Wake Forest 25, NC State 23

General NCS Football120

On a beautiful day for football in Raleigh, Wake Forest kicks 3 50 yarders to down the Wolfpack.

Couple Saturday afternoon thoughts for the blog:
-Great day for football. Noon games stink.
-Late arriving crowd, got into the game in the 2nd quarter.
-You would think a TD saving safety would be a good thing.
-Please kill the cartoon on the jumbotron before the game.
-Andre Brown is clearly better than Toney Baker, but Baker had a lot more touches in the second half.
-The second half play calling was a C+ at best. I would run Brown before Baker on first down
-One day we will “chip” a DE on a screen pass
-Jim Grobe is a great coach and hopefully he will get the hell out of Winston Salem
-Deraney didn’t have his “A” game today
-Mike Nugent Jr. had a great game
-John Bunting will be fired sometime soon
-If we lose to UNC it will be a death blow to Amato
-The 330PM game selection this saturday is awful.
-Officials missed a clear late hit on Andre Brown’s long run in the 4th quarter.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

General NCS Football

120 Responses to Wake Forest 25, NC State 23

  1. GAWolf 10/16/2006 at 9:22 AM #

    While I said I wasn’t angry, that by no means should be taken as I’m satisfied. Quite the contrary, actually. I just stopped caring enough to get pissed off about it anymore. Which that, too, means our program is not where it should be in year 7 of Amato’s tenure.

  2. Dan 10/16/2006 at 9:22 AM #

    I know the fans want to see Daniel Evans throw the ball all the time, as I witnessed with the constant “Take a shot! Trestman!” cheers from the crowd, but we should have ran the ball more in that game. Mike, I would have liked to see more shots too, but when do you propose we should have done it. When they had 4 DB’s out there or when they dropped of LB’s to make it 5?

    Wake was playing nickel and even dime coverage many times in that game. The run was there. They rarely didnt have both safeties playing way back. Andre Brown averaged over 6 ypc again. Baker averaged over 4. Its not like that wasnt working.

    And I totally agree with SFN, Andre Brown is the key to the running game. Baker is a nice back. That TD run was amazing, but Brown has way more big plays in him.

  3. packpigskinfan23 10/16/2006 at 9:26 AM #

    ^I am where I need to be. at school… sorry, I had too. but seriously I dont think the word “satisfied” is exactly what I would say i am. disappointed is more like it. we really did play a tough game. both teams deserved a win… and given all the info now about the concussion that Evans had during that last play of the game, I cant blame anyone for that interception. with out that concussion, we would have had the FG… luck in games can tilt one way or another with 2 good matched teams… WF got it in the end. we still have over half the year left to go. and I am not down on the year at as of right now.

  4. partialqualifier 10/16/2006 at 9:27 AM #

    Very tough loss for our kids on Saturday! I was in Virginia…calling my brother on the cell and getting the gloomy updates. Then I was in Macadoos watching the final quarter. When it ended I was quite pissed! “How in the world has this happened AGAIN!!!” Later Saturday night I watched the whole game and I had a different feeling. We lost to WF, but differently than we usually lose these games. Only 1 turnover (altho certainly the fumble/safety hurt)…and only a handfull of penalties for not very many yards. Yes…the lack of discipline on defense KILLED us! Overall however it is hard to say we beat ourselves.

    Just a few points to ponder:
    1- If we wanna be a championship program….the fans gotta get into EVERY game! I wasnt there, so someone please correct me if this wrong…but on TV it seemed awfully quiet in the first quarter in Carter-Finley! It would hard to imagine crowds at Notre Dame, Ohio State, or Michigan taking that long to get behind their teams.

    2-I like Marc Trestman as a person. He’s a good guy. But sooner or later someone has to answer for some of the things going on with the offense. Does anyone remember the last time we scored 30 points? Our points per game under Trestman has been woefull! I hate changing offensive co. again…but the fans need to know what’s going on.

    3-Defensively we are not great, but we are good enough. Clemson gave up some plays to WF and they might be the best team in the League…but the difference is Clemson can score points! You cannot win consistently in NCAA when it is impossible for you to get 28 points in a game! Period.

    4-Finally…I thought we played decent Saturday. I mean the division title was a stretch and hopefully we all knew it. WF should have beaten Clemson…and Clemson is better than we are. Now we’ve got to keep showing up and getting better. We CANNOT lose the next 2 games! I know they are road games, but Maryland & UVA are not even nearly as good as Wake! If we just play like we did Saturday we’ll be fine. Every team isnt gonna have a guy nailing 50 yarders 3 times on us! Good things can still happen. We’ll wait and see!

    Oh yea…get well soon Daniel! Without him you can disregard everything all of us has just said!!

