No. 24 NC State football lost its second game in a row, falling to the Louisville Cardinals 25-10 as it visited its ACC opponents on Saturday, Nov. 19.
Throughout the game, the Pack struggled on offense, while Louisville used some big, momentum-shifting plays to gain the edge and ride a lead until it was too late for the red-and-white to pull off a comeback.
In addition to the Cardinals (7-4, 4-4 ACC), the Wolfpack (7-4, 3-4 ACC) had to battle through the absence of several starters due to injury. Key defenders such as redshirt junior linebacker Payton Wilson and senior cornerback Tyler Baker-Williams were ruled out before the game started. In addition, offensive playmakers such as sophomore running back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye, redshirt junior receiver Devin Carter, graduate center Grant Gibson and redshirt junior tight end Trent Pennix were also absent.
“[The injuries] are very overwhelming compared to what we started with,” said head coach Dave Doeren. “[The season’s] turned into a lot of guys being injured. It’s unfortunate, particularly when we’re still sitting there with seven wins and we had a chance to get to 10.”
The biggest missing piece for the Wolfpack was perhaps freshman quarterback MJ Morris due to an undisclosed injury. In his absence, graduate quarterback Jack Chambers was granted the start under center. Not too far into the game, however, redshirt freshman quarterback Ben Finley found himself taking his first snaps of the season — leading NC State for a majority of the game with the full support of his teammates.
“It felt great getting called up this week off the scout team,” Finley said. “Just having the trust from my teammates, having their full trust and being able to go out there and play the game I love.”
While the ex-scout team QB gave NC State life in the third quarter with a 34-yard touchdown pass to freshman running back Michael Allen, Finley and the offense couldn’t find a permanent solution for scoring on the Louisville defense.
In addition to a staunch performance on defense, the Cardinals made multiple game-changing plays in all three phases of the game that kept them in the driver’s seat. Louisville pulled off multiple chunk plays on offense, a few nail-biting fourth down stops on defense and most importantly, a 98-yard kickoff return touchdown that stunned the Wolfpack right before halftime.
“We gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown, and that was the difference in the game,” Doeren said. “It caused us to have to call the game a little differently in the second half and go for it in some situations where we wouldn’t want to.”
The special teams score made it 13-3 heading into the halftime break, and while a more pass-heavy, aggressive style of offense earned the Pack its only touchdown of the game — and Finley’s first touchdown pass of the season — it didn’t last for long.
Despite Finley’s third-quarter counterpunch to Allen, the Cards were able to stay a step ahead of the Wolfpack for the remainder of the game. After taking a 16-10 lead in the fourth quarter, Louisville made a gigantic stop on fourth and one as the Pack went for it on its own 45-yard line. Soon after, failure on the gutsy call from the NC State sideline turned into six more points for the Cardinals.
While Finley and the Pack attempted to battle back, a 22-10 deficit was far too much to overcome for the redshirt freshman. From there on out, Louisville ran away with the game, denying NC State’s offensive efforts while tacking on another score, putting the game on ice at 25-10.
The lack of NC State scores didn’t mean the Pack couldn’t produce on offense. In fact, the red-and-white recorded more first downs than the Cardinals, but Louisville made stops when it counted the most, holding the Pack to 7-17 on third down and 0-3 on fourth. Finley put forth a decent effort from under center as well — throwing for 201 yards and a touchdown — and outperformed the Cardinals’ backup quarterback who started in the absence of Malik Cunningham.
Meanwhile, the Louisville rushing attack was too much for NC State to handle. The Cards broke off multiple back-breaking runs for a total of 192 yards on the ground, slowly wearing down the Pack’s defense.
While the depleted Finley-led offense did its best, the lack of offensive firepower due to injuries certainly played a large part in the Pack’s road loss to the Cardinals. It also contributed to a season-long trend of crushing injuries for NC State that has certainly had a derailing effect on the team’s lofty aspirations from the beginning of the season.
“It obviously sucks that this season didn’t go how we expected it to,” said senior safety Tanner Ingle. “But moving forward, we just have to continue to play football. We’ve got one more game left. We’ve got a bowl game. So moving forward, we’ve just got to go in on Sunday, fix our mistakes that we made today and move forward to UNC.”
Even with a 10-win season out of reach, the Wolfpack still has lots to play for. A road battle at UNC-Chapel Hill is sure to prove as entertaining a matchup as ever, especially if some of the Pack’s most crucial starters can get back on the field for the regular season finale.
