Dave Clawson Transcript: Notre Dame

Transcript of Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson following Notre Dame's win over his Demon Deacons. 

DAVE CLAWSON: Congratulations, Notre Dame. They have a good football team. We just let that thing get away from us in the first half. We were down 21 in the first half. I think our kids played hard and battled back.

We could not get a stop on third down to save our life. The amount of big plays that we gave up on defense today is not acceptable. That was the story of the day. Every time we scored, that we needed to get a stop, we didn't. It was just every third down, could not get off the field. We had plenty of opportunities to, we just didn't get it done. Didn't get off the block, didn't make tackles in space. That's why we lost, gave up seven hundred some yards.

Q. Along the lines of every time you did something well, they came back, given the way last week that wasn't the case, were you surprised, a repeat of earlier in the season?
DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, I don't know it would be a repeat of earlier. This to me was a different game than we've ever had. We've never had a game that we couldn't get off the field like that. We've never had a game against a team like this that we went up and down the field like that till last week.

So this is I think two elite teams, two weeks in a row that we've pretty much moved the ball very effectively and efficiently. Just our inability to get any stops on defense.

Q. Going into the game, scoring 37 points, would you have felt pretty confident about that?
DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, they're really good on offense. They're averaging 40. Their offensive line is really, really good. Their running back is good. Wimbush is good.

I mean, they threw the ball on us, too. We out-numbered the box, and they took shots. They hit some of them. The amount of ones they should have hit that they didn't, it could have been even uglier. It could have been a 900-yard day for them if they hit all their deep shots.

Q. (Indiscernible) Jessie Bates into the defense.
DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, it's football. You got to step up. It's got to be next man up.

Jessie is a really good player. Not having him is not a good thing for us. We need to get him back as soon as we can.

Q. You talk about the next man up. What did you think of Alex's performance today at wide receiver?
DAVE CLAWSON: Alex Bachman played really well. Eight catches, had a touchdown. He made some contested catches. Every time when the ball was thrown his way, he found a way to come up with it. He had outside-the-framework catches, he had scoop catches, he had over-the-top catches. He's reliable, dependable. John trusts him. Next man up. He played really well.

Q. There were times it seemed like your defense got Notre Dame off schedule, but just weren't able --
DAVE CLAWSON: Couldn't stop them on third down.

Q. What where were they doing differently?
DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, couldn't tackle them. How many scrambles did he have? How many third-and-long scrambles did he have that we couldn't tackle? I mean, they'd run the ball. We'd get after the passer, get a little bit of a pass-rush, get them flushed. Couldn't get them on the ground.

I mean, the amount of times it appears we had a stop, then couldn't get off the field, just frustrating.

Q. Think the defense will bounce back?
DAVE CLAWSON: Probably have to. I mean, it's football. We've played good defense here for three and a half years. Today was not our best effort. We did a lot of things poorly. We got to fix them. It doesn't get any easier next week.

Q. What are some of the key areas to clean up defensively?
DAVE CLAWSON: I mean, we didn't tackle. We got out of our gaps. We didn't fit runs. Big plays are usually a result of not fitting things correctly. The amount of things that we did not fit correctly today, I think we're going to watch this film and just want to throw up.

Q. Anything you could have done to prevent it?
DAVE CLAWSON: Again, credit to them. But, I mean, we played our defense. We had change-ups. Bottom line is we didn't get off the field. There are times we blocked defenders that took poor angles. There's times we had the guy dead in the backfield, we took an inside-out angle, we got outrun.

We're not playing against an FCS team. We're playing against Notre Dame with fast players that we ought to take smart angles.

Q. Is this a national championship quality team?
DAVE CLAWSON: I don't know. I mean, it's certainly up there. I'd say offensively they're certainly up there with the caliber of Clemson. They're a really good football team. They've beaten a lot of good teams. They beat us today and we're a good team.

Q. (No microphone.)
DAVE CLAWSON: His foot. We took him out. They went after him. They went after him. He got beat twice. They dropped the ball. After that, he made a few good plays.