As losses pile up, Thomas, Pack pledge to ‘continue to fight’
N.C. State linebacker Drake Thomas shot the gap with surprising quickness and ferocity, all but freezing Louisville quarterback Micale Cunningham in his tracks.
Down went Cunningham. Make it a 9-yard sack for Thomas on the blitz and a big play for the Wolfpack defense. Thomas, who flexed after hopping up from the tackle, returned to the Pack sideline to be mobbed by teammates.
For a freshman making his second college start, it was the kind of play the Pack needed more of Saturday. N.C. State continued to blitz Cunningham, but the Cardinals protected him much better in the second half and Louisville ignited offensively for a 34-20 victory to qualify for a bowl game.
It was a fourth straight ACC loss for the Pack (4-6, 1-5 ACC) and a long walk back to the locker room on a brutally cold night at Carter-Finley Stadium. For Thomas, it was another bitter taste of putting in the effort and again coming up short.
“You can’t feel sorry for yourself,” Thomas said. “You’re being asked to fill in a role. I can’t think of myself as a young guy. I’ve got to think of myself as an older guy and I’ve got to meet all the requirements, as anyone else on the team would.
“Obviously you don’t accept losses. You just continue to fight. The guys, we’re coming closer together because of this. We’re going to come out stronger in the end.”
Thomas came to N.C. State to join his older brother, Thayer. In their minds, Thayer would catch passes at wide receiver and Drake would hit people and make tackles and the two former Heritage High stars from Wake Forest would help the Pack continue to win and go to bowl games.
It has been an inconsistent season for Thayer Thomas as the Pack has gone through three quarterbacks, each inexperienced and with differing passing styles. It has been a learn-on-the-fly kind of season for Drake Thomas given the slew of injuries that made him one of several true and redshirt freshmen needed to play -- now.
“I felt like I stepped up and did everything I could do, the best I could,” Drake Thomas said. “That’s all you can do.”
Thomas got just eight snaps against Syracuse in the Pack’s last win, the 16-10 victory over Syracuse on Oct. 10. He was in for 32 plays in the Pack’s loss at Boston College, then 44 against Wake Forest.
Thomas’ first start was against the Clemson Tigers, then ranked fifth in the College Football Playoff poll. He had 71 snaps in the 55-10 beating at Carter-Finley Stadium, a virtual trial by fire.
“Obviously it’s a good learning experience,” he said. “You’re playing against arguably the best team in the country, so just learn from it and keep on getting better.”
Thomas is a hard guy to miss when he’s on the field. No. 32 has the long locks of hair flowing out from underneath his helmet and the eye shade. Listed at 6 feet and 236 pounds, he can be quick to the ball, as Cunningham could attest, at middle linebacker.
Thomas intercepted a pass in the West Virginia game. He nearly had another against Louisville, which would have been the first forced turnover for the Pack this season in an ACC game, a story in itself.
The Pack limited Louisville running back Javian Hawkins to 67 yards on 16 carries and the Cards finished with 77 rushing yards, 135 below their season’s average. But clogging up the run led to some mismatches in the Pack secondary and the Cardinals (6-4, 4-3 ACC) hit some long balls for touchdowns early in the second half.
“N.C. State did a great job stopping the run,” Louisville coach Scott Satterfield said. “They were obviously loading the box and bringing the safeties down and blitzing and getting pressure. We gave up some sacks early and then just settled down in the second half. We were able to throw the ball down the field.”
And connect. Tutu Atwell had a 72-yard catch-and-run score and Marshon Ford a 42-yard TD catch in the third quarter. Cunningham also hit Dez Fitzpatrick for a 43-yard touchdown for the Cards’ only first-half score as Louisville trailed 10-7.
“I thought we battled our butts off in the first half,” Pack coach Dave Doeren said. “The third quarter killed us.”
With a Thursday night game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, the Wolfpack has to quickly move on. For Thomas and the defense, it means cramming in the needed video work and as he put it, “Making sure our heads are in the right place for the game.”
There are two games still left to be played, the last against the Pack’s biggest rival, North Carolina. There’s still the chance of a bowl.
“I love the competitive spirit of my football team,” Doeren said. “They have spirit. They have fight.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 12:12 PM.
