It is hard to even articulate how poorly State played on Saturday. What is worse is that the team played uninspired and unmotivated.
This was not a team with nothing to play for. State had a shot to earn a bowl bid after beginning the season 1-5, and it was Senior Day. Motivation should not have been a factor, yet the Wolfpack played like it was determined to spend Christmas at home.
Maryland beat the Pack in every aspect of the game on Saturday. The rushing attack just died. The Pack rushed for a grand total of 10 yards on 16 attempts. Meanwhile, the defense allowed 249 yards rushing on 5.1 yards per rush attempt.
Evans put up solid numbers on paper, but he just seemed to come up short when it mattered most. State was an incredible 1-for-13 on third downs. In the first quarter, State got the ball on Maryland’s 35-yard line with the game still scoreless. Evans, in an all-too-familiar fashion, threw a pick that was returned for big-yardage and led to Maryland’s first points of the game.
After the pick the team lost interest in finishing out the season. Late in the second quarter, Maryland scored its third touchdown, and the game was basically over. The Maryland reporters beside me literally started looking up plane rates from D.C. to Boise as State went through the motions on the field for the final 35 minutes of the game.
Maybe some players were mad they didn’t spend Thanksgiving with their family, or maybe a trip to Boise wasn’t appealing. Whatever it is, it showed on Saturday.
To put this weekend’s loss in historical perspective, here are some quick hits from the record books.
– State hasn’t been shut out since a 14-0 loss to Baylor in 1995. – This is the first time State has been shut out by an ACC opponent in Carter-Finley Stadium. The last time it happened was in 1962, and the Wolfpack still played its home games in Riddick Stadium.
Even Tom O’Brien couldn’t remember getting beat by a team this completely.
“I can’t remember losing one like this,” O’Brien said. “Maybe in my first or second year at Boston College.”
O’Brien was right. In his 11 years of head coaching experience, the only time he has been beaten by a margin of 37 or greater was in 2000 when Miami beat Boston College 52-6.
The last time State lost by this margin was that same year, when Florida State walked all over Chuck Amato’s first Wolfpack team 58-14. The difference between those losses and this one is that the 2000 Miami team finished the season 11-1, beating Florida in the Sugar Bowl. Florida State went on to lose the national championship game to Oklahoma. The Maryland team that walked all over this year’s Wolfpack is now 6-6 and will likely vie for the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl title.
Forgive me for being so negative. While Saturday represented one of the biggest collapses in the history of N.C. State football, it was only a small part of a season in which State outperformed expectations despite being plagued by injuries and having to learn a new system.
The “new season” that began after this year’s bye week was a remarkable turnaround, and its memory should not be diminished by this loss. This team is capable of overcoming adversity — it just did nothing to prove it on Saturday.
We still have everything to be optimistic about for next year. Let’s just hope this never happens again.
