BB&T Stadium continues to be a house of horrors for the NC State football team. The Wolfpack dropped a 30-24 heartbreaker to Wake Forest Saturday in Winston-Salem.
The Pack (7-4, 5-2 ACC) lost by 6 points despite outgaining the Demon Deacons (7-4, 4-3 ACC) 502 yards to 334 thanks to a pair of second-half turnovers, including a fumble at Wake’s 1-yard line by freshman receiver Emeka Emezie, who had a career day with five catches for 67 yards and a score, with 1:51 to play and the Pack attempting to a take a 1-point lead.
“Obviously disappointed in the outcome,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “When you have 502 yards and 94 plays and you only get 24 points and you fumble going in to win the game on the goal line, that’s the game. You’ve got to make those kinds of plays.”
Redshirt junior quarterback Ryan Finley completed 34 of 52 pass attempts for 327 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Sophomore receiver Kelvin Harmon had another big day on the stat sheets with eight catches for 105 yards, but a few out-of-the-ordinary drops from him hurt NC State.
“It was no excuse,” Harmon said. “It was just flat out drops, which is uncharacteristic of me but it happened.”
Wake quarterback John Wolford completed 19 of 28 attempts for 247 yards, three touchdowns and a pick. All three touchdowns were to receiver Tabari Hines, who picked up eight catches and 139 yards. The Pack’s defense was done in by an inability to get pressure on Wolford due to Wake’s run-pass-option offense.
“Just the way they run their offense,” senior defensive end Bradley Chubb said. “RPOs, you’re playing run blocks and they’re throwing the ball off run blocks. So that’s how that works.”
A back-and-forth first half saw the Wolfpack trailing 21-14 at the break. Wake struck first after a failed fourth-down conversion attempt from State, highlighted by a 39-yard catch from Tabari Hines that put the Deacons at the Pack’s 22.
“Defensively struggled in the first half and made some good adjustments in the second,” Doeren said. “Obviously, their slot receiver did some things on us that we did not defend well early in the game. I thought we adjusted well and played much better in the second half on defense but gave up too many points early.”
State answered back on an 11-yard, fourth-down touchdown run from Samuels, before Wake again took the lead near the end of the first quarter, with a 21-yard throw over the middle from Wolford for Tabari Hines’ first score of the day.
The Pack tied the game back up on a one-yard rush from junior back Reggie Gallaspy, set up by a beautiful 28-yard catch from Harmon. Wake wasted little time regaining its lead, however, with Tabari Hines’ second touchdown.
The Pack had a chance to tie it going into the break, but Finley overthrew a wide-open Emezie to force a punt and send NC State to the second half trailing 21-14.
The Pack did tie it up early in the third, capping a 78-yard drive with a beautiful 20-yard catch from Emezie for his first-career touchdown to make it 21-21. The Pack had a scare when Nyheim Hines muffed a punt with about nine and a half to go in the third and it rolled into the end zone, but redshirt sophomore defensive back Vernon Grier recovered it for a touchback. Nyheim Hines left the game with an injury and did not return.
After the teams traded four punts, Wake took a narrow lead with a 36-yard field goal, and the teams then traded turnovers with a fumble by Samuels and interception of Wolford by senior safety Shawn Boone on back-to-back plays. Junior kicker Kyle Bambard then tied it back up for State with a 25-yard field goal.
Wake pushed back with a third touchdown for Hines on an 18-yard sideline grab, putting the Demon Deacons back up 30-24, as the Pack blocked the PAT.
The Pack was forced to go for it on fourth and 1 from the Wake 45 with less than five minutes to play, and Finley just barely picked up the crucial yard on a keeper to keep the drive alive. With the Pack attempting to take a 1-point lead with 1:51 to play from the Wake 11, disaster struck. Finley hit Emezie, who juked his way to the one, and had the ball knocked loose for a fumble. The Demon Deacons recovered it in the end zone for a touchback, taking over from their 20.
“[Emezie] was broken-hearted as you’d expect him to be,” Doeren said. “He was excited as you’ve ever seen a kid after his first touchdown and I was thrilled for him and I feel for him. It’s obviously not intentional. He didn’t have good ball security; you could see him swinging it as he was going in. He’ll learn from it. Just too bad it was that play, because it was the play that put us up by one.”
The Pack picked up a three-and-out and forced Wake to punt, taking the ball from their 45 with 41 seconds to play and no timeouts. After a reviewed sideline catch from Meyers and roughing the passer call moved NC State to the Wake 31, a holding call pushed the team back to the 41, and Finley was intercepted in the end zone on the game’s final play to end it.
The Pack will wrap up its regular-season slate next Saturday against archrival UNC-Chapel Hill at Carter-Finley Stadium with a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
“As a team we didn’t execute,” Chubb said. “Offense, defense. We got to just take it and go onto next week. Senior night, the last one. Last one with this guy right here, with my brothers. We can’t look at this one any more, just get to the next one.”
Wake Forest sophomore defensive back Essang Bassey comes down with an interception, thrown as a last ditch effort from redshirt graduate transfer quarterback Ryan Finley as the clock wound down. Finley had 327 yards through the air on the way to the Pack's 502 yards of total offense compared to Wake's 334, but State once again couldn't finish with a fumble on the endzone. The Pack lost 30 to 24 on Saturday Nov. 18 at BB&T Field.
