Remember after NC State’s first game, when they had just rushed for 270 yards and put up 45 points? When Bailey Hockman looked like a QB in complete control of an offense that looked really good? Remember when the offensive line moved a pretty decent Wake Forest defensive front? Remember the hope for the season we as fans had after that week?
Well NC State fans got a rude awakening on Saturday. They got punched in the face by a Virginia Tech team that was missing 23 players, including their starting QB, and their defensive coordinator. Virginia Tech did whatever they wanted to do on offense. NC State gave up 45 points and allowed 314 rushing yards. To put this in context NC State quarterbacks, yes quarterbacks, had as many tackles (3) as the starting defensive line. If you allow that many rushing yards against a non-military academy team you are more likely than not to lose.
The offense faired no better against VT. Bailey Hockman looked bad. Like, really really bad. Hockman went 7-16 for 82 yards and 2 ints. And while that sounds bad, it was even worse when you watched the game. Hockman fell back into old habits of throwing off his back foot. The offensive line, which looked so good against Wake Forest was terrible. They allowed an undersized defensive front to control the line of scrimmage. That 270 yards of rushing was followed up 139. They also gave up 6 sacks.
Then there was the coaching. Let’s just say it was lackluster. It was obvious that it was not Hockman’s night. It happens, players have off days and last night was obviously one for Hockman. Doeren and Beck could have made a change in the second quarter when the game was still salvageable. But did they do that? No, they waited until NC State was down 27 points to make the change. Leary came into that game and gave the team a spark. Leary went 12-16 for 165 yards and 1 TD. Not bad for a guy who had missed a reported 20 days because of COVID contact tracing. It would have been interesting to see what could have happened in this game if a change would have been made sooner.
Does it get better next week? Is there a chance that NC State can put this game and the bad taste can be washed out? NOPE! Now NC State goes up to Pitt. A Pitt defense that just made Louisville’s offensive line look terrible. After giving up 6 sacks to VT, NC State is rewarded with a Pitt defensive front that sacked Cunningham 7 times. A defense that gave up 223 total yards to an explosive Louisville team. A defense that gave up 78 yards rushing to Hawkins (75 yards of which came on 1 run). So, needless to say, it doesn’t look good for NC State next week and a 1-2 record is more likely than not.
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