How NC State plans to ‘keep moving forward’ after tough offensive outing against Louisville
The N.C. State offense and a car wreck on the highway aren’t so different these days. Passers-by — fans — see the carnage, but just can’t turn away.
The Pack (3-2, 1-1 ACC) has struggled all season on that side of the ball, but there’s typically been a bright spot or two — and a few wins. In the team’s 13-10 loss to Louisville on Saturday? Little seemed to go right.
The team scored all 10 of its points in the second quarter, and appeared poised to hit “cruise.” But after halftime, Louisville (5-0, 3-0) found traction, and N.C. State could only hold the Cardinals off for so long, turning the game into one some Wolfpack fans lamented paying to see. The booing resonated at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“There’s a lot of things that happened,” N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren said. “We got beat in pass protection multiple times. There were some blitzes that came free. There were times where we were not open. And there were times where there were guys open, and Brennan (Armstrong) couldn’t see him because of the pass rush.”
The receivers weren’t always open, either. Sometimes that was due to the Cardinals’ defense, and others, they didn’t run the correct route, going inside instead of outside.
The Pack also hurt itself with penalties, racking up 10 for 88 yards. That could’ve been more had the last holding penalty been accepted. Doeren said the team faced multiple second-down situations with short yardage, then it erased its first-down progress with a negative play.
“You can’t beat yourself,” Doeren said. “The pre-snap penalties that we had — the holding penalties, which are technique oriented — those things hurt quite a bit.”
Add in the two interceptions, a fumble and two sacks and you’ve got a messy performance.
Saturday’s offensive struggles were especially tough to watch because defense and special teams did almost everything they could to keep N.C. State in the game. Punter Caden Noonkester kicked eight times for 326 yards, 125 more yards than the offense put up. The defense out-tackled Louisville, grabbed two interceptions and a fumble of its own. It held one of the top rushing teams in the country to 0.7 yards per carry.
Even linebacker Payton Wilson contributed a 3-yard carry on offense. It was his first offensive play since 2019.
How does the team move forward? The Pack says maintaining camaraderie and support of each player, and each position group, is the priority. The Pack wants to avoid splintering and placing blame, when it feels like everyone is accountable for part of it.
This is especially important, because it would be easy to split. The defense had more than enough reasons to be upset. It had a few mistakes, but no one is going to remember those. Fans are going to remember the huge plays and the effort it made on the field. They’ll remember the toughness that didn’t translate to points on the other side of the ball.
The team doesn’t want the external view to become the internal situation. Everyone will just have to see if a turnaround can happen.
“There’s no team out there that wins when it’s offense versus defense,” Wilson said. “We have to stay together. There’s one that’s been our identity. That’s been our culture here. Through good, through bad, we’re always one unit. We just have to keep moving forward.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2023 at 6:12 PM.
