NC State was favored to beat West Virginia, with the team hoping for its first nonconference victory against a Power Five team since 2003. After dominating lesser competition in the first two weeks of the season, the team looked to be reloading rather than rebuilding. Then the Wolfpack traveled to Morgantown and left with a 44-27 loss in its hands.
“They did some good things, you’ve got to give them credit,” said head coach Dave Doeren. “Offensively, they did a lot of different things than we’ve seen. We adjusted as we went, and we didn’t do a good job of getting players to understand the adjustments. We have to own that first and foremost as coaches.”
The Wolfpack was outplayed and outcoached in almost every facet of the game, with questionable calls and poor QB play limiting NC State’s offense and injuries and a lack of execution gashing the defense. Top cornerback Nick McCloud was announced out with an injury at the beginning of the week, and starting defensive ends James Smith-Williams and Joseph Boletepeli were pregame scratches.
NC State missed the latter two in spades as the Wolfpack regularly failed to generate pressure, ending the game with only one sack and three tackles for loss. NC State relies on its defense to be the strength of the team, but it was outperformed by the defenses that came before it. Through the first two games of the year against James Madison and Missouri, the Mountaineers gave up four sacks and 21 tackles for loss.
Part of the reason for the defense’s struggles was field position. Six times, the Mountaineers started with field position better than their own 40-yard line, including four in NC State territory. Whether it be because of the offense going three-and-out or special teams giving up a blocked punt, you can’t consistently give your defense a bad hand and expect success. It struggled enough when West Virginia was forced to drive the length of the field.
Jet sweeps were a staple of NC State’s offense during the first week of the season, but were nowhere to be found on Saturday. Not once did freshman slot receiver Keyon Lesane touch the ball, and graduate slot receiver Tabari Hines was only afforded three targets, resulting in two catches for 19 yards. NC State was supposedly going to refocus the offense on getting the ball to its playmakers in space, but that didn’t happen against West Virginia.
The offensive line didn’t show up, either. After looking the part to start the season, the unit struggled to create holes for the rushing game. Backs Zonovan Knight, Ricky Person Jr. and Jordan Houston looked human, held to a combined total of 126 yards on 26 attempts.
At the end of the day, Wolfpack fans may need to reevaluate the expectations revolving around NC State. In what appears to be a down year for the entire ACC sans Clemson and Virginia, NC State looks to be staunchly in the middle of the pack.