  5. GAWolf 10/16/2006 at 9:30 AM #

    Packpigskinfan: Exactly. Especially for a team that is so disciplined like Wake. Those guys make text book tackles. Getting around them on the quick out is almost never going to happen. Daniel throws the slant better than most quarterbacks we’ve had (other than Rivers) of late. A ten yard slant or curl is throwing the ball downfield. It’s a pretty simple concept: vertical motion is what moves the ball.

  6. packpigskinfan23 10/16/2006 at 9:37 AM #

    partial qualifier~ you can thank Lee Fowler and Co. for the lack of excitment in the stadium during the first qtr… I say in traffic for TWO HOURS to go 2.5 miles. I made it for kick off, but still… thats insane. Many people didnt make it for kick off. Including almost a third of the student section(might have something to do with their idiotic ONE gate policy)…

    WHY do we always seem to play a game during State Fair week?!?! we follow it with FOUR away games!!! this is insane. Do they have contract with the State, thinking more will attend the fair this way?!

    anyways, the crowd was decent through out the game, but you have to remember it was noon game, there were HORRIBLE traffic problems, and we werent making anything happen… but I do have to disagree with your insight on the run game. it WASNT there. the yard per carry stat just looks good for Brown because of ONE good run, and for Baker he did ok, but overall I would have to say that WF stopped our run pretty well.

  7. packpigskinfan23 10/16/2006 at 9:40 AM #

    GA Wolf- Anthony Hill would have had an amazing day if Marc Trestman saw it my way…

    Dunlap would have had a couple of TD’s if Evans did… I was almost right on the new endzone… only 10 rows up. On the first TD Dunlap was open near the goalpost… in the second half when Evans threw over Hill near the corner Dunlap was in the same position… wide open. but hey, you cant always see everyone.

  8. Pack Laddie 10/16/2006 at 9:42 AM #

    I left my office in downtown Raleigh at 9:50, and was in my parking spot at 10:15. Had no traffic issues at all.

  9. Cardiff Giant 10/16/2006 at 9:44 AM #

    “The fact of the matter is that this was an ACC home game, that we needed to win to move up in the conference hierarchy. We did not get it done. You simply have to take care of business at home, which we have not done over the last couple of years.”

    Spot on. Amato’s teams simply cannot, it seems, take care of business against certain conference opponents.

  10. packpigskinfan23 10/16/2006 at 9:47 AM #

    Pack Laddie- I left my girlfriends apartment on the corner of Gorman and Western at 9:45-didnt get to my seat till 11:45 of course I spent at least 20 mins trying to find some parking since i am not lucky enough to have a spot
    =(

  11. Dan 10/16/2006 at 10:02 AM #

    “but overall I would have to say that WF stopped our run pretty well.”

    Dude, Andre Brown average over 6 ypc and Baker averaged over 4. How is that stopping us? When the defense is keeping their safeties that far back you can run the ball.

  12. BJD95 10/16/2006 at 10:07 AM #

    Here’s the way I see it – we played a pretty good team that didn’t make a SINGLE significant mistake the entire game. Simply put, I get much madder when we piss the game away rather than having a team just flat-out beat us. Much, much different than the Akron and Southern Miss losses, which were embarrassing. This kind of loss is just something that will happen.

    My opinion will swing based on what we do against Maryland and UVA. Need to win both of those.

  13. Wolfpack4ever 10/16/2006 at 10:13 AM #

    Mike Says: “Wolfpack4ever, dont bust me for saying we were playing it safe at the end of the 1st half.”

    First, thank you for your very civil toned complaint.

    Secondly, fair enough, Mike, you didn’t say “playing to deep from losing.” Having read the “playing it safe” interpreted as “playing to keep from losing” in an earlier blog, I got your “playing it safe” in the same mode, especially after you lauded Wake for “playing to win.” The Wake coaches are smart. They are so smart in fact that they figured out the deep threat that we posed in the BC and FSU games. FSU is too arogant to do anything different than single cover, apparently. For us to “play to win” by throwing into double coverage is not exactly playing to win. IMO Playing our game is “playing to win.”

    When I post something I expect, I invite and welcome, comments that counter my points. When I happen to be near the start of a thread, I usually comment on the theme of the thread itself. After the 30th or so comment, restricting comment to “Ain’t Chuck great,” “Chuck sucks” or “Gee, ain’t the JCs a great bunch of guys” is somewhat boring for me, so I respond with my own thoughts about what I read others say.

    I definitely try to address the issue and not make personal comments and insults. While I’m sure that my thinking that some of the comment I read is the result of football ignorance, shows up in my commments, that is not my intention. And I do ignore an awful lot of BS.

    So Mike I aplogize to you and any others for any offense you took and I will do better from here on out. However, I can’t promise not to comment on other opinion.

