Awful Pack Handed Awful Loss

'09 Football154

The ending was a perfect microcosm of the Keystone Kops effort by NC State. Wake was stopped dead to rights on 3rd and 6, but 2 (maybe 3) embarrassingly bad missed tackles later, and it’s first down Deacs. 30-24 is your final, and the game was not as close as the score would indicate.

Without question, this was the worst game (relative to personnel) of the Tom O’Brien era. The players and the coaching staff have alot to answer for after this one. Completely, absolutely, unequivocably inexcusable.

Someone else can cover the post-game quotes. I’m in no mood to hear a word of it.

Gallery: http://www.newsobserver.com/galleries/gallery/125955.html

First Look: http://www.newsobserver.com/galleries/gallery/125664.html

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.

'09 Football

154 Responses to Awful Pack Handed Awful Loss

  1. wolfpacker24 10/03/2009 at 7:27 PM #

    How many of you had a bad feeling going into this game–even after the Pitt win?

    How many of you remembered we hadn’t won a game in W-S since 2001?

    How many of you noticed the line for the game was Wake -2.5?

    Tom O’Brien said himself this wasn’t a good football team last week after the Pitt win, and they weren’t a good football team today either. But chill out on the ‘end of the world posts’. Look at the rest of the ACC’s Atlantic Division right now (ACC record only):

    MD: 1-0
    BC: 2-1
    WF: 1-1
    CU: 1-2
    NCST: 0-1
    FSU: 0-2

    There’s still time to fix some of the things plaguing this team right now and make a run at the ACC Championship. Do any of the teams outside of Wake and BC scare you? We get two of them at home (in addition to Dook and UNC). Calm down folks…I’m just as upset that we lost to a supposedly inferior Wake team, but there’s still a lot of football to be played.

  2. PoppaJohn 10/03/2009 at 7:29 PM #

    I didn’t hear the post-game commentary, but I hope TOB said, “See, I told you last week. We are not a good football team.”

    You gents argue all you want, I think the coach knows what he’s talking about.

  3. TheAliasTroll 10/03/2009 at 7:30 PM #

    Whatever. I’ll let you guys cool off and talk about how terrible we are, when in reality we are “ahead of schedule”. In the mean time I’m going to go out and enjoy the rest of my afternoon. Good luck guys. Check your blood pressure on a regular basis.

  4. GApack04 10/03/2009 at 7:30 PM #

    Troll, do you enjoy losing games where your team misses tackles, drops passes, and makes a decent qb look like a phenom?

    As a conservative myself I think it is time to put up or shutup for this staff. For a staff that was so disciplined at BC they have showed ZERO of that in Raleigh

  5. wbnation 10/03/2009 at 7:30 PM #

    I’ll bail you out BJD with some objective critique:

    Our secondary may be the worst in the ACC. They are out of position on almost every play. I have seen better fundamental tackling at a Pop Warner game played by 8 year olds. The receivers every week come up short on being just mediocre they are down right awful. Audie Cole couldn’t cover me with a blanket and I’m almost 40.

    And then we get to the coaching staff:

    What can I say. Just a pitiful game plan. We had people calling what play was coming from the thread on forum before the play was called. multiple times. Now if a spectator on the internet can figure out your gameplan then you really need to go back to the drawing board, actually you probably shouldn’t be coaching D1 or D2 football if someone sitting miles away watching from his living room knows whats coming next. Just terrible. TOB and every coach should be just embarrassed by this loss. And if I hear one of these players actually went to the U2 concert as was being suggested by the announcers I will give up on this team for the rest of the year. Wake stinks and will finish towards the bottom of their division when all is said and done probably just ahead of us.

  6. TheAliasTroll 10/03/2009 at 7:33 PM #

    “Troll, do you enjoy losing games where your team misses tackles, drops passes, and makes a decent qb look like a phenom?”

    No, I don’t enjoy losing games no matter what the circumstances. But this one I can excuse. Did I think we would win a very exciting and close game before kick off? Yes.

    Turns out we I was off by 6 points. It’s not the end of the world. This to me is MUCH better than a “Season of Inches” and “Fannies”.

    I have full faith that TOB know a hell of a lot more about what he is trying to accomplish than all of you combined. That’s all I’ll say about that. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

  7. 85Designo 10/03/2009 at 7:38 PM #

    Ohh No, someone ate all the edges again!

  8. st8family 10/03/2009 at 7:48 PM #

    And just in case you are scoring at home, we missed 4 tackles on a 5-11 180LB RB over a 10 yard span to ice the game.

