Wrap up: EagleBank Bowl Wake Forest Defeats Navy 29-19

So we have a final score of 29-19 Demon Deacons. Looks like my pick was right, although I got lucky on a garbage time TD by Wake. I'll get into that with more detail later. First a run down of the 4th quarter.

Navy had a rather impressive drive for a touchdown. The rushing game opened back up very well. I guess that's to be expected late game, but it was looking unlikely for a while.  For some reason when they were inside the 5 they decided to pass and there wasn't anything there at all. I almost wonder if it shouldn't have been intentional grounding, but Kaipo may have been outside of the pocket. The touchdown rush was pretty good, Navy was definitely looking strong. Can I just say, Navy's attempt at a 2 point conversion was one of the lamest things I've seen all game. First of all, you're a rushing team and you just had a rush for a TD, why do you pass? Why do you think you're capable of something you're not? I mean I don't mind the trickery, but wow... Anyway, Kaipo threw a decent ball to Shun White, it looked pretty nice. However, it was into double coverage and it was actually directly into the arms of the Wake defender. It should have been another interception, but the defender dropped it. Of course the pick wouldn't have done any good, he wasn't going to take it anywhere anyway.

Great scoring drive by Wake. It did look a little iffy on a 3 and 7, but Skinner bought some time with his feet and found his tight end open down field for a big gain. They pass for the TD and the 2-point conversion. What have I been saying about passing? Yeah, that's what I thought. Navy had a costly holding penalty on the return after the Wake touchdown. It was pretty flagrant and it was right by the ball carrier, so it was really the block that sprang Shun White for the great return. After that failed series, the Wake Forest punt return man had a rather entertaining punt return. Not much really happened, but I laughed at his pointing at his man upfield a little ways from him because he was standing around as a wall of Navy defenders were charging downfield. The pointing didn't do any good and the return man was run out of bounds.

The final drive by Navy was pathetic. I think Wake knew perfectly well that: A. Navy was going to rush pretty much irrespective of circumstances, so they stacked the box; and B. The Navy passing game was just too awful to be much of a potent threat. Navy didn't do much on 1st and 2nd downs, so they decided to pass on 3rd and 4th down, fumbling on both. They recovered on 3rd, but gave it to the defence on 4th, not that it mattered much either way. Kaipo nearly took it for a first down on his run on 4th, but still would have been a bit short without the fumble. Just seems a bit too conservative of play calls when Navy desperately needed the score. The turnover resulted in a quick offensive series by Wake for a touchdown. The Navy defence just looked demoralized as they let up a 35 yard rush for a touchdown to a guy who really did not look like he was moving very fast. They don't call it garbage time for nothing though. Rich Belton decided to dive into the end zone, earning a personal foul penalty. That gave Navy pretty good position on their next drive. Of course it didn't avail them anything. They went for an early field goal in hopes of getting the score and having another possession, but that didn't work out. The field goal missed and Wake took a knee to finish the game.

In the long run this turned out to be a pretty decent game. Although, both teams looked pretty ugly for the most part. I don't get it, Navy seemed like they were passing too much (and unwisely at that) and Wake seemed like they should have passed more. Skinner went 11-11 for 166 yards. The dude didn't miss, how could you not pass more? Of course, they go the win and you can't criticize a 10 point victory much. Navy just couldn't seem to keep their rushing game going. It makes me wonder if they had gone with their backup QB (who is the better passer) and tried out their passing game if they might have had some better success. Kaipo just doesn't present enough of a passing threat to keep defences honest. I was a little sad to see not a great product overall. I was really expecting a fun game, especially with the opportunity to watch Shun and Riley, but neither one looked over impressive. Shun had his moments of explosiveness, but overall didn't seem to have an overly productive day 14 attempts for 71 yards, a 5.1 yard average. Definitely some decent production, but it didn't seem like he necessarily came up with things when he needed to. Of course it seemed like Kaipo ended up with the ball most of the time when things were on the line. Maybe that was poor decision making by Kaipo. I don't know. Skinner had 7 rushing attempts for 29 yards, a 4.1 yard average. Just more for my argument of why I think he should have been passing more, he didn't run on designed rushes all that often. I think the real star today was actually Kevin Harris. He ran for 136 yards on 24 attempts, a 5.7 yard average, and 2 receptions for 36 yards, an 18 yard average, although one of those was for 36 yards. No TD for Harris though, go figure. The touchdown vulture, Josh Adams, ate up two of Wake's 4 TD's while only rushing for 13 yards total. Overall though, rather impressive showing for Harris.

This game was a bit of a let down, but a decent ending. I can't deny it was a bit anti-climactic because Navy just seemed so flat for a while and couldn't get anything going at all late game. Well done Wake.