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. wbnation 10/03/2009 at 10:02 PM #

    another flag

  2. Wulfpack 10/03/2009 at 10:10 PM #

    I think it is more than fair, at this stage of TOB’s career at NCSU, to begin asking what type of program he is trying to establish here and how he intends on going about it. We have the best QB in the league, yet we’re still, according to out coach, a “bad” football team. It isn’t like he arrived yesterday. There’s been some time to get some guys inb here. They haven’t been up to snuff.

    Again, these are fair questions. No coach deserves a blank check. It’s time that we start seeing some improvement. We have a lot of work to do if we intend on improving on last season. Fair questions. Very fair.

  3. Delete-Me 10/03/2009 at 10:11 PM #

    Folks, Russell’s luck ran out today… Check out the last offensive play for us and that basically tells the story. He was off. The commentators even said the same. Move on.

  4. wbnation 10/03/2009 at 10:12 PM #

    Its not that we lost to an average team at their place where we have a history of losing that upsets me. It was the all around effort today from the coaching staff to the receivers to the secondary. Mistakes here and there are one thing, but mistakes on just about every other play is ridiculous. Bibles offense was so predictable today it was naussiating. You guys that say relax it will be ok, we are young, and its growing pains thats fine. You can have that attitude, but today wasn’t about growing pains, it was about execution or lack there of, from coaches to penalties to drop balls. FUNDAMENTALS!!!! If we still don’t have those going into week 5 after having all of spring practice and 2 scrimmages against high school teams don’t look for us to have it come week 10. Some said we still could go 7-5 because of the number of home games, well I for one don’t think we should get a bowl bid with a 7-5 record..remember 2 of those wins were against middle school teams and beating middle school teams shouldn’t count towards your bowl eligibility.

  5. Wulfpack 10/03/2009 at 10:13 PM #

    So we are a 1 man team? That’s kind of my point. This is football. Team game.

  6. wbnation 10/03/2009 at 10:16 PM #

    “Folks, Russell’s luck ran out today… Check out the last offensive play for us and that basically tells the story. He was off. The commentators even said the same. Move on.”

    actually it was Bowens giving up on the play and not helping out his quarterback who puts it out there on the line every play. It was sickening watching these feckless receivers doing nothing all day. Play walk-ons if you have to but these 4 and 5 receivers are worthless and have been for about 2 years now.

  7. tjfoose2 10/03/2009 at 10:17 PM #

    “It isn’t like he [TOB] arrived yesterday. There’s been some time to get some guys inb here. They haven’t been up to snuff. ”

    Wulfpack – With all due respect, and nothing personal, seriously, but you must know very little about college football, at least as it pertains to everything you can’t see on the field during game time.

    Actually, in football sense, TOB did arrive here ‘yesterday’. TOB is getting players here. They are up to snuff. We are ahead of schedule in what could have been realistically expected when TOB arrived.

    That is, unless you think we should be bringing in recruiting classes w/ 15 five stars and 10 four stars every year. In that case, yes, you are correct, we are not ready to compete with USC, Alabama, and Florida.

  8. tjfoose2 10/03/2009 at 10:20 PM #

    Amen wbnation… both interceptions were cases of WR’s not finishing… either quitting the route or giving up on the play.

    Wilson wasn’t at his sharpest at times today, but his receivers did not help him. If those receivers ‘finish’ the play, RW leaves Wintson-Salem w/ 0 interceptions.

  9. choppack1 10/03/2009 at 10:20 PM #

    It’s amazing we were in this game tonight.

    Special teams, missed tackles and one awful INT by RW did us in.

    I was more concerned about coaching after USC game than I was tonight. Simply put, Wake’s best player was better than ours tonight…and Skinner was awesome.

    To me, the biggest headscratcher was the abscence of Brandon Bishop. I put the USC ones on the coaches…I put this one on the players.

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

    This is truly the whiniest thread I have ever read.
    We lost a close game. We also won a close one last week. Wake is no worse than Pitt and is probably better. How many pessimists in this thread were running scared last week?

  11. Wulfpack 10/03/2009 at 10:24 PM #

    So why is it that our receivers can’t catch at critical moments? Why can we not run the football? What about the shoddy special teams play? Or the penalties? Were these issues hallmarks of TOBs tenure at BC? Isn’t it easier to recruit players to NCSU vs. BC? These are fair questions that many Wolfpack fans are wondering tonight. Grobe is a GREAT coach, but it never occured to me he might be that much better than TOB. There was a difference in talent on the field. One team executed. The other didn’t.