  14. Wolfpack4ever 10/16/2006 at 10:36 AM #

    I left Starbucks at 10:30 and Hardees at 10:45 and was in the stadium at 11:10. Of course I didn’t try to drive through the State Fair and Art Museum traffic to get there. I don’t know which is the most ill advised, driving through State Fair traffic or throwing into double coverage. 😉

  15. statered 10/16/2006 at 10:58 AM #

    Noah – I don’t think we attacked the seams or the space between the LBs and safeties enough. I think we tried entirely to often to swing it to the flats and I don’t think that is prone to be successful against a decent zone. Having said that, the seams and the middle of the field are probably the most difficult throws to complete and maybe we didn’t think DE was quite ready for that at this point. I would have liked to have seen us try a bit more.

  16. packpigskinfan23 10/16/2006 at 11:07 AM #

    nice to know you guys took the good way around.

    Dan- that six yards per carry stat you guys keep spitting out about Brown almost ALL comes from ONE run. A good one, obviously… but still, STATS DONT ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH OF A GAME. he had 22 yrds rushing aside from that ONE run!

    as for Baker his longest was 13 yards. he averaged 4.3 per… that is alright, but still all together he only had 56 yards.

    to me, if neither one of our backs makes it to at least 75 yards in a game, then the run was stopped pretty well.

    I may be wrong… but I FEEL like our running game was slowed by WF. Maybe it was just the angle I was sitting at… i dunno. the stats arent that impressive to me either though.

  17. packpigskinfan23 10/16/2006 at 11:11 AM #

    56-13=43
    67-45=22

    43+22=65 yards

    65 yards of rushing from out 2 backs, aside from 2 plays.

    Evans pulled out 23 yards of his own, and Eugene 5.

  18. Texpack 10/16/2006 at 11:12 AM #

    We should beat Wake 9 years out of 10. Period. This loss is typical of the problems Amato has with beating teams he should beat. Mental breakdowns, turnovers, etc.

  19. choppack1 10/16/2006 at 11:26 AM #

    “Daniel throws the slant better than most quarterbacks we’ve had (other than Rivers) of late. A ten yard slant or curl is throwing the ball downfield. It’s a pretty simple concept: vertical motion is what moves the ball.”

    Actually, that 10 yard slant is one of the things a cover 2 should stop – or at least make very painful for the receiver. Also, in our last possession, we ran a 10 yard curl, Wake’s DB dropped an INT for a TD.

    I am not a big fan of dink and dump, but you gotta take what the D gives to you. I don’t think play calling cost us that game – the safety, fluke TD and INT hurt us most.

  20. packpigskinfan23 10/16/2006 at 11:31 AM #

    I dont think play calling COST us the game… I just didnt see THAT much of a need to divert back to old habits(that never seem to work), when we were doing so well…

    I thnk the fluke TD was the main thing that got us… and of course that was after that HORRIBLE saftey.

  21. statered 10/16/2006 at 11:41 AM #

    chop, that was a 10 yard out, not a ten yard curl that they almost had the int on. Slants are tough against that zone also. I would have liked to have seen more crossing under type plays with a wr running a skinny post to open up the lanes and more flood type plays.

  22. BJD95 10/16/2006 at 12:24 PM #

    Who ever thought you’d see the day where we match up well against FSU, but poorly against Wake?

  23. Dan 10/16/2006 at 12:48 PM #

    “Dan- that six yards per carry stat you guys keep spitting out about Brown almost ALL comes from ONE run. A good one, obviously… but still, STATS DONT ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH OF A GAME. he had 22 yrds rushing aside from that ONE run!”

    Ok, lets take out his worst run and his best run. His best run was 45 yards. His worst one lost 21 yards. That leaves 6 carries for 27 yards which is 4.5 ypc, which is pretty good. And on to that part of Andre Brown is the chance to break one as he is prone to do. You really shouldnt take out the big play, because he has shown through his time that given enough carries he WILL break off big runs.

    They did slow our running game, but not that much. We slowed it down more than anything by not running. Make no mistake though. WF played great defensively. Great.

  24. Mike 10/16/2006 at 1:22 PM #

    Thanks Wolfpack4ever, apology accepted, and I appreciate your willingness to be here. It’s always interesting to read everyone’s opinions, yours included. I guess I get a little frustrated – it is easier to coach from the stands or living room, but I know when I play it safe, I usually end up regretting it. Example, tight hole, I pull out the 3 wood or even 2 iron instead of the driver, make a different swing than I normally would, and still end up hitting it OB.

    My point was simply, we have a good kicker with a strong leg, we should have at least tried to get 3 more before the half. BTW, the Deraney miss was not his fault – not sure anyone else saw it, but the spot did not go down until just a split second before the foot hit the ball, and the ball was angled to slice to the right, which it did. JD can make them from 60, would have liked to see us go for 3 more.

  25. Mike 10/16/2006 at 1:23 PM #

    And our running game was shut down for the most part on Saturday. We did break a couple, and AB is always a threat to break one big, but for the most part we were gaining 1-2 yards per carry. They shut that part of our game down.

1 2 3 4 5

Leave a Reply