In the most disappointing loss for the team in a long time, the NC State football team fell to the 3-4 (1-2 ACC) Miami Hurricanes 31-30 in a loss that dropped it out of the AP Top 25 Poll. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the offense left far too many plays on the field and suffered greatly from inaccurate throws, drops and, most notably, a horrendous 3 for 14 clip on third downs. Let’s take a look at how each offensive position group graded out this week.
Devin Leary
There’s plenty of uncertainty to go around for this year’s crop of quarterbacks. Whether it be injured signal-callers like Miami’s D’Eriq King or Boston College’s Phil Jurkovec, or players not living up to their pedigree, like UNC’s Sam Howell or Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler, the preseason’s Heisman watch looks like complete comedy this far into the season.
Thankfully, for what feels like the first time in forever, NC State doesn’t fall into that list of programs. Redshirt sophomore Devin Leary might not be the flashiest player — in fact he’s far from it, and he does struggle with inaccuracy at times — but he’s been competent and keeps the Pack in games.
Leary continued his streak of reliability, going 24 for 42 for 310 yards and three total touchdowns. The game moved Leary to 1,844 passing yards and 19 total touchdowns to just two interceptions on the year. Sure, he missed plenty of throws and his 57.1% completion rate isn’t anything to write home about, but the game could’ve easily been a blowout if Leary wasn’t his usual, stable self.
Grade: B+
Running backs
Outside of a 40-yard outburst from redshirt sophomore Trent Pennix, NC State’s running backs mustered just 70 yards and zero touchdowns, running for a modest average of 4.12 yards per carry. It isn’t entirely on junior Ricky Person Jr. and sophomore Zonovan Knight; offensive coordinator Tim Beck has shown a tendency to collapse when playing from behind and the pair was forced to the left for seemingly several plays that led to no gain or negative yardage.
But the fact of the matter is that NC State’s first three run plays of the game went for a combined -11 yards. In a stat that seems too bad to be true, the Pack only registered two rushes that went for more than 10 yards: 14 and 23-yard gains from Person. If you take away those 37 yards, the backfield had 15 combined rushes that went for a hilariously bad 33 yards, an average of 2.2 yards per carry.
Obviously, Person made an impact for the team. Those two 10-plus yard rushes mattered and he did average 6 yards per carry. The back out of Heritage High School was a key blocker on Leary’s rushing touchdown. The same can’t be said for Knight, who had a pitiful 16 total yards on the day.
It’s weird that the Pack doesn’t try and rely on its backfield more. It’s hard to get a rhythm going if you don’t establish that facet of your offense early. Also, Knight and Person are too talented to not have an impact in games like these.
Grade: D-
Wide receivers
What a weird game for the Pack’s receivers. Redshirt junior Thayer Thomas continued his dominance from last week’s win over Boston College into this game, going for 71 yards on seven catches and caught both of Leary’s touchdown passes. Senior receiver Emeka Emezie was also solid, registering 75 yards on just three catches.
Boy oh boy, was it far worse from there. Redshirt sophomore receiver Devin Carter struggled mightily, hauling in just one of his six targets for just 13 yards. His crucial drop on third down sealed the Wolfpack’s fate.
NC State’s receivers are far too experienced to struggle like this. The Pack’s receivers are hot-and-cold far too often for there to be any semblance of consistency.
Grade: C-
Offensive line
Though it only allowed one sack all game, NC State’s offensive line, much like every other offensive unit for the team, needs to step up. There’s no doubt that sophomore tackle Ickey Ekwonu has been the MVP for this offense thus far this season but the O-line as a unit was nothing more than average.
There were far too few holes opened up for the Pack’s backfield to have any sort of meaningful impact. And while there wasn’t an abundance of penalties committed by the O-line, redshirt freshman Dylan McMahon curiously blocked downfield and was deemed ineligible, which nullified a touchdown by redshirt freshman tight end Chris Toudle. Thankfully, the Pack was able to immediately get that back, but the team can’t afford that kind of sloppiness in these matchups.
Grade: C
