State/Maryland Game Thread

'08 Football204

Marlyand 27 – NC State 24 FINAL

The Wolfpack defense yields a drive to their two-yard line as the clock melts towards zeros, and Maryland makes a field goal try to once again put the Pack in the “Close, But No Cigar” department.   No moral victory, this.

Link to N&O’s in-game blog

24-24 nearing end of 3rd quarter.

17-17 at the half.  On offense, State looks pretty good, save for dropped balls that should have been caught.  Defense is, as usual, suspect.  Thin to begin with and depleted by injuries, this unit is undoubtedly a recruiting focus for Tom O’Brien and his staff.

—

Long, sustained drive by the Pack to open the game. NC State 7, Maryland 0.

I will not be able to update much longer, so please be active in the comments, especially if you have ESPN360!

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.

'08 Football

204 Responses to State/Maryland Game Thread

  1. wpackman33 10/25/2008 at 9:23 PM #

    After having a few hours to cool down, i still have to remind myself that we are playing with house money this year. Injuries have killed us and we do have some young guys on the field. Not to make excuses but with the way things have gone for us, its not a real surprise that we are 2-6 this year. Considering that we are starting a freshman qb i think we are doing pretty well. The good thing is that we are seeing progress just about every week. Our offense looked very good today, especially considering the weather. We seemed to control the ball fairly well and we had a good amount of sustained drives to give our D a rest.
    The problem is our D didn’t do anything about it. What can i say, we really miss Irving but you’d think that not having one person wouldn’t make such a drastic difference. Even if little things were corrected like tackling, it would make a world of difference. Oh well.

    Even if we do lose the rest of our games this year, i’m still going to cheer for the Pack like theres no tomorrow. I’m encouraged by what TOB has brought to this program. I think next year will be very good. We may be taking our lumps this year with these young guys (due to injuries & CTC) but this will be good experience for them in the future.

    Keep your heads up wolfpack nation.

    GO PACK!!!

  2. wolfpack95 10/25/2008 at 10:38 PM #

    Agreed.

  3. RagingWolf 10/25/2008 at 10:46 PM #

    I keep hearing you guys talk about “house money” crap. We were saying the same crap last year. The year before that we sucked under Amato. I AM TIRED OF IT. I don’t see how next year will be better. What have you seen about our recruiting this year? BULLCRAP. We have 9 3-star recruits and 3 2-star recruits. I AM FED UP. I look to the west and I see those bastards and they have commitments from 7 3-stars, 6 4-stars and a 5-star recruit. 10 of their guys are from NC while we only have 3. WHAT T F is going on!

    I HATE LOSING. I HATE UNX.

  4. Alpha Wolf 10/25/2008 at 11:05 PM #

    We all hate losing. But the reality is that this coaching staff is having to bring a butterknife to a gunfight where the defense is concerned.

    Fact is, major improvements have been made to the offense. And help is on the way in the name of Brandon Barnes and Mike Glennon.

    Now the defense needs to be improved. I don’t like Mike Archer’s zone schemes, but I also know that there are few really high quality athletes back there. Ask yourself: were there two A.J. Davis’s and a Terence Holt behind the linebackers, would it be a better defense? Definitely.

    That this team, with four walk-ons and a lot of second-teamers starting and playing most of the games is nearly winning games is remarkable in itself. When O’Brien gets more depth and higher quality starters, the wins will come.

    Even thought they aren’t this year, this team is a dammned sight better than the last Amato team I saw. This team has discipline. It plays with poise for the most part. It never gives up. These are traits that will serve them well in the future.

  5. Astral Rain 10/26/2008 at 4:22 AM #

    At least there’s potential being shown. The problem is this team just loses conditioning in the 2nd half due to the defense getting worn down. The team shows good heart though, and it looks like TOB is getting through, so I have some faith.

  6. WolftownVA81 10/26/2008 at 7:01 AM #

    I heard a lot of positives in the game. Offense has really improved. Now the defense needs to step up. The need more rest excuse will not hold water after yesterday. The personal foul that gave MD a first down late in the game was a killer. We were one or two plays away from a win and this one wouldn’t have been stolen like past close games. I thought our offense sounded better than theirs. We now have 1/2 of a pretty good team – just need to complete the package. Go Pack.

  7. PackerInRussia 10/26/2008 at 7:24 AM #

    You can’t blame TOP in this game. State had the ball for 22:11 in the first half compared to 7:49 for MD. In the second half MD had the edge by a few minutes. State held the overall advantage 36:00 to 24:00. This was greatly helped by a 9 of 15 3rd down conversion rate compared to MD’s 3 of 8. That was a welcome change. Maybe the defense is so used to being on the field most of the first half that not playing a lot messed up their rhythm so that they weren’t loose enough. They need a happy balance. (Kidding of course). I think there are other reasons for this loss. The fact that they played neck and neck and were in this game to the end is astounding to me. It’s enough to give me hope for the future.
    Please don’t compare us/TOB to UNC/Butch. Although Buntcake’s teams performed poorly (except when they played State), he had some good recruiting classes with some very good players that Butch inherited. TOB…not so much.

