“Poor decisions Killing the Pack”
Does that sound familiar?
Sure it sounds familiar to NC State football fans who have followed the Wolfpack in the 6+ years of the Chuck Amato era. Excessive penalties and turnovers indicated an extreme lack of discipline that helped wrecked the Wolpack’s most recent two football seasons. Even the Philip Rivers years saw the program consistently mismanage the clock, spend timeouts like a sailor in a whorehouse, and get out coached with game-strategy at most turns.
So, is it any real surprise that poor decisions continue to haunt the program today?
As an example from Saturday night – late in the 3rd quarter at Southen Miss, NC State was down 23-10 and had the ball with a 1st down and goal from the Southern Miss six yard line.
Despite having Andre Brown and Toney Baker in the back field, Offensive Coordinator Marc Trestman inexplicably decided to put Marcus Stone in a position where Stone would exercise judgement and need to make key decisions on the field.
Why?
Seriously…WHY!?
On the play, Stone scrambled away from pressure to his left and had a lane to pick up some yards and possibly score a touchdown. Instead, one of the most inaccurate passers in college football chose to throw completely against the momentum of his body and into the middle of the field to a spot where not a single NC State receiver stood. A USM defensive back intercepted the pass. USM then drove the field to make the score 30-10 instead of a potential 23-17.
It didn’t end there. On the Pack’s defensive series that followed, State’s Tank Tyler was ejected from the game for unsportsman-like conduct in one of a series of inexusable and embarassing penalties committed by the Wolfpack. In fact, after just three quarters of play NC State had committed 8 penalties for over 100 yards – at least 3 of those penalties had been late-hits or unsportsmanlike calls.
Most State fans don’t mind losing when our boys are obviously working their ass off and giving 100% effort on and off the field. As long as everyone does their best and conducts themselves like men should then asking for much more is a debatable stretch. But losing like State is doing tonight – with little visible effort on the field and with MORE thug-like unsportsmanlike penalties like we have seen the last few years is unacceptable. Period.