  12. bone7483 10/03/2009 at 10:29 PM #

    Awful performance all the way around. VT will hang 21pts on us just off of special teams. We not only have the worst special teams in the conference, I think they are the worst I have ever witnessed. Can’t punt, can’t cover, can’t block, can’t tackle.

    I can’t see us improving on tackling. If we are in week 5 and still can’t tackle, it won’t happen this year.

    To do list:

    Remove Jerry P’s coaching responsibilities.
    Bring Joe Pate back to coach Special Teams.
    Find someone else on the coaching staff to coach receivers. Terrible! Donald Bowens lack of effort in preventing the interception just sums up the laziness of our receivers.

  13. choppack1 10/03/2009 at 10:31 PM #

    “Grobe is a GREAT coach, but it never occured to me he might be that much better than TOB.”

    Uh,why not? Grobe has 1 ACC title, TOB has zero. Look, as solid as he was at BC, he never won more than 10 games, he never won a conferece championship.

    Expect him to meet his results he had at BC here. Expecting anything else is foolish.

  14. eas 10/03/2009 at 10:31 PM #

    I went to the game and even the Wake fans agreed Wilson was off a little. Skinner played very well and Wake is a decent team. Great showing by Pack fans today…there was a lot of red in the stands and we were usually louder as well. They couldn’t get over how Wilson couldn’t get sacked.

    My observations were simple today. Horrible play calling. Horrible running game. The team was confused on defense most of the day (but still looked decent on D). The Ref’s, for once, favored the Pack on MANY calls. WFU controlled the game and tempo. Poor field position ALL DAY!

    I am most frustrated with the Offensive play calling. Really bad today. The entire team looked exhausted and played with little emotion. If it weren’t for a few lucky “big” plays, we would have been beaten bad. However, our 0-line looked good today. We looked stronger but WFU was quicker/smarter.

    Man the play calling was bad.

  15. 97 pack alum 10/03/2009 at 10:45 PM #

    I will stand behind the fact that the Wolfpack had a chance to win with a throw into the endzone that RW, unfortunately (and unexpectedly) underthrew and had intercepted. That completion is made, and everyone on here is talking about how great the Wolfpack is.

  16. Chaos & Disorder 10/03/2009 at 10:47 PM #

    Losing one game is fine. Lord knows we’ve done it plenty of times. What’s disturbing here in Year 3 is the complete lack of fundamentals (tackling, pursuit angles, catching, blocking) and the lack of mental toughness and discipline. The loss to Wake Forest, if taken as one game, sucks, but is not all that bothersome. But when you look closely at HOW we lost to Wake Forest, and notice that it’s a microcosm of everything that was supposed to be corrected after the dismissal of Chuck Amato, that’s where things start to be alarming. I said this elsewhere, and I’ll say it again here – a man waking up today from a 3-year coma would never know that Chuck Amato was no longer coaching this team. And that’s what bothers a lot of people.

  17. Chaos & Disorder 10/03/2009 at 10:51 PM #

    “That completion is made, and everyone on here is talking about how great the Wolfpack is.”

    With all due respect, only a fool would think this team is great simply because we pulled out a victory. We would have been happy with the result, but knowledgeable people would know that this was a bad football team that is far below average in many aspects of the game. Every FBS team we’ve played has exposed us mightily. There is much work to be done before we can even call ourselves a good football team, let alone great.

  18. MrPerfectionest 10/03/2009 at 10:52 PM #

    I think we need to work on routes that have our receivers coming back towards the QB. We know he is going to get loose and scramble, no sense in having them continue running down the field and on routes that are designed to work from a QB hanging out in the pocket.

    I’m a bit miffed as to why we couldn’t do anything running wise. Literally dumbfounded.

    We all knew the secondary was a GIANT question mark coming into the season, so I can only be so upset. If everyone would remind themselves when we came into this season we were at least another year away, you wouldn’t nearly be so upset.

  19. Chaos & Disorder 10/03/2009 at 10:59 PM #

    I’ll say this – the Duke game suddenly becomes a lot more interesting now on many fronts. I expect us to win, but don’t be surprised if the fans turn on O’Brien’s product if we continue with the stupid penalties and inexcusably sloppy play.

