Duke vs Wake Forest Game Preview

Date 11/29 || Time 3:30 || Venue Wallace Wade || Time 3:30

Duke (6-5, 5-2) hosts Wake Forest (8-3, 4-3) on Saturday at 3:30 pm EST in the regular season finale. TV coverage provided on the ACC Network. The Blue Devils are currently favored by 1.5 points. Both teams are coming off victories in their last outing. Duke beat North Carolina 32-25 on the road in Chapel Hill, while Wake Forest defeated Delaware 52-14 at home in Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons are riding a three game winning streak with their last loss being against Florida State back on November 1.

Coach Manny Diaz discussed Wake Forest during his Monday press conference opening statements, “Impressive, really, really impressive. The way they play in all three phases, how hard they play, how tough and physical they play, they have an edge about them and they are fully deserving of their record. It is going to take our best effort to get a victory against these guys on Saturday.”

Common Opponents: Duke and Wake Forest have played four common opponents earlier this season: N.C. State, Georgia Tech, Virginia and North Carolina. Duke beat N.C. State and North Carolina and lost to Georgia Tech and Virginia, while Wake Forest beat Virginia and North Carolina and lost to Georgia Tech and N.C. State so both teams have 2-2 records against  common opponents.

Injury Update: Coach Diaz stated the staff is hopeful Tre Freeman, Landan Callahan and Andrel Anthony will be able to play on Saturday. The “hopeful” comment is all we are going to get before the official injury report is released Thursday evening and those injury reports are typically less than enlightening. We do know linebackers Nick Morris and Elliot Schaper are out for the season and safety Terry Morris remains unavailable recovering from an ACL injury.

Offense: Wake Forest is a run first team that ranks 5/17 in the ACC with 159.6 yards per game. Running back Demond Claiborne leads the way with 849 yards and 10 touchdowns on 166 carries. Quarterback Robby Ashford has 460 yards and six touchdowns on 100 carries. Duke has struggled defending running quarterbacks this season and Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Patke says Ashford might be the fastest quarterback Duke has faced. “He’s electric, he can really run. I don’t know if we’ve played anybody as truly as fast as him. We’ve played some great runners. The guy from Tulane obviously was a great runner but he [Ashford] gets out of a lot of trouble in the backfield and can really, really win with his feet so it’s going to be a great challenge. He can keep them alive in any game just because of his athletic ability.”

Duke must slow down the Wake Forest run game and force the Demon Deacons to pass the ball more than they want to. Ashford has completed 144 of 246 pass attempts for 1,827 yards and seven touchdowns but he has also thrown six interceptions. Forcing Ashford to beat you with his arm is the best path to victory. That is easier said than done.

Wake’s leading receiver is Chris Barnes with 37 receptions for 523 yards and three touchdowns followed by Carlos Hernandez with 28 receptions for 445 yards and three touchdowns. Hernandez was named ACC Receiver of the Week this past week when he recorded five receptions for 197 yards and two touchdowns against Delaware. The week prior Hernandez grabbed six passes for 100 yards and one touchdown against North Carolina. He is a big play receiver who can take the top of a defense with touchdown receptions of 93, 79 and 70 yards the past two games.

Defense: Wake Forest is tough to score on ranking second in the ACC in Scoring Defense at 19 points per game. The Demon Deacons rank 4/17 in Pass Defense and 9/17 in Rush Defense yielding 193.5 and 123.4 yards per game respectively. Like in last week’s game, Duke will need to lean on the running game to lead a balanced attack against Wake’s formidable defense.

Offensive Coordinator Jonathan Brewer described the Wake Forest defense as, “Extremely talented up front…they’re active, they play hard…they don’t beat themselves. A lot of zone coverage [they] keep everything in front of them, they tackle really well, play violent at the point of attack, everything you expect a really good defense to do. You turn on the tape and there’s a wowness of how hard they play, how hard they attack.”

Defensive back Nick Anderson is Wake’s leading tackler with 89 followed by defensive back Davaughn Patterson with 68. Defensive lineman Langston Hardy has recorded 6.5 sacks, while four different players have one interception each.

Prediction: Duke’s defense contains the Wake Forest run game while the offense leans on their playmakers to win a close game. Duke 28, Wake Forest 24.

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