In what might go down as its worst loss during head coach Dave Doeren’s tenure, NC State football dropped its senior day matchup 21-20 to the Boston College Eagles.
In a game meant to honor a handful of program-defining athletes, the Wolfpack completely fell apart — allowing the second-worst team in the ACC to spoil the evening. Despite a strong start, second-half woes played killer to NC State’s hopes of making history with what would’ve been its 17th-consecutive win inside Carter-Finley Stadium.
MJ Morris is human
True freshman quarterback MJ Morris had the performance many had been expecting from the young gun, showing his inexperience with only 135 yards, a single touchdown pass and an interception on 50% completion, adding a touchdown and 22 yards on the ground but fumbling three times. Youth isn’t an excuse for poor performance, but it was only a matter of time before the atrocities in the playcalling department began to directly impact Morris’ stat line.
As promising as things had looked against Virginia Tech and Wake Forest in the previous weeks, offensive coordinator Tim Beck’s struggles in cultivating the playbook overpowered Morris’ raw talent. Whether it’s his desire to run a QB draw on third and long or his refusal to feed the hot hand, Beck has a lot to answer for in the coming weeks.
Just as the loss doesn’t fall on Morris’ shoulders alone, it doesn’t fall on Beck’s either. No matter the play call, playmakers have to find ways to generate yards in any scenario. Just as easily as the Pack managed to scrape out wins against East Carolina, Florida State and Virginia Tech on a handful of plays, the lack thereof lost the team its final home game of the season.
Payton Wilson, coverage linebacker
Filling a role he’s not usually called on to hold, redshirt junior linebacker Payton Wilson excelled in pass coverage despite the loss. That success in coverage didn’t limit his ability to penetrate the backfield either, posting a final stat line of six total tackles, 0.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, a pass breakup and an interception in what was likely his final home game.
Wilson had a slow start in reintegrating himself into the Wolfpack’s defense after missing most of the 2021 season, but in the past few weeks, he’s been a nightmare for opposing offensive coordinators all over the field. Similarly to junior linebacker Drake Thomas, pass coverage has never been Wilson’s strong suit. The two of them, however, sit in the top five for pass breakups among NC State defenders this season.
Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson’s 3-3-5 defense calls on the linebackers to carry the majority of the load, and the trio of Wilson, Thomas and graduate Isaiah Moore have stepped up time after time. Even in the Pack’s losses, those three have given their offense enough opportunities to change the outcomes of games. In the loss to the Eagles, the same remained true — the linebackers, and defense as a whole, did what they could to set Morris and company up with chances to pull away, but to no avail.
Diamond in the rough
The offense as a whole carries a lot of the blame for the loss, but one sliver of excitement within the group was the play of freshman running back Michael Allen. Allen saw a brief look last week and impressed on small volume, averaging 7.2 yards per carry on five attempts for 36 yards. Continuing on that promising path, the true freshman turned 14 carries into 77 yards, with his longest of the afternoon going for 36.
The Wolfpack running back room has seen a lot of turnover this season — from junior Jordan Houston’s early-season injury to the continued absence of sophomore Demie Sumo-Karngbaye, who just can’t seem to stay healthy. Allen’s emergence as a power back comes at the perfect time, complimenting Houston in a similar way that Sumo-Karngbaye had been when he was on the field.
Contextualizing the loss
The Pack’s third loss of the season is by far its worst, but it’s not the most surprising result in the world. Looking at the history between NC State and Boston College, the matchup nearly always provides the Wolfpack with a challenge — no matter how bad the Eagles have been in any given year.
Since the first meeting between the two programs in 1936, NC State has only ever strung together a win streak one time — back-to-back wins in 2017 and 2018. Pair that unfortunate history with the continued emergence of Boston College’s own freshman quarterback, Emmett Morehead, and it was always going to be a game that NC State could’ve dropped. Is falling to a then 2-7 team an awful loss? Absolutely. Wolfpack faithful can expect that result to reflect in the rankings too. But there’s much more nuance to the final score than most would give time to comprehend.
The season’s not over, and 10 wins is just as reachable for NC State this year as it was a year ago. All that’s left to play for moving forward is pride and bowl placement for the Pack, two incredibly important pieces to the legacy this year’s senior class will be leaving behind.
