Wake post mortem.....

Watched the game again last night & came away with a few quick impressions:

• We actually played one of our better defensive games of the year, particularly the second half. CPJ told the defense to stop playing "scared" (i.e. scared to make a mistake) at half & they responded. Rush defense was down right nasty. One thing we can't forget is that the other team isn't just standing there- they too are trying to make plays. It's not always our deficiencies that cause us problems. Couple of those Skinner passes were absolutely perfect. A four year starter at QB can cause you problems.
• Mario Edwards insertion into the lineup at free safety payed immediate dividends. Edwards, a sure tackler, had 8 of them on Saturday along with a pass breakup. His physical presence was a welcome & needed addition to a banged up secondary.
• We played our worst offensive game of the year! This happens, especially playing ten weeks in a row. Josh had a rough day by his now lofty standards & we couldn't block air on the perimeter. It's the sign of a good team we were able to play so poorly & win....
• CPJ's masterful half-time adjustments continue. This time we simply ran the "twirl" speed option repeatedly for big gains in the second half. It's the "twirl" element that's so key here. Josh fakes the dive to one side then spins around & pitches the ball to the motion A-back. This fake freezes the defense for that extra half-second & allows us to get on the perimeter faster. We gashed Wake repeatedly with this play in the second half. It's been well documented but no one makes better half-time adjustments than our staff.
• The penalties. I hate ACC refs. They just aren't very good. But I've looked at all the calls on Saturday & they only blatantly missed one call. The chop blocks were chop blocks. BayBay had a huge handful of jersey on Stephen Hill's reverse for a touchdown. The only out right blown call was the completion to the Wake receiver on the sideline in the second half where he was clearly out of bounds & juggling the ball. The pass interference on Brad Jefferson was ticky-tack but refs have a tendency to call things like that when you have a linebacker covering a wide receiver 35 yards downfield. We'll clean it up...

White Russians & Walter's later with a special announcement to follow....do we have all 3 of you reading in suspense?