Key Statistics

Last 3 Florida State Possessions:

1) Start: NC State 31

Total Yards: 0

Result: FG

2) Start: NC State 5

Total Yards: -7

Result: INT

3) Florida State 44

Total Yards: -1

Result: INT

Doesn’t get any simpler than that, does it? That’s as good defensive football as you will ever, ever see.

Other Key Statistics:

1) Two Game Rushing Average, Andre Brown: 213.5

2) Record as Starter, Marcus Stone: 2-0

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

General

25 Responses to Key Statistics

  1. Trout 11/05/2005 at 9:08 PM #

    We tried to give it away, but luckily FSU wouldnt take it!

    Andre Brown was magnificent! Marcus didnt make mistakes, and did enough good things to win.

    I cant remember a NC State team under Amato having a punt blocked, and we had 2 in a row this game – almost costing us a big win.

    Our D was awesome.

    How can this team play so well, year after year, against Florida State, but not have the same effort against UNC?

    Great win!

  2. VaWolf82 11/05/2005 at 9:23 PM #

    Unbelievable defensive effort. State needs more efforts like this one from both sides of the ball to salvage this season.

  3. newswolf 11/05/2005 at 9:24 PM #

    ^^we had one blocked in the UNC game

  4. SaccoV 11/06/2005 at 12:35 AM #

    The timing of the blocked punts was horrible. On two consecutive possessions in the 4th quarter (not to mention the forced safety because we couldn’t at least make the appearance of getting a 1st down late). Once again, this win is nice, but it’s not good if it’s only your second conference win of the season. Finally, I think we’ve found the best quarterback in terms of throwing the ball away that I have ever seen. Please Marcus, sometimes, it’s ok to throw the ball where a receiver might actually catch it.

  5. NCBP 11/06/2005 at 12:44 AM #

    GREAT WIN PACK!!!! Lets keep this BIG MO rolling against BC which will be a tough one.

    Awesome Defensive performance and SO NICE to see a QB with ability to protect the ball and not give it away. I’m hoping that with more game experience he’ll be able to settle down earlier and find WRs past his first and second option. Only’s Stone’s second start…@ FSU…2-0 and got the job done!

    Coaching staff should be thrilled and there are still plenty of things to take away and use for opportunities to improve going forward. Andre is a bad-ass, plain and simple. How exciting is it to know that he is hear atleast 2 more years! NC State as a strong running team, who would’ve thunk it would materialize. A lot of folks have said that is what this team needs with our great D and now we’re getting it…big time win!

  6. Trout 11/06/2005 at 7:38 AM #

    “^^we had one blocked in the UNC game”

    Thanks newswolf. I guess I had totally blocked that game from my memory!

  7. BJD95 11/06/2005 at 8:26 AM #

    Was I the only one yelling at the TV “Run, Run, Run, Punt!” every time we had the ball once we went up 20-10? I figured the only way we could lose is to screw up with an interception (I certainly didn’t foresee getting two punts blocked). Of course, even the 2 blocked punts wasn’t enough for FSU. I also loved taking the safety. I would have thrown something at the TV if we had done anything other than 3 runs (to burn FSU’s time outs and bleed the clock), then take the free kick.

    Give credit to Marcus – he didn’t screw things up, and was much better in the second half. He made a great play fake (again, like vs. USM) on his big TD pass, and didn’t really make any mistakes. He also seems to have some intangible leadership skills (hat tip to my wife, who has always said this about Marcus), that seems to make the players around him play harder. A QB doesn’t have to be the PHYSICAL leader of the team, but he does have to be its “heart and soul.” God bless him, Jay Davis just didn’t have that.

  8. Class of '74 11/06/2005 at 8:27 AM #

    First time this season I felt like we were better prepared than the opposition.
    Defense was awesome, I wonder if the 3 man front was because McCargo was out or was it strategy developed based on FSU’s tendencies? Maybe there is hope for this season afterall.

  9. newswolf 11/06/2005 at 9:02 AM #

    ^I think it was b/c they wanted more DB’s to make it harder to pass

  10. BJD95 11/06/2005 at 10:16 AM #

    That is truly the maddening aspect of Chuck Amato’s tenure. He looks like a genius with his game planning against FSU, and a dunce against everyone else.

  11. Class of '74 11/06/2005 at 10:35 AM #

    That is why many of us have a tough time believing in Chuck, but maybe he’ll learn to prepare for everyone as if they were FSU.

  12. Haredogg 11/06/2005 at 2:12 PM #

    ^ Perhaps it will take 18 years of coaching against them before we can figure out a winning gameplan.

    It’s hard to believe Andre was our 3rd stringer at RB coming into the middle part of the season. Man does he look good.

    Yesterdays win was huge, but only if we continue and win atleast 2 of the last 3 and get to a bowl.

  13. Slader4881 11/06/2005 at 2:27 PM #

    Nice win lets keep it rolling. I feel like Andre was third string because he didn’t learn the new O soon enough, compared to everyone else. Also his biggest advantage on everyone else is his vision while running. This is something hard to really notice until he played a lot in a real game. Now that the coaches have seen what he can do the rest of the RBs are playing for #2 on the depth chart. If the D can keep this up and Stone can keep playing solid with little or no mistakes, we could run the table and end up in some horrible bowl game. This would’ve seemed impossible weeks ago.

  14. Jeff 11/06/2005 at 2:39 PM #

    The primary point of most of these comments that I respectfully disagree with is that Marcus Stone is playing well. I’ll take the W’s, don’t get me wrong. But, Stone is severely limited in his abilities out there and our offense MUST get more diverse for us to be able to breathe easily in the future.

