Wake Forest had a real chance to turn this one into a fourth-quarter fight. Instead, the Demon Deacons kept handing Miami too much room to breathe.
The penalties told the story. Wake Forest was flagged 13 times for 122 yards in a 33-20 loss to the Hurricanes, nearly double Miami’s seven penalties for 75 yards.
The raw number was ugly enough. The timing made it worse, because the flags kept showing up right when Wake Forest was trying to build momentum or flip the field.
That was especially true after the Deacons started to find something on offense. Trailing 31-13 heading into the fourth quarter, Wake Forest got back into it with Gio Lopez throwing a 23-yard touchdown to Jack Foley in the third quarter, then hitting Carlos Hernandez for a 17-yard score early in the fourth. Suddenly, the deficit was down to 11, and the comeback was alive.
Then came the next self-inflicted wound. An offensive holding penalty in the end zone led to a safety, giving Miami two points and stretching the lead to 33-20 with 13:11 left. It was a brutal swing, particularly because Wake Forest’s defense had begun giving the offense chances to keep pressing.
Miami managed only 13 yards of total offense in the fourth quarter, but Wake Forest couldn’t fully cash in on that edge. Special teams added another painful chapter when Hernandez ripped off a 59-yard punt return to the Miami 10 with seven minutes remaining, only to have it erased by a holding call.
Afterward, Jake Dickert pointed directly to the special teams penalties, saying they flipped the field and took away momentum.
The frustrating part for Wake Forest was that the passing game actually worked. Lopez went 29 of 46 for 312 yards and three touchdowns, and Foley piled up 118 receiving yards. The Deacons moved the ball at times and finished with 334 total yards, but the penalties kept turning promising drives into uphill climbs.
Miami finished with 378 total yards, and the final margin looked wider than the game really was. Still, the Hurricanes took advantage of Wake Forest’s mistakes, while the Deacons couldn’t do the same when the game tightened up.
“We had some opportunities to really get back in that game in the fourth quarter and could never quite get over the hump,” Dickert said after the game.
Wake Forest’s second-half push showed it could hang around with Miami. The penalties showed why it didn’t. Against quality ACC opponents, 122 yards in flags leaves almost no margin for error.
The Demon Deacons will try to clean that up next Saturday against Louisville.
In Other News...
Miami's Wake Forest Win Came With A Brutal Price
Wake Forests meeting with Miami ended up being about much more than the final score for the Hurricanes, who came out of the game with a grim injury report. Coach Mario Cristobal confirmed that running back Marty Brown suffered a season-ending knee injury, a tough blow for a Miami offense that has leaned on depth at the position all year.
The concerns did not stop there, either. Wide receiver Josh Moore is done for the season with an upper body injury, while linebacker Ezekiel Marcelin Jr. is expected to miss several weeks. Cristobal also updated the status of other players and said Jordan Lyle is available to play after serving consequences tied to a legal issue, leaving Miami to sort through both health and availability as it moves into the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]