Defense continues to be a glaring weakness for N.C. State, proven in loss to Hokies
Last week all the talk was about N.C. State’s offense, and rightfully so. The team scored 45 points in the opener against Wake Forest, and there was plenty of reason to celebrate after the team failed to score 28 points against any ACC opponents a year ago.
What people were willing to turn the other cheek on, since they won, was the fact they surrendered 42 points.
In its last 10 ACC games, the Wolfpack has given up 30 or more points in nine of them.
Virginia Tech (1-0, 1-0), was the latest team feasting on the N.C. State (1-1, 1-1) defense in a 45-24 win Saturday night at Lane Stadium. The Hokies racked up 495 yards of total offense, most of their damage coming on the ground (314 yards rushing).
“They (Virginia Tech) were the most physical team tonight,” Doeren said. “They outplayed us, out coached us. We have a lot of work to do.”
How bad was it? Two players averaged 17 yards or more on the ground. That’s probably not a fair assessment considering Tre Turner (53 yards, 26.5 per carry) only carried the ball twice. But it’s a statement to how poor the rush defense was for the Wolfpack. It was just the third time since joining the ACC in 2004 that the Hokies rushed for more than 300 yards in a game. It’s the second time (2010) they’ve done it against N.C. State.
Six different players got carries for Virginia Tech, and the Hokies averaged 7.7 yards rushing as a team. It didn’t matter that Virginia Tech was down to its third string quarterback, Quincy Patterson II, at one point.
Last week, Wake Forest had seven runs of 10 yards or more for the game. The Hokies tied that mark in the third quarter on a 23-yard run by Khalil Herbert. Virginia Tech went for 31 and 16 yards rushing, respectively, on its first two running plays. That should have been a sign of things to come. The Hokies averaged 26.5 yards per carry on their first four rushing attempts.
“We just didn’t do enough to give ourselves a chance to win,” Doeren said. “Defense didn’t start the way we expected them to.”
The Hokies rushed for 47 yards on their first two carriers of the game and only completed four passes in the first quarter. Virginia Tech didn’t have to pass the ball, but found success through the air when it did. Patterson only completed his first four passes of the game, two of those going for touchdowns. His first pass completion was a 33-yard pitch and catch to James Mitchell on a third and three. Patterson (a long of 33) and starter Braxton Burmeister (long of 46) took care of those with plenty of time left on the clock.
In the last eight games, the defense has given up 100 yards rusher or more seven times. N.C. State was missing three starters - linebacker Payton Wilson, safety Tanner Ingle, cornerback Teshaun Smith- on defense, but the guys on the field took responsibility for the mishaps.
“We didn’t tackle well, overall,” linebacker Isaiah Moore said. “I’ll start with me on that, I didn’t tackle well. We’ll get better on it for practice and get better next week.”
Last week, after celebrating the Wake Forest win, Doeren went back to look at the film and felt like the defensive mistakes were correctable. That sounded good Monday through Friday, but the Hokies forced the Wolfpack to go back to the drawing board this week.
“We were taking our middle safety and added him to the run game,” Doeren said. “It was a lot of things we have to do better, there isn’t one single thing.”
Doeren said they adjusted the front, angled the front, bringing guys off the edge, moving up safeties. They basically threw the kitchen sink at the Hokies, but it didn’t matter.
“There were a lot of different things we tried to do,” Doeren said. “But none of them were good enough.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2020 at 12:52 AM.