  20. BJD95 10/03/2009 at 11:08 PM #

    First, let’s establish a few baseline items. Wake Forest is a mediocre team at best. They did not play that well today.

    If Wake came out and played the game of their season and beat us, I could accept that. But that’s not what happened. We basically came out and played like we were middle schoolers, stoned, or both.

    I didn’t expect to be a championship contender this season. But I did expect to see real program growth, signs that things are beginning to click into place. I’m seeing none of that. We followed a “teachable moment” win by completely laying an egg. We may reach the 7 or 8 win plateau, but only because of the general, pervasive shittiness of the ACC.

    We needed a near perfect game from our star QB to pull out a narrow home win against a decent (but by not Top 25-caliber) opponent. without that near perfection, we can’t beat (and should have been blown out by) a mediocre foe on essentially a neutral field.

    This is not good. Not good at all.

  21. Chaos & Disorder 10/03/2009 at 11:10 PM #

    “We followed a “teachable moment” win by completely laying an egg.”

    Yep. This is the kind of nonsense that O’Cain was notorious for.

  22. tjfoose2 10/03/2009 at 11:11 PM #

    Special teams has been horrid all year – I agree, something needs done there.

    Penalties? We had 8 for 85. Two of those, for 15 yards each, were bogus. Adjusted, that’s 6-55. Still not good, but not bad either.

    Byran’s “tripping” penalty was a joke. Even the announcers, who seemed to know very little, saw that the defender tripped himself over Bryan’s foot/shin as Bryan was blocking him straight up.

    The Sweezy penalty was a joke too, questionable at best… the only thing he did different than Willie and everyone else after a sack was cross and raise his arms. How many “Nate Iring” (arms flexed down + yell + strut) have we seen this year w/o a warning, let alone a penalty?

    Other than that, we had a 5 yd substitution infraction. Caused by a personnel mixup, not sure I’d call it a ‘stupid’ penalty, but I guess it could be.

    There was a 10 yard holding call – holding calls are rarely ‘stupid’ penalties. This one was not an exception.

    We had a 15 yard offensive pass interference penalty on Bowens for a pushoff when he was cutting back on his route. Assuming it was the proper call, it was a penatly, but not a “stupid” penalty.

    Graham got called for a false start. Yes, stupid penalty for -5 yards.

    There was an unsportsman like conduct penalty on Mageo. TV didn’t show it, so I’ll assume it was valid. Stupid penalty for -15 yards.

    Justin Byers called for offsides. Yes, stupid penatly for -5 yards.

    So by my count, that’s 4 ‘stupid penalties’ for 30 yards. Yes, too many, but doesn’t quite reach the level of “all those stupid penalties” that I’ve been reading about.

  23. RBCRowdy 10/03/2009 at 11:17 PM #

    X’s and O’s vs Jimmy’s and Joe’s

    The Jimmy’s and Joe’s at NCSU are not top notch football players. Until the talent coming into NCSU is elevated mediocre football is the best we’ll get regardless of the coach.

    TOB can coach and coach and coach but if the players aren’t smart enough or physically able to make key plays at important times this is what to expect.

  24. Chaos & Disorder 10/03/2009 at 11:20 PM #

    I’m also a bit baffled at O’Brien coming out two weeks in a row telling the people that we have a bad football team, and that he & his staff are doing bad coaching jobs. I get that he’s trying to deflect blame off of his players like most other coaches, but it just seems like the wrong thing to say at the wrong time. Again, it’s normal coachspeak, but something about this just seems….wrong.

  25. tjfoose2 10/03/2009 at 11:31 PM #

    “I’ll say this – the Duke game suddenly becomes a lot more interesting now on many fronts. ”

    Duke usually plays us tough in Raleigh, regardless of how bad they are. Even when they were absolutely horrid, we only beat them 24-22 in ’02, our 11-3 Gator Bowl year. And that was w/ Franks deciding to ‘go for it’ 2 or 3 times on 4th down while in easy field goal range. How good was Duke that year? They won 2 games, beating only Navy and ECU.

    Btw, for some credibility, even if just a little, for my assessments in previous posts here, not only did I predict Miami would soon lay an egg after they opened w/ 2 wins, but I also predicted them to rebound and beat Oklahoma after flopping at VT.

    Why? Miami is a talented, but youthful team still learning how to handle success and emotions week to week throughout a 12 game season. They too are learning… only w/ much better talent.

    As good as they’ve looked in their wins, they’ll still have more ugly games this season.

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