West Virginia handed NC State its first loss of the year, a 44-27 shocker as the Wolfpack dropped its first road game. The defeat exposed the team’s weak spots, and lucky for it, NC State gets a tune-up game against Ball State. Here are some takeaways from the game:
O-line struggles against solid competition
The Wolfpack only mustered 3.9 yards per carry against West Virginia, giving up three sacks. The line couldn’t create holes with graduate starting left tackle Emanuel McGirt and redshirt sophomore starting center Grant Gibson appearing overwhelmed at times. Freshman backup left tackle Ikem Ekwonu saw brief time for McGirt and looked good. Though young, Ekwonu may push McGirt for that starting spot in the future.
McKay has issues with timing, moving through reads
“The plays were there, we just weren’t connecting on them,” said redshirt sophomore receiver Thayer Thomas. “I’m not going to sit here and blame someone, but it was just a collective whole group not executing.”
Thomas didn’t want to shift blame to his quarterback, but he’s right. McKay still looks uncomfortable in the pocket, constantly shifting his feet and making throws with questionable footwork. He was more accurate deep, but still missed wide-open receivers in order to throw to ones he was more comfortable with. Other times, he threw to the right person, but hesitated and was late with the throw, causing incompletions.
One thing to note about McKay: he misses, but almost always in ways that won’t cause interceptions. On one play, he may throw the ball away from a defender, just out of his intended receiver’s reach. On another, he may overthrow a deep route rather than risk an underthrown interception. McKay has the tools to succeed, but he just needs to trust himself more.
Emezie emerges as McKay’s go-to target
Junior receiver Emeka Emezie received 23 targets of McKay’s 48 attempts. He finished with 12 catches for 103 yards as McKay looked to him early and often, to the detriment of the other receivers. The fact that he trusts Emezie is good, but another fact that graduate receiver Tabari Hines finished with only three targets isn’t good. Teams will adjust to that and take him away, which is why it’s better that McKay spreads the ball around to different playmakers.
Tackling issues doom the defense
NC State had troubles stopping West Virginia, that compounded by an inability to get the Mountaineers behind the sticks. The Wolfpack only managed three tackles for loss, with many more opportunities in the backfield for more. And when West Virginia broke long runs, they were made longer by bad angles taken by the Pack defense, as well as missed tackles from members of the secondary.
Injuries reveal depth, or a lack thereof
NC State was down three players. Starting cornerback senior Nick McCloud was out, as well as two starting defensive ends, graduate James Smith-Williams and redshirt sophomore Joseph Boletepeli. They were missed. NC State’s defensive line couldn’t create plays, and WVU receiver Sam Jones gashed the secondary for 155 yards on nine receptions with a touchdown. NC State’s second string players failed to emerge as reliable replacements for them.
