The NC State football team lost at home to Louisville Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium 34-20. The Wolfpack was outplayed on offense and defense, and here are some takeaways from the game.
Knight and day
Zonovan Knight is the x-factor of the offense, and Saturday made that more clear than ever. Through seven carries, the freshman running back had 50 yards, good for over seven yards per carry. Early in the second quarter, Knight broke out for a 23-yard rush and came up limping afterwards, grabbing his braced left knee. In the five rushes the Wolfpack ran before Knight returned, NC State ball carriers averaged .8 yards per carry. Even though Knight tried to play through the pain, the offense wasn’t the same. NC State only had 42 rush yards in the second half.
Turnover margin
NC State’s turnover margin went from bad to worse. The Wolfpack had two fumbles lost against the Cardinals and an interception thrown — all by freshmen. Running back Zonovan Knight fumbled midway through the first quarter, quarterback Devin Leary was intercepted on a wildly thrown shovel pass, and wide receiver Keyon Lesane fumbled on a jet sweep. For the sixth straight game, NC State failed to force a turnover. Part of getting the ball from the other team is luck, and Saturday, Doeren felt that wasn’t there for the Wolfpack. It’s hard to believe, but the Wolfpack has not forced a turnover in ACC play.
“I’ve never been through a stretch like this, where we’re not getting the ball back,” Doeren said. “And obviously, in that game we had four or five [passes] hit our hands, which makes it even harder because you’re in position to make plays.”
Defensive tendencies exploited
On third and long, NC State has tended to run cover three. Between safeties Jarius Morehead and Tanner Ingle, and nickel Tyler Baker-Williams, the Wolfpack has three men helping deep with the coverage. The idea is to keep everything in front and rally up to the ball, holding the carrier short of first-down yardage. Louisville head coach Scott Satterfield exploited the predictability of NC State with a variation of four verticals tailed to overload the middle and boundary safeties. Middle safety Jakeen Harris was caught between a tube route and a post, while the safety to the boundary, Tanner Ingle, was caught between that post and a streak. Ingle cheated too far towards the post, leaving the streak uncovered for an easy touchdown.
Similarly, Louisville showed NC State a fair amount of bunch looks early in the game, and defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable responded with man free each time. NC State got stops against it pretty routinely at the beginning of the game, and Satterfield waited until the second half to exploit it with a wheel/go route combination, isolating linebacker Brock Miller in coverage on a tight end. An easy touchdown was the result for the Cardinals.
