Postgame Quotes
11/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening Statement:
"First off, congratulations to Duke. I thought they outplayed us. Defensively in the second half we could not get off the field. Every time they needed to make a play, they made a play. Every third down conversion, they converted. They deserved to win the game. They completely outplayed us on both sides of the football. We did some good things in the kicking game I thought. Mike Weaver had a good day, Dom Maggio had a great day punting for us, we did some good things on special teams. We'd turned the ball over eight times all year and we turned it over three or four times today. That was very uncharacteristic, and when you turn it over that many times you don't deserve to win the football game."
On the offensive struggles:
"I don't feel like on offense we ever got into a rhythm today. We scored off a turnover, we scored off a short field and then we scored off another short field. I never felt like there was a drive that we were running it, we were throwing it, we just didn't play well. We didn't play well on offense and they played well on defense. They got off of blocks, they covered us well, and I don't think John had the best day throwing the football. There was not one aspect on offense where you could say, ‘boy, we're doing this well today.' We were just very lackluster on offense today. Duke's a good football team. Their record was 5-6, but they lost close games to good [teams]. They did a great job today. They outplayed us, out-prepared us, out-coached us, they just out-executed us, and they deserved to win the game. If we won that game, it would have been fluky, because they did outplay us."
On Duke's defensive execution:
"They play a lot of man-free. They played a lot of cover-1. They twisted their linemen a lot. We never got a lot of seams going in the run game. In the pass game when you do that, you've got to go over the top. How many deep balls did we not come up with? We got picked off. They covered us. It felt like every time we took a deep shot they were right on us. I can't think of any level that we outplayed them on our offense against their defense. I thought their DBs covered our receivers. I thought their defensive line got off our blocks. Their linebackers tackled well, we didn't make them miss."
On the upcoming bowl game:
"The bowl game will be over a month away. We'll recover, we'll come back and we'll get ready to play…We're glad we're in a bowl. We're glad we get another month of football. We want a chance to get this taste out of our mouth."
Wake Forest redshirt senior tight end Cam Serigne
On today's loss:
"It'll take a while to get over this one but we have one more game together as a team. We have to flush this at some point, move on and be ready for our bowl game."
On his final game at BB&T Field:
"It was tough. It's not how you picture your career ending, on that note. This whole ride has been a roller coaster. You get knocked down and you get back up and that's what we're going to do."
On what could have gone better today:
"We just have to focus more on details and execute better. It starts with me and the rest of the team. We need to get better moving forward."
On moving the ball today:
"We expect to move the ball. I'm not going to say I'm going in there not expecting on moving the ball. We have another month together. We're going to keep working, get better and fix things for the bowl game."
Wake Forest sophomore punter Dom Maggio
On today's game:
"I don't know what happened there, but it was good to string some good punts together. The punt team did great with projection and coverage. It was good to finally get a couple of good ones."
On the locker room after the game:
"We're all pretty down. We expect to win games like that. We could have prepared better and it's hard to bounce back after a win like NC State. We have to get back and get some more football in before the bowl game. No one is satisfied with a seven-win season. We have to keep building. We have high expectations for the bowl game and we'll have fun doing it."
On momentum shifts with special teams today:
"Field position is good and it's always nice to give your defense some room back there and try to create some safeties even and make the offense for Duke travel a long way. We felt a little momentum shift but we need to string some more things together."
Wake Forest redshirt senior defensive end Wendell Dunn
On today's loss:
"It's my last time here at BB&T so this is a heartbreaking loss. We feel like Duke is our rival and as the last game for us, we had every reason to go out there and win. We just didn't show up."
On Duke's performance:
"We were still on a high from last week's win against NC State. We knew what we had to do coming into this game. Duke knew what they had to do, what they had to make happen. It came down to who wanted it more and it seemed like they wanted it more today. We can't let that happen."
Duke Head Coach David Cutcliffe
Opening Statement:
"There were a lot of happy young men in that locker room. I think the reason there was joy in the locker room was how well we played as a team in the second half. Our entire team played well. All phases. All people. I can't say enough about what we did defensively. We were competing against an extremely gifted offensive team and quarterback. I can't say enough about what Daniel Jones and the offense did as the game wore on. It was a pretty incredible performance in the second half. We just had enough big plays. It was a hard-fought victory that we earned."
On the team's recovery the last two weeks after a prolonged losing streak:
"We all looked in the mirror. We all considered where we were. It's called taking ownership. You either run to it or you run from it. We didn't run from anything. We ran right to it. We addressed everything we felt like we needed to address. Even being down 17-3 in this game, nobody ran from anything. Everybody on our team earned this victory."
On the offense bouncing back from three early interceptions:
"Just talking about the first one. It was a contested catch. We had that at Virginia early. Thankfully, they didn't score right away. Throughout the game, I kept talking to Daniel (Jones), looking at Daniel, and he was terrific. His numbers don't speak for what he did today. He got hit a lot. He had some adversity, but he just wouldn't go away. He was the epitome of "running to it." He never complained one time. He was encouraging the linemen. He was a special player today."
On Daniel Jones:
"He had a lot of reasons to make excuses and he took none. I'm glad that he can take a little while off from contact. He needs it. He needs to let his body heal a little bit. When he does that, it's going to be fun to see what happens."
On the defense's second-half performance:
"We've got a lot of really good players. We had two defensive starters out today against a very good offensive football team. We held them well under their normal production. It's a good sign. We've got some young people playing well. I think our defensive staff has done a great job."
