The turbulent weather and torrential downpours that cast a dark shadow over Raleigh ushered in an anxiety-inducing omen to the droves of Wolfpack faithful that filled Carter-Finley Stadium.
But if an hour’s worth of thunderous booms and obnoxious flash flood warnings didn’t spell it out clearly enough for NC State football, then No. 10 Notre Dame’s 45-point, three-interception performance did — it was not the Wolfpack’s day.
NC State (1-1) was simply outmatched in its 2023 home opener against the Fighting Irish (3-0). The red-and-white kept Notre Dame in its sights in the first half — even through a nearly two-hour long weather delay — but the Irish turned on the burners after halftime, leaving NC State in the dust with a 21-point fourth quarter to win 45-24.
“Games like this are not lost by any one person or player or coach,” said head coach Dave Doeren. “They’re lost by teams. We have to look at what we can do better in key moments and make layups and gimme plays.”
Once the Irish struck gold on an 80-yard touchdown rush in the first quarter, Notre Dame torched the red-and-white defense for the remainder of the contest. While NC State proved it could stop the Irish on multiple occasions, Notre Dame repeatedly executed backbreaking chunk plays throughout the game.
“There’s not very many plays where all 11 guys are doing their job,” graduate linebacker Payton Wilson said. “If one person’s not doing their job like you saw today that [play] can go for seventy [yards].”
Meanwhile, with the Wolfpack offense unable to consistently drive down the field, the Irish pulled away and capitalized on NC State’s mistakes in its attempt to play catch-up.
“We were playing toe-to-toe with the No. 10 team in the country for a long period of time,” Doeren said. “And then it just got away from us there towards the end.”
Despite Notre Dame drawing first blood with a 10-point lead, NC State struck back after the delay. After the Fighting Irish committed three penalties on the same drive, the Wolfpack hit paydirt when graduate quarterback Brennan Armstrong threw a nine-yard strike to graduate receiver Bradley Rozner to cut the deficit.
But instead of heading into halftime down three, Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman led a three-play, 78-yard drive that only took 30 seconds to put the Pack back at a 10-point deficit.
After a shortened halftime, the Fighting Irish pounded the Pack on the ground — by the end of the day, Notre Dame’s lead back, Audric Estamé, ran for 134 yards while averaging 9.6 yards per carry. Paired with Notre Dame’s explosive plays through the air, the NC State defense stood little chance of stopping the Irish late in the game.
Despite this, the Wolfpack found itself with a chance to even the score late in the third quarter. Immediately after an Armstrong rushing touchdown — his third of the season — sophomore defensive lineman Brandon Cleveland stripped the ball from Hartman. Graduate defensive lineman Noah Potter scooped it up to give Armstrong and company a fresh set of downs in the redzone.
With targets like freshman tight end Juice Vereen and freshman wideout Kevin Concepcion heating up, there was reason to believe NC State could tie it heading into the fourth. However, a missed kick from graduate kicker Brayden Narveson left NC State empty-handed. From there, the Irish never looked back — the visitors scored on two straight drives via Armstrong interceptions to seal the game.
“Throw three picks, you’re not going to win the game,” Armstrong said. “It’s hard to stop their offense [and] their downhill running when they’re on the 30 yard line to start the possession. … We just put our defense in terrible situations.”
Armstrong threw a late touchdown to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Dacari Collins, but it was all too little, too late. A 7-point margin at the end of the third turned into a 21-point defeat in the blink of an eye for the Wolfpack. While many of the drenched fans at Carter-Finley were at a loss for words at considering the result, Wilson was optimistic about the chance to learn from the loss.
“It’s huge right now to love on one another, to take constructive criticism,” Wilson said. “But at the end of the day, we just have to move past it. We’re a team — we can’t point fingers and we all just have to improve.”
The Pack will return to Carter-Finley on Saturday, Sept. 16 to take on the VMI Keydets. The game can be found on the CW Network and will kickoff at 2 p.m.
