconsin did a great job of breaking on his eyes and breaking on the arm action.”
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His description continued to note his offense’s missed opportunities and how they put the team in a tough spot in the second half.
“We had open guys in the first half that we missed. I thought we should’ve come out of that half up 21-7 or 28-14 and we just missed some plays” Clawson said. “We dropped the ball, we missed open receivers. And Wisconsin is just a steady, consistent program that doesn’t beat themselves. It’s not one thing, they did a great job and we didn’t play well.”
Clawson then had some words on the interceptions relating to the scheme of the plays and what Wisconsin did on defense to counter them.
“They ran a field pressure and our quarterback thought it was man, a man pressure but it was a zone pressure,” Clawson said when talking about Noah Burks’ interception. “They dropped one guy out and the ball just shouldn’t have gone there…We hit that thing earlier against man and we got a nice sideline route to Christian Beal. But that’s not where the ball goes against zone…The other the safety jumped it. We were running slant routes, we threw the ball late and the safety just jumped it. The other two I’ll have to watch closer but just not a good day.”
Here is how the Wake Forest head coach finished his comments on the game and on the Badgers’ performance.
“Credit Wisconsin, but we beat ourselves. They didn’t beat themselves, and that’s what good football teams do.”