  9. Wulfpack 10/03/2009 at 7:49 PM #

    BJD nailed it. There is legitimate cause for concern. Wake is an average (at best) football team. What’s even more clear as the same goes for us. We have a stud at QB, yet we stink. Our identity as a team is for RW to run his ass off when the O line consistently breaks down or when the WRs can’t get open, which happens all too often, and then everyone watches as RW works miracles. That’s bad football. It won’t win you many games now, and even less in the future since we aren’t establishing any sort of system.

    I’ve been hard on Lowe. After last week, and now this week, I do not think it is unfair to begin asking TOB what the problem is. Disappointing.

  10. 85Designo 10/03/2009 at 7:55 PM #

    The ACC sucks as a whole, Maryland handed Clemson 3 chances from the 30 and they couldn’t win it. Virginia paid off the Heels, and so on. And ESPNU is in the brownie baking business. The ACC should be kicked out of the BCS

  11. Wulfpack 10/03/2009 at 7:57 PM #

    You can’t lose the way you did to USC if you expect to be an elite team. You can’t play the way you did against Pitt if you expect to be an elite team. You can’t play the way we did today if you expect to be an elite team.

    There’s now enough evidence for me to conclude, same ole, same ole, TOB or not. We’ve all seen this movie way too many times before. We all know exactly how this thin plays out: wait till next year. Yawn.

  12. travelwolf 10/03/2009 at 8:13 PM #

    You can’t win them all – esp. against a decent team on the road. What kept us in the last game was Wilson’s hustle and great throws – he had a ‘sup-par’ game and that’s probably one of the reasons why we lost. He’s human, thank god. Plenty of more games to play and plenty of wins coming up. As someone above mentioned – if we lose to one of the lower-tier teams, then it might be time to ‘complain’. But to say that the players weren’t out there playing there hearts out today seems a little insulting to them. CHILL. Just be happy that we didn’t lose to a bad team.

  13. Wulfpack 10/03/2009 at 8:16 PM #

    Wake IS one of those lower teams….

  14. Dogbreath 10/03/2009 at 8:22 PM #

    We are two heroic plays from a 2 star true freshman safety from being 0-3 (no I don’t count exhibition games against FCS teams in either the statistical or W/L column.)

  15. Wulfpack 10/03/2009 at 8:26 PM #

    For those touting Wake as a strong team, let me remind you have lost to Baylor at home, needed a last minute score to beat Stanford at home, a game in which they trailed all day, and lost to BC.

    This isn’t the Wake of the past few years. It’s been well documented. The Deacs will be fortunate to go bowling. I’m afraid we’re suddenly in the same boat.

  16. LRM 10/03/2009 at 8:52 PM #

    We just missed another tackle.

  17. stately 10/03/2009 at 9:00 PM #

    Our receivers just dropped another ball.

  18. wbnation 10/03/2009 at 9:25 PM #

    we just ran another delay up the middle

  19. jamescox.ncsu 10/03/2009 at 9:28 PM #

    Ok, absolutely no one here seems to be even considering defending TOB, so here goes. I was at the post-game press conference after the Pitt game as a part of student media. His first words of the press conference were along the lines of “We are a bad football team, and I am a bad football coach.” I truly believe that comment shows how truly great of a coach he is. Instead of yeah we won, it was we’re a bad football team. With that said, he knows his team needs a lot of work. If TOB was a bad coach he would not have said so. If memory serve correctly, in the season before TOB came in, we had 3 wins? We are currently 3-2. We won’t talk about the USC game other than that USC is currently on a tear and we held them to their least points this season. Even #4 Ole Miss allowed more than we did. Because of TOB’s awareness, he know’s what is broke and what needs fixing. Obviously the first thing he needs to drill into our guys is discipline. Now, I know there are NCAA rules regarding practice times, but if I was TOB, I would strongly consider a team practice after the game. I don’t know, ESPN U kept saying some of our players were going to the concert? Team meeting? Discipline, if not taken care of soon, will wreck any chances of anything State has hopes for. For that, they are a truly bad football team. Today, State gave up 85 yards on penalties alone. Oh? WF’s 9? WF’s 9 were for 80 yards. Next thing that will kill us? Our offensive line. We are so lucky to have Russell Wilson ass our quarterback, because I don’t think anyone else would have been able to scramble as well as he does (he ran for 41 yards). There is no reason Wilson should have to bail out of the collapsing pocket every single play. Another reason our O-line will destroy us? 104. That was the total rushing yards State had in todays game. Our offensive line needs to be able to protect long enough for Wilson to make the plays he is capable of, but he needs time, as well as provide a push for running plays. Our secondary it terrible. I had the chance to interview TOB before the USC game and asked him how comfortable he was with the secondary and if he would consider switching to a man style as opposed to the zone we currently run with how young our secondary is and how offenses were able to pick it apart last season. He said something along the lines of “we’ll see how they do.” Well, it seems our troubles have compounded from last year. Not only is our secondary inexperienced enough that it has difficulties with zones and picking up when the QB throws to areas such as the flats, where our zones seemingly weren’t there, all game long, they can not tackle once the pass has been caught by the open receiver. TOB knows what needs to be fixed. Until today, I would say he has two weeks to do so, as a little improvement would be sufficient against Duke. But if the Duke that put up 26 against a #6 V Tech shows up on Saturday, and if TOB can not make some impressive improvements this week, October 10th may be just as difficult a game. I know the team knows they have a lot of potential, but they have to want to be a good team.

