Why NC State’s loss to Pitt makes it feel like Wolfpack are stuck on ‘repeat’
The post game comments following N.C. State’s 53-34 loss at Pittsburgh sounded like the same ones after the loss at Duke. Against Virginia Tech. At Notre Dame.
It’s all about execution, details and playing smart. The defense needs to play better. The offense has to score points. N.C. State’s culture is about fighting; it’s always going to compete and will never give up.
Generic, bland, stale.
Those statements might be true, but without attribution, there are very few statements distinguishable from players and coach. They don’t feel any different from the other times the Wolfpack talked about getting better.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “I’m disappointed, we came out of the bye week, and I thought we’d play a lot better than we did tonight.”
He’s said that before. His players have said that before, and they still don’t have the answers or the results to back up the talk.
Wolfpack defensive problems
It’s hard to pin the season’s results, and the prognosis, on any one particular thing when players in all three phases have missed an assignment or made a mistake. But if one has to be chosen, the defensive deficiencies stick out more than the others. The Pitt game epitomized the season in four quarters.
N.C. State (4-4, 1-3 ACC) gave up 529 yards of total offense and 53 points, the most it’s allowed all year. Its previous highs were 514 yards in its win over Virginia and 45 points against Duke. Despite being held to a touchdown at Notre Dame, the defense held the Fighting Irish under 40 points and 500 yards.
The first half against the Panthers (6-2, 4-1) was particularly difficult to watch. N.C. State’s defense allowed 319 yards, 31 points and 21 first downs. The Panthers went 4 of 8 on third down conversions and 1 of 1 on fourth down tries.
In the second half, Pitt gained 210 total yards and 22 points, with a dozen first downs. It also went 2 of 6 on third down opportunities.
The Wolfpack’s soft defense allowed Pitt to start the game with points on three straight drives. The Panthers’ performance also included five straight scoring drives, a stretch starting at the end of the second quarter and extending to the end of the third. N.C. State only forced two punts and finished with one interception.
“With the bye week, we studied ourselves, focused on what we’re good at and tried to fix the things we’re bad at,” defensive lineman Brandon Cleveland said. “As you see, we just didn’t execute.”
Penalties pile up
Additionally, the defense beat itself with penalties. N.C. State entered the game as one of the ACC’s most disciplined teams, but it didn’t have that same poise in Pittsburgh.
The defense committed eight of the team’s nine penalties, giving up 92 free yards. Doeren said one of the three 15-yard pass interference penalties was questionable but other calls were legitimate. That’s the opposite of what the team talked about.
“Some of them are combat penalties,” Doeren said. “You’re going to make a tackle and you rush his face mask. It’s not like we ripped the kid’s helmet off. That’s football. That’s going to happen. But the pass interferences? We’ve got to play with technique.”
N.C. State entered the game averaging 5.43 penalties per game and 51.7 penalty yards committed, ranking No. 3 and No. 5 in the conference, respectively.
The defense also didn’t have any sacks and only four tackles for loss. It finished with seven pass breakups and eight quarterback hurries, but it was on the field for nearly 10 minutes longer than the offense.
“The first half, in particular, defensively, we did not play contested football,” Doeren said. “I thought it was way too easy for their quarterback. We played really soft coverage and gave up a lot of things.”
Inconsistent NC State offense
The Wolfpack’s loss, like the season, can’t solely be attributed to defensive issues. The offense did not move the ball down field well.
That resulted in five punts, including four three-and-outs, three turnovers on downs, a 4-of-13 third down efficiency, and only one trip to the red zone. Quarterback CJ Bailey fumbled the football and Pitt turned that into a field goal.
Doeren and Smothers said the offense needs to score points. Its 15 first downs and 60% completion rate weren’t up to standard, but scoring five touchdowns and racking up 445 yards should be enough to win a football game.
“We just gotta continue to get better. Learn from our mistakes,” said running back Hollywood Smothers. “We gotta figure out what’s going wrong … We just gotta keep competing and just gotta capitalize.”
N.C. State has four games remaining in the regular season, and the team may actually believe it still has a shot to finish the year well.
The schedule, however, does not get easier. It hosts No. 7 Georgia Tech (8-0, 5-0 ACC), Florida State (3-4, 0-4) and North Carolina (2-5, 0-3) at home and travels to No. 9 Miami (5-1, 1-1) for its final road game. The Wolfpack says it’s taking things week-by-week, which sounds a lot like “survive and advance.”
It’s unclear whether the improvements will come to fruition, but, for now, N.C. State has the platitudes everyone’s gotten used to.