  15. TVP 11/06/2005 at 2:54 PM #

    ^8-10 in the second half, with one of the two being a dropped TD pass…I’ll take it. I don’t recall him throwing any that were in serious danger of being picked besides the other incompletion to Clark in the end zone.

    He’s not playing “Philip Rivers in 2003” well, but he is playing “Trent Dilfer on the Ravens in 2000” well – well enough to win in other words. We lose that game with Jay back there because he would have turned the ball over and taken several sacks.

  16. SaccoV 11/06/2005 at 8:11 PM #

    One important comment to make, which AlphaWolf mentioned weeks ago on rawfs.com … Did anyone else notice that the two gigantic runs for Brown where both counters out of the I-formation? And considering that those two runs ALONE gave the offense all of its positives in the first half, doesn’t that tell you that the West Coast offense is ineffective at the college level? I mean, no one told Jack Johnson to jab to his way to victory in the ring. We’ve got the horses to run the ball successfully against most of the competition we’ve faced this year, so why not use it? The most upsetting aspect of two consecutive wins is that only after a 2-6 start did the coaching staff say “Maybe we should run the ball.” Incompetence and arrogance are the two worst character traits in a football coach.

  17. Slader4881 11/06/2005 at 8:39 PM #

    I think the west coast offense can be very productive at the college level. You just have to have the guys to run the system to correctly. I felt coming into this year that all of the hoopla about the West Coast System could be bad because we do not have the QB or players for it. The only way I’ve seen we could run it is with TJ, tight ends are a staple in this type of O. Now the coaching staff for some reason ignored these facts and tried to force a square peg in a round hole. Now our season is basically lost, but at least Trestman can learn from his mistakes. I feel like this offense will be much improved next year no matter what we run, because the coordinator will know the team better.

  18. BJD95 11/06/2005 at 10:52 PM #

    Oh, I’m not saying that Stone has played well or has proven to be the long-term successor. I would like to have a technically proficient QB who ALSO has the intangible leadership skills. But Stone (with just one attribute) is better than one who has neither.

  19. Mr. O 11/07/2005 at 8:08 AM #

    Sacco: Why would you think the coaches didn’t want to run the ball? We have run the ball all season, but we haven’t had much success until recently. Finally, the offensive line is getting it done up front.

  20. Mike 11/07/2005 at 8:59 AM #

    Couple things stand out. D was great. Where were they against UNC? Clemson? UNC could not / had not/ still hasn’t run the ball against anyone, but ran it down our throats all game long. The UNC running game was last in conference last year, but ran it down our throats all game last year too. Kid from Clemson had a great game against us, but looking at that game, it was more us than him. He has been OK in other games, but looked like a Heisman player against us. Congrats D on finally living up to the hype the last 3 games.

    In response to blocked punts – the stats list a blocked punt against UNC so I guess that counts. We all know it was just a poor kick, no one ever touched it. I also was calling for the safety at the end, no chance of kicking that thing. Let the all of a sudden strong D win it for us. Plus, free kicking from the 20 is a better move than a rushed kick from the end zone – a la UNC. Speaking of free kicks, read my next blog.

  21. Mike 11/07/2005 at 9:03 AM #

    FREE KICKS. Coach and staff blew this one big time. Does anyone besides me know the FREE KICK rule after a fair catch? After a fair catch is made, the receiving team has the option to try a free kick. The defense must stand 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. The kicking team lines up and has a free shot at FG from thee line of scrimmage.

    Normal FG would have been 60 yards. Deraney has the leg. 60 yard attempt is risky, but better odds making it as time expires than to throw a hail mary.

    Free kick FG would have been 52, easily within Deranay range and no chance to block it. Sure would have liked having the extra 3 points. Am I the only one who knows this rule?

  22. Class of '74 11/07/2005 at 11:15 AM #

    From what I’ve seen so far, Andre Brown’s best runs come after he breaks a tackle at the line of scrimmage and then beats the defenders with a burst of speed. Our line is doing better but we’re not consistant in our line play by any means.

  23. Mr. O 11/07/2005 at 1:18 PM #

    Got this from Pack Pride:

    “No free kick after a fair catch. See Rule 6, Section 5, Article 1.d. “The ball shall be put in play by a snap by the receiving team at the spot of the catch if the ball is caught.”

    I don’t personally know if this rule exists in college football or not. It seems like it would come up more often.

  24. SaccoV 11/07/2005 at 2:48 PM #

    Mr. O, you’re right we have not run the ball successfully, and we have not FOCUSED on the run with our offensive scheme. Even a bright third-grader could see that with five guys in the backfield all of whom are capable backs, we should be FOCUSED on running the football most downs. Considering that neither Davis nor Stone are proficient passers, the offensive scheme should have been geared towards the run, FROM THE OPENING SNAP. Now I was not surprised that we didn’t run many times versus Va Tech because NO ONE (perhaps not even Brown) could run for much against the Hokies. With this in mind, there is no excuse for keeping four of our five running backs collecting dust on the sidelines when your quarterbacks are either turning the ball over or not moving the ball effectively. Running out of the I was pretty damn successful against a good FSU defense. And I’m sure there’s a slew of NFL, college and high school coaches that would agree with scrapping the West Coast offense for a solid running game, for which we already have the basic tools.

  25. BJD95 11/07/2005 at 2:49 PM #

    I think the free ctach rule only applies to the NFL. I have seen it happen in a pro game.

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