The NC State football team’s upset attempt against Florida State fell just short, as it lost 24-20 under the lights Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium. The Wolfpack has now lost four-consecutive games, three of which have been decided by seven points or less. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from yet another close loss.
Good
Run defense
The stout front seven made Heisman candidate Dalvin Cook look like an average college running back. The junior came into the game leading the ACC in rushing yards, but totaled just 18 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown on the game. To add some context to this, he tallied just 32 yards on his first 15 carries before exploding for 33 yards and a touchdown at the end of the third quarter, which is why it was surprising that he didn’t touch the ball in the final quarter.
Additionally, this was Cook’s second-lowest output on the season, with the 63-20 loss to Louisville being the only game that he rushed for less yardage. As a team, with the help of three kneel-downs at the end of the game, other FSU rushers added six carries for -2 yards to bring the team rushing down to 63 yards, the Seminoles’ lowest rushing total of the year.
Offense, other than scoring
I’ll get to the scoring struggles the offense has recently endured next, but despite putting only 20 points on the board, the Wolfpack offense did a pretty good job of moving the ball. After two down games, senior Matt Dayes eclipsed 100 rushing yards for the sixth time this season and added four catches for 27 yards. As a whole, the offense gained 469 yards and 31 first downs compared to FSU’s 393 yards and 20 first downs.
Redshirt sophomore Ryan Finley threw for 304 yards, one touchdown and one interception and completed more than 60 percent of his passes for the first time since the Wake Forest game Oct. 1. He found a new favorite target in sophomore Nyheim Hines, who caught a career-high 11 passes for 124 yards. You would’ve liked to see Finley spread the ball out more, as Hines and Dayes accounted for 15 of his 25 completions, but he had a much better game than he did in the other three losses, with the exception of a costly interception in the red zone in the first quarter.
Bad
Red zone defense
This was somewhat discouraging to see from NC State, as this is an area where the unit typically excels. All four of FSU’s scoring possessions came from inside the red zone, as it scored three touchdowns in the bottom-third of each of the last three quarters after settling for a field goal at the start of the second quarter.
Junior safety Shawn Boone nearly saved the game for the Wolfpack toward the end of the game, but dropped an interception that would’ve given the offense the ball up three points with just over three minutes left. FSU scored the go-ahead touchdown on the next play.
Ugly
Blown scoring opportunities
The statsheet lists the Pack as 2 for 3 in red zone conversions, which would typically be respectable. However, what it doesn’t tell you is that it settled for short field goals on each of its three red zone visits, missing one of them that led to the long-awaited benching of sophomore kicker Kyle Bambard in favor of graduate Connor Haskins.
With the amount of weapons this offense has, the Wolfpack has to get better in the red zone and start scoring touchdowns rather than settling for field goals. Bambard’s miss proved to be costly, as NC State was forced to try for the touchdown rather than kick a field goal at the end of the game. Finley’s interception inside the 10-yard line on the first drive also hurt, blowing any chance of putting points on the board to start the game.
It is also worth noting that the Wolfpack has scored two or less touchdowns in each of the last five games after scoring 30 or more points in each of the first four games. While a hurricane hampered the offense against Notre Dame, the offense has struggled mightily to put points on the board against some of the tougher defenses in the ACC.
Pass defense
This unit actually started out pretty solid, holding redshirt freshman Deondre Francois to 55 yards on just five completions on 13 pass attempts in the first 26:06 of the game. However, in the final 33:54 of the game, Francois lit up the secondary, completing 17 of 26 pass attempts for 275 yards and a touchdown.
The defense achieved what it sought out to do in limiting Cook and making the offense one-dimensional. However, it couldn’t stop Francois, as the young quarterback finished with 330 passing yards, his third-highest output on the season.
Overall outlook
The Wolfpack is now on a four-game losing streak after starting 4-1, all of which have been morally degrading losses in their own way. The team closes out its season needing to win two out of its last three games to attain bowl eligibility. Syracuse on the road Saturday is beatable, but Miami at home and No. 21 UNC-Chapel Hill on the road will both require bigger upsets.