  8. wolfonthehill 10/26/2008 at 7:40 AM #

    Smile said…
    ““A 95-yard drive from the UMd 8 with 3 minutes to go to win the game?”

    A FG from the -3?”

    Well, smart-ass… they started at the 8, took a 5-yard penalty to their 3, then drove it 95 yards to our 2.

    So actually… yes… a 95-yard drive after they got the ball starting at their own 8. 🙂

  9. Ed89 10/26/2008 at 7:52 AM #

    Sorry for the thread hijack, but does anyone have any feedback from the Red/White game last night in Reynolds? I’d be interested to know how the team looked.

  10. Daily Update 10/26/2008 at 7:54 AM #

    The bottom line is that we don’t have ACC talent on defense except at a few positions. The offense played well, but didn’t quite do enough to win when they stalled on the last drive.

    Hopefully the guys redshirting can help us on D next year. The OL should keep improving with four freshman(counting Same Jones) who redshirted and will go through Spring Practice. WRs look good, RBs should be good, and we should have one of the best QBs in the conference next year.

    Russell Wilson = Charlie Ward

  11. VaWolf82 10/26/2008 at 7:55 AM #

    I know we’re thin, but how can there be that much of a drop off?

    You must have missed the discussion about 7 walk-ons or former walk-ons playing on the two-deep. My question is, how can there not be a drop-off?

  12. McPete 10/26/2008 at 9:47 AM #

    i really hope this staff can move Byers to corner and get a real safety back there. you know, someone who can tackle. it won’t happen this year, but maybe next year Clem Johnson and Javon Walker will be pretty decent.

    or just design an all the time no huddle offense that can score 50 points a game and try to outscore anyone.

    this is just another year when we have half a team. decent offense, no defense. decent defense (which has been gone 3 years now), horrible offense.

    i just hope we can win 2 more games this year: UNC and someone else. UNC’s defense feasts off of mistake-prone QBs. that’s not russell wilson. the guy’s thrown like 2 or 3 interceptions all year. he’s gonna be a star in this league. no doubt about it.

  13. phillypacker 10/26/2008 at 10:00 AM #

    I watched the game on espn360. MD picked apart the zone coverage in the second half. The DB’s were giving huge cushions and Turner just played pitch and catch with his receivers. The DB’s would come up and often not be able to wrap up and hence the big gains or at least gains of 10-15. State got no rush whatsoever on the last drive. There were so many plays in the second half where a first defender had a clear shot, did not wrap up and then a 2nd, 3rd and 4th tackler did not either. The 20+ yard run that made the score 24-17 involved a run through a crowd of would be State defenders. Very few of the plays were break aways. Almost all involved multiple missed tackles. I really don’t think it was about heart. I think to a large degree it was about ability, and to a small degree about having one’s head in the game.

    Except for the zone coverage, which I assume must be a function of perception of the strength of personnel and fearing the long ball, defenders were where they needed to be. UMD ran the student body right over and over and State was blown out down after down on it.

    Anthony Hill has hands like rocks. Why is he supposed to be so good? State’s OL gave incredible protection to Wilson. They opened up huge holes all night. The receivers are still the weak link on offense. Wilson made very good decisions except for the sack for a loss of 12 that put us out of fieldgoal range.

    On offense we looked very good, except for receivers who are still not active enough in getting open when Wilson is scrambling. Wilson ran like a rocket. He ran by MD LB’s like they were in slow motion. Wilson does waste a lot of downs by not having passes on the mark or not making reads quickly enough, but that is to be expected.

    We just can’t stop anybody on any kind of regular basis. We have to outscore people and our offense is not good enough to do that.

  14. JokersWild 10/26/2008 at 11:14 AM #

    Lost in all of this “competitive” loss discussion is there anyone that cares about the complete domination we continue to suffer at the hands of Maryland?!?! I hate them and it really has reached a UNC type peak. We now trail the overall series to them as a result of bonheadednesss, missed field goals vs. their made ones, penalties, etc. dating back to ’00. I remember cringing at a Hooters watching that one unwind in 2000 as they had their dual sport qb whom I also hated passionatly from their bball team with his dreads flapping out of his helmet as he and a Ron Vanderlinen coach team beat us!!! P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C. Then all I have to say is oranges, Adam Kiker, TA turnovers, throwing our band members drum, Sean Merryman, and you all immidiately know I’m talking all of the games from 01-03. To this day I despise the fact that Phil got stuck on the same team as that thug Merryman. Their fans are classless and their players are trash. A team takes on the mentality of it’s coach and all of that extra curricular stuff that occurred was a direct reflection of their whale like coach. Funny to me though, after all of that, and the melee that insued we were painted as the bad guys who threw things while the “Merryland” players were innocent of everything. Gotta love the “non-partial” “non agenda making” Washington Post! Of course after all of that Johnny Swafford and his boys do nothing to the team, coaches, or university, yet I seem to recall Julius getting a 1 game suspension for a retaliation that another Maryland GOON Steve Blake initiated. I want a coach who can take us to the next level in both of the major sports but at the same time I want one that can reverse the trends we suffer against the University of Southern NJ… errr… I mean Maryland. Does this matter to anyone else???

