Charlottesville, Va. — Saturday’s 14-7 loss at Virginia had a familiar feel to it for those who’ve followed N.C. State this year. The offense sputtered out of the gate, mistakes killed drives and the defense kept the game close only to surrender the go-ahead score late.

For the fourth time this season the Wolfpack failed to score a touchdown in the first half and trailed at the half for the seventh consecutive week.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Daniel Evans blamed the slow start on penalties which put the offense in difficult situations and ended drives. In the first half alone, State committed five penalties for 29 yards.

“This week we just had penalties — all the way through the game really — but in the first half the penalties really bogged down the drives,” Evans said. “We’d start to get something going and then something would happen and we would have a negative yardage play or a penalty to get us out of sequence.”

The Pack wasn’t alone though, in its offensive struggles. The Cavaliers only managed one touchdown and 185 yards through three quarters.

The fact that both teams had problems prompted coach Chuck Amato to give credit to the defenses for the lack of offense.

“Let’s look at it both ways. It was a defensive game — it’s one of those fighting, slapping and getting after each other [games] — two pretty good defenses out there whacking each other around.”

Amato added the inexperience of both quarterbacks didn’t help either.

“The last time these two teams played there were two quarterbacks who ended up in the NFL and there were a whole lot of points scored in that game,” he said. “And now we got two young quarterbacks — they’ve got a freshman and we got a sophomore starting their fifth and sixth games, respectively, and the big thing they need to do is just manage the game.”

As for what the offense needs to do to rectify the sluggish starts, no one had a definitive answer. But senior center Leroy Harris said the team is well aware of the problem and knows it has to change for the team to be successful.

“We’ve done things before games to get us going with a little bit of live contact to get everybody woke up — and you won’t be drawn back or tentative because you already got experience,” Harris said. “But for the last couple of games, the fact that we’ve started slow — we gotta find a reason and find a way to get going in the first series, second series or first quarter.”

The one effective drive State had in the first half came late in the second quarter. The Pack started at its own 20-yard line and drove 64 yards in just more than three minutes in a hurry-up offense.

Then on first-and-10 from the 16-yard line, State called a timeout and the drive stalled, resulting in a missed field goal just before halftime.

Amato defended the timeout after the game and downplayed its role in ending the drive.

“We had a couple of things going through our mind and we wanted to make sure we did the right thing,” he said. “But I don’t think that was anything that created a loss in momentum.”

The second half also had a familiar look to it. The offense came alive late in the fourth quarter as it has against most opponents all year.

The Pack put together an 11-play, 87-yard drive which tied the game at 7-7 with 4:48 left in the game.

But in a scene which brought back memories of the Akron game, the defense allowed Virginia to go 80 yards and score the winning touchdown with just 1:31 remaining.

“We’ve not been real good — and why I don’t know — at the end of a game,” Amato said of the defense.

Sophomore running back Andre Brown put the fault on the offense for how the defense performed on the final drive.

“The defense played a hell of a game until the last drive,” Brown said. “We can’t leave the guys on the field that long. We got to produce more.”

An uncommon aspect to State’s loss was the turnover stats. Prior to Saturday’s game the Pack ranked 114th in the nation in turnover margin at minus nine, but only gave it away once against the Cavaliers on an interception in the final drive of the game.

With the loss State drops to 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the ACC, needing to win three of its final four games to become bowl eligible. And two of those games are against nationally ranked opponents in Georgia Tech and Clemson.

“We know what we’ve got to do. We absolutely know,” Amato said.

“And we play Georgia Tech, who’s an unbelievable football team, and we play Clemson, who’s an unbelievable football team, and we play the University of North Carolina and East Carolina and those are in-state rival games. In every one of them you’re going in with your backs against the wall.”