If you liked offense, this was the game for you. Army and Wake Forest football held a track meet on Saturday afternoon at West Point which absolutely no one expected. The Demon Deacons won 70-56 — and no, this wasn’t a basketball game.
The Demon Deacons had an extra week to prepare for this Army option attack, but the Black Knights seemingly scored at will. Luckily, Sam Hartman had a career day for Wake Forest and a game that seemed like it would be a low-scoring, grind-it-out affair turned into a shootout.
This was especially surprising because Army only mustered 14 points last weekend against Wisconsin, but Wake Forest’s defense isn’t quite as dominant as the Badgers.
What did we learn from this shocking shootout win over Army?
3. Wake Forest wisely abandoned the run
When you’re throwing the ball and having as much success as Sam Hartman, why run?
Wake Forest figured out very early on that it didn’t need to run the ball, although melting some clock would have helped the defense.
It’s not like the Demon Deacons didn’t have any success on the ground, it was just that Hartman was doing essentially whatever he wanted through the air against that Army secondary all afternoon long, so why not keep going to that well?
Dave Clawson was wise to abandon the run early on and I know Hartman probably thanked him for that decision.