  15. smile102 10/26/2008 at 11:59 AM #

    Smile said…
    ““A 95-yard drive from the UMd 8 with 3 minutes to go to win the game?”

    A FG from the -3?”

    Well, smart-ass… they started at the 8, took a 5-yard penalty to their 3, then drove it 95 yards to our 2.

    So actually… yes… a 95-yard drive after they got the ball starting at their own 8. 🙂

    OK, my bad. Here’s my apology!

  16. MrPlywood 10/26/2008 at 5:20 PM #

    At least I had fun jabbing MD fans on the ESPN game thread. There were a bunch of nervous turtles there. I would have loved to have had the last laugh…

  17. choppack1 10/26/2008 at 7:49 PM #

    If you’re looking on the bright side…In an odd fluke of scheduling, we’ve played 4 (of the 5)ACC teams who beat us last year.

    Our performance against these 4 is markedly better that it was last year. This year all but one of those games was in question in the last 3 minutes – last year, none of them were.

    We’re definitely better than we were last year – we just have nothing to show for it. Defenisvely, we’re worse than we were – and our kicker isn’t as good as the one we had last year. However, our offense is much better and our punting game has been solid thus far.

    We’ll be lucky to go in 3-5 in the conference again, but I think it’s doable. Especially, if we keep on protecting the ball offensively.

  18. PackerInRussia 10/26/2008 at 10:23 PM #

    “Anthony Hill has hands like rocks. Why is he supposed to be so good?”

    I laughed when I was listening to the game after his first drop and they said, “The normally sure-handed Anthony Hill drops the pass.” I think rock-handed is more accurate.

    “I seem to recall Julius getting a 1 game suspension for a retaliation that another Maryland GOON Steve Blake initiated”

    The initiation by Steve Blake has been torn out of the history books and memories of Maryland fans. In their version, Hodge hit him for no reason at all. When discussing it with a MD fan a few years ago, I couldn’t believe that they had no idea what I was talking about when I said Steve Blake started it.

  19. wufpup76 10/26/2008 at 10:36 PM #

    Yes, JokersWild, I agree with you wholeheartedly …

    F the UMd

  20. Classof89 10/27/2008 at 8:28 AM #

    at this point, my only remaining goal for the season is for us to somehow win one more game and avoid finishing 2-10, 0-8, which would be the worst season in our football history. We will be obliterated by UNC and Miami, so our best remaining chance to avoid the worst ever season would be at Duke and home to Wake. Given our recent history with both teams (Duke has played us competitively even when we were great and they were horrible, and this season it ain’t like that), I wouldn’t want to be facing having to win one of those games to avoid going winless in the ACC.

    The good thing is that when you are this bad, as with our volleyball team, the mental pressure starts to build for our opponents–because who wants to lose to the hands down worst team in the league? Hopefully that will cause one of these next four opponents to really choke and freeze up in the 4th quarter (worse than we do, that is).

    Bright spot? Clearly, we are among the better last place teams among the major conferences…much better than Iowa State (Big 12), Washington State (Pac 10), Syracuse (Big East). Would be competitive with Purdue (Big 10) and Tennessee/Arkansas (SEC).

  21. old_pcorone 10/27/2008 at 8:39 AM #

    didn’t expect it to be this close, MD has our number for quite a while.

    Now since we are that bad I still expect something from the UNC game…. thay maybe overconfident, too much victory bell

  22. choppack1 10/27/2008 at 11:11 AM #

    classof89 – when have we ever been great?

    Also, why would you think UNC and Miami would blow us out? We’ve only been out of one ACC game in the last 5 minutes so far this year.

    I think all things considered, the team has done OK. We just haven’t found a way to win one or two 3 very close ACC games. We’ve probably played better than anyone other than Wolfpack fans thought we would.

  23. redfred2 10/27/2008 at 11:24 AM #

    chop is right, there are some very good things are happening fundamentally.

  24. choppack1 10/27/2008 at 11:58 AM #

    rf – it’s growth, but the losing is certainly frustrating – but I try to positive until there’s no other choice/evidence.

  25. McPete 10/27/2008 at 12:46 PM #

    there are some good things happening fundamentally, but tackling and limiting penalties aren’t two of them. didn’t we have Maryland stopped on their last drive, only to give them a 1st down on a personal foul? and their qb completed less than 50% of his throws, had trouble all afternoon with the wet ball, and we still couldn’t stop their run. even when they were one-dimensional. poor tackling once again was a big problem.

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