Sean Renfree failed to do to Wake Forest what opposing quarterbacks have done to the Duke defense the last two weeks—throw the ball downfield.
Renfree completed 28 passes in the 24-23 loss but threw for only 213 yards. He began the game clearly focused on hitting short, high-percentage passes, completing his first 12 passes of the game for just 40 yards. None of those completions were longer than 10 yards.
And this was against a Demon Deacon defense that was ripe for exploitation. Entering play Saturday, Wake Forest’s defense had given up 11 passing touchdowns, tied for second-most in the ACC. It had struggled against conference opponents in particular, giving up eight touchdowns in four games against ACC foes, with opposing passers averaging 275 yards per game against them.
Even though Renfree, who attempted 45 total passes, had plenty of opportunities to go for big plays, he completed only three passes for more than 20 yards. Nine of his 28 completions were for three yards or fewer.
“That was just laying the ball off,” head coach David Cutcliffe said. “We don’t call many of those except for the screens and the bubbles, and it’s up to the quarterback to read them out.”
Renfree’s three downfield completions went to tight end Cooper Helfet and wide receivers Donovan Varner and Conner Vernon. Of the three, only Helfet’s came in the first half, with his catch coming on the Blue Devil’s only scoring drive in the first 30 minutes.
The second half presented more opportunities for the offense to look deep, but that did not make up for an entire half in which the offense sputtered.
“I guess it was just his reads, we could have gone out there [in the first half] and executed better,” Varner said. “I’m not sure what was going on.”
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, while the long ball evaded them on offense, it ruined them on the other side of the ball. Stopping deep completions became a priority after the team gave up three bombs for 50-plus yards in the first quarter against Florida State last weekend.
A similarly long play was the downfall for Duke in the second half of this game. Despite having allowed only one yard of offense in the second half midway through the fourth quarter, the Blue Devil defense surrendered a 66-yard game-winning touchdown catch to Chris Givens. Demon Deacon quarterback Tanner Price completed four passes of 20-plus yards to Givens, who finished the game with 147 receiving yards. Price finished the game averaging 14.3 yards per completion, compared to Renfree’s paltry 7.6.
To kick off that second half, Duke forced three consecutive three-and-outs and kept Wake Forest scoreless in the third quarter. This halted a streak of 21 consecutive periods—including overtime—in which the Demon Deacons had scored against Duke, dating back to 2006.
And, if they had not lost focus and given up a signature big play, the Blue Devils could have pulled it out even with an offense that did not attack down the field.
“It’s unfortunate when you put yourself in a position to have the opportunities we had to win, and it turns out the way it did,” Cutcliffe said. “It’s a very, very tough pill to swallow.”
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