Another year, another close-but-no-cigar loss for NC State in the Textile Bowl. The Wolfpack fell 38-31 to the Clemson Tigers Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.
The Pack (6-3, 4-1 ACC) started the game strong, taking three one-score leads in the first half, and piling up 244 total yards. However, Clemson (8-1, 6-1 ACC) outscored NC State 21-10 in the second half for the one-score win, likely ending the Pack’s hopes of winning the ACC Atlantic and going to December’s championship game.
“I don’t have any magic speech for that,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “It’s going to hurt. That’s what happens when you lose a big game, it hurts. But we’re not going to quit either. We’re going to try to win 10 games. We’ve got three regular-season games and a bowl game left. …[Winning the Atlantic] is just out of our control now, but we’re going to continue to play hard and finish the season. That’s what’s in our control, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Questionable officiating cost the Wolfpack in this one as well, with NC State flagged for six penalties for 69 yards compared to Clemson’s three for 23, with several missed calls on both sides of the ball.
“I wish [the officiating] was a lot better,” Doeren said.
The Pack could not have hoped for a much better start to this one, with sophomore safety Tim Kidd-Glass picking off Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant to set up NC State at the 40, followed by a 40-yard strike over the middle from redshirt junior quarterback Ryan Finley to sophomore receiver Kelvin Harmon for an early 7-0 lead. Harmon had a huge game for the Pack in this one, catching eight passes for 155 yards and a score.
“This one definitely feels a lot worse [than last week’s] loss”, Harmon said. [There was] a lot on the line, so it’s definitely a lot worse.”
Clemson tied the game about six minutes into the fourth quarter, as receiver Ray-Ray McCloud took a punt 77 yards to the house.
The Wolfpack took the lead right back on its next possession, with a one-yard scoring rush for Samuels putting him in second place in school history in total touchdowns with 42 to put State up 14-7. Samuels carried the ball 11 times for 38 yards and a score, adding three catches for six yards and another touchdown.
The Tigers evened it again on their next possession, with Bryant keeping it for a 10-yard score to knot the game at 14. Bryant finished the game with 20 completions on 38 attempts for 191 yards and a touchdown, along with 20 carries for 88 rushing yards and two scores.
The Pack broke out the trickery on its next drive, with Finley hitting redshirt sophomore receiver Jakobi Meyers, who finished with nine catches for 105 yards and a touchdown, off a direct-snap, double-lateral play for 21 yards to the Clemson 30.
“I thought we had them,” Meyers said. “A couple of plays here and there changed it into a different game. We have got to execute better. We are going to keep working on it. The season is not over yet, so we are going to keep pushing.”
Samuels finished off this drive as well, with a one-handed snag of a seven-yard dart from Finley to make it 21-14 Wolfpack.
Clemson brought the game within four with a 26-yard field goal from kicker Alex Spence with 5:15 to go in the second quarter following a strong red-zone hold by the Pack.
Finley completed his first 14 pass attempts on the day, not throwing an incompletion until the Pack’s final possession of the first half. He finished with 31 completions on 50 attempts for 338 yards in a touchdown, but two costly second-half picks marred his otherwise strong day.
“I don’t think I played well enough for us to win,” Finley said. “That pick was pretty costly at a pretty costly moment. You just can’t do that.”
The Pack attempted a field goal of its own 1:42 to go in the opening half, but graduate kicker Carson Wise’s 34-yard kick sailed wide left, leaving State’s lead at four.
Spence missed a 39-yard attempt at the buzzer of the half after two icings from Doeren, sending the Pack to the break up by four.
If the start to the game could not have gone much better for the Pack, the third quarter could not have gone much worse. Clemson outgained the Pack 202-48 in the third frame and outscored it 14-0, including an 89-yard scoring run by running back Tavien Feaster that put the Tigers up by 10 heading into the fourth.
The Pack responded with a beautiful scoring drive to open the final frame, going 65 yards on six plays in 2:37, capped off by a 15-yard toss from Finley to Meyers to cut the deficit to three.
The momentum was short lived, however, as following a defensive stop, Finley threw the first of his two picks, a poor throw that ended up in the hands of Clemson defensive back Ryan Carter.
“The season is not over,” Finley said. “We will bounce back. Obviously one of our big goals is off the table, but we still have a lot to play for.”
The Pack then went 81 yards down the field but stalled out in the red zone, leading to a 22-yard field goal from junior kicker Kyle Bambard, who replaced Wise in the second half, to make it 38-31.
Following a failed onside kick, the Pack’s defense came up with a huge stop, forcing a Clemson punt that set NC State up at its 25 with 1:24 to play and no timeouts.
The Pack drove to the Clemson 28-yard line, on the strength of some more huge catches from Harmon, but after a throw to Meyers that would have set the team up at the Clemson 2 was called back by an illegal-shift penalty, Finley was picked off at the buzzer to end the game.
“I just didn’t want to die with the ball in my hand,” Finley said. “I thought we got into a rhythm. We had some guys make some huge plays. That penalty hurt us, getting down to the two, and on that 4th and 15, I’ve just got to give a guy a chance.”
NC State will hit the road to take on the Eagles at Boston College next week.
Sophomore Kelvin Harmon, wide receiver, motions to the referees during the Homecoming game against Clemson in Carter-Finley Stadium, Saturday, Nov. 4. Harmon received for 155 yards and scored one touchdown during the course of the game. The Clemson Tigers toppled the Wolfpack, 388-31.
