For the sixth straight week, a drive within the final minutes determined the outcome of N.C. State’s game.

This time, the offense could only get as far as the Georgia Tech 30-yard line with a little more than a minute remaining. When facing a fourth and three, redshirt sophomore quarterback Daniel Evans threw to junior tight end Anthony Hill, who failed to bring in the pass, all but ending the Wolfpack’s chances of winning.

The dropped pass served as a microcosm of the game itself.

It was Hill’s second drop of the drive, while Andre Brown and backup quarterback Marcus Stone, who caught the first pass of the game, also had drops on the same possession.

Coach Chuck Amato was upset with the drops after the game.

“It worked other than the fact that you can’t drop passes. You can’t drop passes. You can’t throw the ball 50 times and have [drops],” he said. “We haven’t dropped that many in a three or four game stretch, and [they were] easy catches.”

Evans finished the night 21 out of 53. The 53 attempts were the most of Evans’ collegiate career and, despite the plethora of passes, he didn’t throw for a score.

“Those were lost opportunities. We left a lot of plays on the field with the dropped passes,” junior receiver Darrell Blackman said. “And that hurt us because the running game didn’t get started, so we had to rely on the passing game.”

Hill said he was aware that his dropped passes were a problem.

“I know I made drops and that’s all I’m really worried about, going into next week and trying to catch as many balls as I can,” Hill said. “Maybe I didn’t focus as much as I should have.”

On a surprise move that had been in the works for a few weeks, Stone lined up at tight end and wide receiver on different formations. Although Stone caught two passes for 28 yards, he also dropped two passes in his debut at a new position.

“I did fairly well. Still, I made mistakes out there. I dropped a pass. There’s a lot more to improve on,” Stone said. “It felt great playing in the Carter [Finley Stadium] again, no matter what position. It was real exciting.”

Evans refrained from being critical of wide receivers. He instead shared the blame as he missed on two would-be touchdowns to Hill. Evans called it a “two-way street.”

“It definitely goes both ways,” Evans said. “I missed [Hill] and we had a few drops elsewhere but I’m really not frustrated at all with that.”

Combined with penalties, the dropped passes stalled almost every drive of the night. The offense accounted for just nine points on three John Deraney field goals. The rest were due to a Darrell Blackman kickoff return and a Pat Lowery interception return for touchdowns.

“It stalled out some drives a little bit, but so did penalties and my misses — it was definitely a team effort,” Evans said.

With some of the drops coming on crucial third-down conversions or almost certain first downs, the Pack shot itself in the foot for most of the game, and sacrificed its chances of scoring enough via offense to win.

“Some of the situations we were in, some of the passes we dropped hurt us a lot,” Blackman said. “At times like this with the weather being bad you just got to concentrate more and catch it before you start running.”

Hill said catching was sure to be an area of improvement for next week’s game at Clemson.

“We’re going to go [into practice] as a wide receiving corps and catch as many balls as we possibly can,” Hill said. “That’s all we can do.”