  20. Packster 10/03/2009 at 9:32 PM #

    There is a lot of over=reacting going on here. Wake is a solid team and we were in their house. This is the longest running rivalry in the state. It was only 6 points. I think some of you guys do not understand we are not where we need to be as a program yet but we are clearly headed in the right direction. Amato left a mess and messes take time to clean up. Our defense is good compared to most of the NC State teams in my lifetime (I am 40), and the offense isn’t bad either. Our receiver core does seem pretty weak however. I remember going to WF many years and just getting thrashed. This wasn’t bad today by any stretch. We had a chance to win in the end. You guys need to chill and have a little more reasonable expectations.

  21. RagingWolf 10/03/2009 at 9:34 PM #

    FLAG!

  22. 97 pack alum 10/03/2009 at 9:48 PM #

    I’d like to say that it is hard to believe that there is such a strong response to this loss but I guess I should expect as much from some of the Wolpack Nation. Russell Wilson makes that pass in the back of the end zone and everyone on this site would be talking ACC championship. He throws an unexpected INT and there are those who are now calling TOB, and his ability to coach this team, into question? Please. We lost. It sucked. We should have beaten a Wake team that was beatable. But I agree with those that have already posted that question the chicken-little mentality. This season is not over. We lost a closely contested game. Yeah, the middle- and deep- coverage sucked at times and we will suffer as long as that occurs. But this team will not lose out the rest of this season. Skinner is a good QB and he picked his receivers well.
    The Wolfpack will be fine.
    For those who are already writing the season off, remember that when we win some you didn’t expect and we are right back in it at the end of the season.

  23. Dogbreath 10/03/2009 at 9:57 PM #

    We just punted it 23 yards.

  24. tjfoose2 10/03/2009 at 10:00 PM #

    Some of you people are absolutely pathetic. It was a tough loss, to a good team, in a place that has vexed us for some time.

    Heck yeah it was ugly and we played poorly. No kudos were earned on the Wolfpack side of the ball today.

    But wake up folks, we are a young team. Look over the roster at the amount of freshman we are playing… NC State football is a work in progress. Most you more knowledgeable fans have stated we are still a year or two away.

    You are dealing with young kids who are still learning how to win and how to build a program. There is no senior leadership on this team that has learned how to win, how to mentor younger players, or how to handle success after an emotional, albeit ugly, win.

    That leadership we will need in the future, when we do hit our window, is now being developed. They will learn, they are learning.

    I got news for you folks, expect more of this… for every 3-4 steps we take forward, we will take 1-2 back. It’s called learning.

    The game was ugly, we lost. I’m not happy either. But to start the f’n bullsh!t I’ve read in some of the comments… you losers don’t f’n deserve a winning team.

    Some of you make me sick. You are f’n pathetic.

    If you’re looking for a something to leap from, perhaps you’ll find a more like crowd a few miles down 1-40. Go for it.

  25. 61Packer 10/03/2009 at 10:01 PM #

    Aspirations for a special season ended sometime during the South Carolina game, not this one. After that game, most of us knew that this wasn’t going to be a special season. Murray State and Gardner-Webb only delayed the message that came from TOB himself after the Pitt game last weekend: “We’re not a good football team.” Believe the Marine when he says something.

    Atlantic Division rivals FSU and Clemson lost again today. BC, the media’s choice for worst in our division, won again. Duke, who made the ACC’s best team struggle today, comes in here Saturday. If we can’t tackle this opponent, then I believe we might be a bad team.

    And if we achieve “badness” early in October with Clemson, FSU, Virginia Tech and UNC still ahead, that might be enough to make many of us start thinking about basketball, an ugly word that popped up on here tonight.

    God forbid.

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