‘We have a lot of frustration’: NC State football’s loss to Georgia Tech encapsulates season
Dave Doeren sat in front of reporters Thursday night, but he didn’t give an opening statement like he usually does.
He didn’t need to. His face told the story of the game: Disappointment in coming up short.
Georgia Tech led N.C. State for nearly the entire football game at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, until a 22-point fourth quarter put the Wolfpack in position to win. It got the run game going, quarterback CJ Bailey fought for three touchdowns and a two-point conversion. The defense staved off the Yellow Jackets for nearly the entire evening, not allowing an offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter.
N.C. State led, 29-23, with less than two minutes to play — until a Yellow Jackets touchdown with 22 seconds remaining and a missed field goal dashed the Wolfpack’s hopes. It was close — again — but not close enough: Georgia Tech won, 30-29, and sent the visitors home heartbroken.
“It hurts. You know, losses like that hurt more than a blowout,” Doeren said. “What we’re going to do is we’re going to put that one in and use it. We’re going to use it. One thing that’s great about football, man, you get to take out your frustrations on that field as a player, and we have a lot of frustration.”
Doeren said he’s proud of his team for the fight it showed. He hates losing — and was explicitly clear about that — but can give credit to the players’ effort.
“I thought we played really hard. I was proud of him the way we responded in the second half,” Doeren said. “I thought we played outstanding complementary football. Guys played with heart … There’s a lot of teams that wouldn’t fight the way we fought with all the things we battled through this year. They wanted that game. They wanted it bad.”
Bailey is the perfect example of that grit and determination. The true freshman QB completed 17 of 30 passes for 147 yards and three interceptions. The three turnovers were costly — Bailey said he’d never thrown three picks in a game. Georgia Tech turned two of those interceptions into touchdowns. Without them — or even without one — the outcome could have been different.
The game didn’t end there, though. Bailey also ran the ball into the end zone for three touchdowns and a two-point conversion. His 28-yard rush out of a quarterback scramble tied his longest rush of the season, and Bailey became the first N.C. State quarterback to rush for three scores since 2010.
“He believes in himself,” Doeren said. “He knew that there were some plays that were his fault, and that’s the thing you love about him. He’s not afraid to own things and said, ‘I’m going to make up for it. This is our half.’ And he went out and performed. That’s kind of how the game was. Anytime the other side needed the other side to step up, they did. That happened multiple times in the game.”
Bailey said the players, even during its lulls, kept telling each other to fight; to battle for the extra yardage and make defenders miss tackles, battle for an extra game on the schedule.
“We’ve been playing desperate, trying to get this win,” safety Bishop Fitzgerald said. “When we play desperate, everyone just plays a little bit harder. I think that’s been one of the keys.”
It worked until the very end when the defense, gassed from the effort exerted earlier in the game, just couldn’t stop Aaron Philo on his 18-yard TD rush.
Then, Collin Smith missed a last-ditch, 58-yard field goal attempt, which would have been a career-long make.
Some of the Wolfpack’s late-game decisions, like the field goal attempt, were made were based on the game clock — Doeren thought that was the safest option with five seconds left, though he was unhappy when officials signaled for an additional second to be put on the game clock, because that may have changed the team’s play call.
Ultimately, though, the Wolfpack finished with another close-but-not-quite outcome.
That’s been the theme of the season. N.C State football was predicted to be one of the top teams in the ACC. Many prognosticators foresaw a 10-win season, and thought the Wolfpack might be in the conversation for the expanded College Football Playoff.
The team’s schedule and talent looked ideal to achieve those goals, and after a long run of bowl game appearances with 8- or 9-win seasons, N.C. State finally had its big chance.
Except, then it lost to Tennessee. And Clemson. It had two more close losses to Syracuse, and Wake Forest.
Now, the Pack has one more shot to prove to itself that it can finish with pride — and an automatic bowl berth.
Doeren doesn’t want to sit at another table next week, with the same gut feeling — especially not after facing rival North Carolina.
“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves,” Doeren said. “We gotta go play our rival this week and take all the pain that you’re feeling inside and put it away and get ready to use it.”
