RYLY JANE HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, September 9, 2005 7:00 pm
One image — actually, it was three images — will be burned in the memory of Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe. “Turnovers kill you, but turnovers for scores are just ridiculous,” Grobe said after Wake Forest fell 31-3 to Nebraska. “That’s two seasons’ worth of scores.”
Nebraska turned three Wake Forest turnovers into immediate scores, and Grobe had a hard time coming to grips with that.
“The most disappointing thing for me is three scores off of turnovers. I’ve never had that happen to me as a head coach or an assistant coach,” he said. “An interception run back for a touchdown — that happens. Once in a while, you’ll see a fumble picked up and run back. But to have a ball taken from your running back and have two interceptions run back, that’s unbelievable.
“Tonight, our defensive kids batted about five or six balls in the air and we didn’t get any of them. It was the way the night went.”
Even so, a career-record 51-yard field goal by Sam Swank just before halftime cut Nebraska’s lead to 14-3.
But the Huskers went 80 yards and scored on the opening drive of the second half.
“I thought that drive would discourage our defensive kids and then they came back and played a great game the rest of the way,” Grobe said. “I think last week, if you would have told me we would have 470 yards of offense and lost it, I wouldn’t have believed it.
“And then tonight, if you would have told me we’d hold Nebraska to 234 total yards of offense and lose, I wouldn’t believe that either.”
While the Wake Forest defense shut down the Husker offense for much of the game, the Demon Deacons couldn’t get a lot going against the Blackshirts. Wake Forest won the statistical battle, registering 247 total yards of offense to Nebraska’s 234. But the Huskers had 139 yards in returns of turnovers.
“Defensively, I thought other than that real long play, we played pretty good defense for four quarters,” Grobe said. “I was disappointed we could play that good of defense and not win the football game.
“At halftime, our guys were fired up, especially the offense, because they figured they’d given up two scores, and we weren’t playing very good football. We thought like we could come out and win the football game.”
But the Nebraska defense made the task impossible for the young Demon Deacon offense. Quarterback Ben Mauck is a sophomore, as well as starting running back Micah Andrews.
“This is the best defensive football team I’ve every played that blitzes as much as these guys do,” Grobe said of Nebraska. “Most teams that blitz you like these guys do, you get ’em a little bit, you find creases. It’s hard for players to be disciplined and get gaps and these guys just come at you and come at you and come at you.
“We’re going to go back and look at 31-3 and if you just take care of the football, you’re right in the horse race right to the wire.”
The Demon Deacons also had poor field position because of mishandled kickoff returns. Wake Forest started from its 2-yard line to open the game after Kevin Marion bobbled the kickoff in the end zone and had to dive forward for it.
After Corey McKeon returned the first interception 38 yards for a score, Chris Barclay fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and the Demon Deacons started at their 1-yard line.
“I don’t know what the deal is. We’ve opened both games fumbling kickoffs and starting drives inside the 10,” Grobe said. “Those are the kinds of things sophomores do, but we can’t accept that. Another sophomore, Micah, gets the ball taken out of his hands. He’s a big, strong, powerful guy. If you pick one guy that would not get the ball taken away from him, it would be Micah Andrews.”
That happened in the first quarter when Daniel Bullocks appeared to wrap up Andrews for a loss and then pulled the ball out of his grasp and raced 30 yards to score.
Nebraska had two long drives for scores in the third quarter before Stewart Bradley grabbed a Mauck pass tipped by Adam Cariker and ran 43 yards to score.
“Ben’s a young quarterback and we feel like he has enough talent to win for us. Every snap that he takes, he’s learning something,” Grobe said. “It wasn’t all Ben Mauck. We missed some blocks and put him in some bad situations.”
Reach Ryly Jane Hambleton at 473-7314 or rhambleton@journalstar.com.