Postgame Quotes - Dave Clawson vs. Georgia Tech
10/22/2017 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening Statement
"First off, congratulations to Georgia Tech. They made some key plays tonight that we didn't make. To me, this game boiled down to three things is that we made some really foolish penalties. In my mind we gave them 10 points off of personal fouls. The personal foul before the half gave them a field goal, the personal foul we would have had them third and eight, backed up and that gave them first and goal and then they scored a touchdown, so that's 10 points right there.
"And our offense's inability to convert on third and short. In the first half I think we were three of four or four of five on third downs and I don't know if we converted one the whole second half.
"A number of times we just didn't execute the defense. They ran that counter play and scored on it twice. Once we didn't box and, another time the mike linebacker wasn't there and that was two big plays that we worked hard on all week and we didn't fit it correctly and we didn't defend it well and those were the two long runs by their quarterback, the one right at the half and the one at the end of the game. We didn't execute the fits in the defense the way we needed to. They are really good but we did not play as well as we are capable of playing."
On the personal fouls:
"The quarterback is a protected position. There is no excuse for it. It's got to be about winning and we've got to have awareness on the sideline."
On giving up long plays in the second half:
"We didn't fit it. The one time we ran the counter, the play was supposed to box it and he got cut and the things bounced and we had three guys inside of it. You have to contain that play. They ran it a few times and we fit it perfectly and then the one time we boxed it and the linebacker wasn't there. That's a good play they run, they've had success with it but we practiced that thing I don't know how many times this week and we just did not fit it correctly."
On if this was the worst game Wake Forest has played this season:
"I would say the worst half, the second half. We scored 21 points in the first half and go up and down the field and hold them to 13 points and then the second half we give up three touchdowns, a field goal, a bunch of long runs and we score three points and don't convert a third down. I don't know if it was our worst game but it was certainly our worst half of football. We went for it three times on fourth down, didn't convert one of them. I think we dropped some balls. To beat teams like this, like the last two games, like the next five weeks, you've got to play at a high level for 60 minutes and we're not there yet."