Embarrassment vs. Missed Opportunity

'10 Football Tom O'Brien97

As I mentioned in the (accidentally unfeatured, stupid outdated Blackberry of mine) game thread, this afternoon’s game was a prime example of why playing the Pie-rats on the road in the middle of the season (thanks, Lee!) is a bad idea. State was unexpectedly having a good season. So it became even more of a Super Bowl to EZU. State has a chance to win the Atlantic, with a crucial showdown against Florida State looming next. So it became even more meaningless to our players.

That said, sure it was still embarrassing. Look at the comments thread or the message boards, and it’s clear that a lot of people were/are very angry. Fingers are pointing at the coaches and players, and frankly, with good reason. It was a horrible effort, from top to bottom, start to finish.

But it doesn’t really matter at all to the arc of NC State’s football season. NC State will still be bowl eligible – Maryland and Wake Forest are almost indescribably putrid, and State would have to play even worse than today to lose to either team. I’m not sure that’s even possible. So, there’s your 7-5, for the bare minimum threshhold. Even if State stumbles to a 7-5 mark, it wouldn’t have made us more attractive to a bowl to have beaten East Carolina in October.

Beyond basic bowl eligibility, this season will be special or not based on what happens in the three games remaining against Florida State, Clemson, and UNC. And that’s why I was so much more enduringly mad when we pissed away the Virginia Tech game (a loss that many more fans seemed comparatively OK with). Had we won that game, then beating Florida State a week from Thursday would put NC State in commanding position to take the Atlantic Division. Instead, we probably still have to sweep Clemson and UNC, and certainly must win one of the two. That’s a much tougher road to travel.

But it still can be done. Of the three remaining opponents who will determine NC State’s season, the only one playing well right now is UNC. The program that Tom O’Brien has owned during his tenure in West Raleigh. A foe that nobody will overlook or fail to get up for. Based on what I’ve seen this year, State’s “A game” should beat FSU at home, and Clemson on the road. So, it’s still up to us.

Perhaps today’s embarrassment will do a little good. No fawning press clippings to swell players’ heads. A stark reminder that the Virginia Tech loss shouldn’t be shrugged off as a “quality loss” or even worse, a “moral victory.” Let the team come out and play angry the next few weeks. Anger is an excellent motivator.

And most importantly, hopefully the shame of October 16, 2010 will help Russell Wilson extract his cranium from his rectal orifice. Yes, he’s got a professional baseball career to look forward to. Yes, he missed Spring practice. But there’s no excuse for a fourth year junior known for his keen intelligence and leadership skills to make reads and decisions like he did today. Or like he did against the Hokies. Or like he did at Central Florida. Notice the trend? It will be evident in the film that Russell Wilson and Dana Bible start crunching through tomorrow. They have the time and ability to fix it before the Seminoles come to town.

Now, we can only wait and see if they do. But nothing would be different had we eked out a win today. Except maybe some tough questions don’t get asked, at least with the force that they should.

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.

'10 Football Tom O'Brien

97 Responses to Embarrassment vs. Missed Opportunity

  1. Wulfpack 10/17/2010 at 7:45 PM #

    I noticed RW was awfully non-chalant about the loss as well. He’s so even keeled, so that’s part of it. The other part, though, has me believing he knows he blew it and doesn’t want to let that on. Look, he’s a tremendous QB. We can still have a great season. But he really needs to improve his decision making for that to happen. He knows it.

  2. packof81 10/17/2010 at 8:27 PM #

    “Triad Wolf has point, how can you put this on the defense? They shut down this offense after the first quarter.”

    Yeah, after ECU scored most of their points. Duh. If they had stopped one of those 3 TDs, we’d have won in regulation despite our offensive shortcomings.

  3. Alpha Wolf 10/17/2010 at 8:28 PM #

    We’re staring 8-4 and very possibly 7-5 in the face.

    We probably will not beat FSU.

    We probably will not beat Clemson…they have too good a running game, OL and passing game.

    And…I am no longer convinced we will beat Maryland.

    Funny thing was I finally got some golf in this morning. Only had time to play 9 because my wife’s family is in town from Chicago and Columbus OH, but I was wretched the first three holes…just fricking awful. Double, bogey, triple awful. The last six holes I played one over. And lost in OT (going down the card) too, all because of that god-awful start to the round.

    Damn.

  4. libmajor 10/17/2010 at 9:33 PM #

    The ECU win doesn’t bother me, other than the fact I live in Greenville and will have to listen to rabid Pirates talk about it for the next decade, nearly as much as the lack of preparation displayed by Tom O’Brien and company on Saturday. You don’t go into a place with a bunch of Zealots without having your team motivated and ready to play. If O’Brien had done his job, we would have won by at least three touch downs. Going on the road and beating GT, and then coming to Greenville and loosing to a Conference USA team that lost; I think, 11 starters this year is inexcuseable. We expect better out of you Tom.

  5. packof81 10/17/2010 at 10:24 PM #

    “We’re staring 8-4 and very possibly 7-5 in the face.”

    And that might be optimistic. Poor defense is how a 17 point lead is blown and how an opponent racks up 3 TDs in the 1st quarter. The coaching staff doesn’t know how to fix this or they would have. We can’t beat FSU or Clemson playing like that.

    “We probably will not beat Clemson…they have too good a running game …”

    Clemson will run through us like excrement through a goose the way we’ve been playing.

  6. mak4dpak 10/17/2010 at 10:25 PM #

    Don’t twist my words, I know RW is very capable, but if it doesn’t bother him when we lose games, and he so non-chalant about it, that truly concerns me. To be a heisman candidate you can’t be that way, and when the game is on the line, you play smarter, and not throw the game away, like the VT,ECU games. We had every chance to win at the end of both, but interceptions sealed our fate.

  7. Rick 10/18/2010 at 6:56 AM #

    “Triadwolf — you nailed it. Catch those two obvious touchdowns and we would have won going away. But if we hadn’t had interceptions, we would have won going, away regardless.”

    Didn’t ECU have 4 fumbles?
    The what if game is for losers.

  8. packplantpath 10/18/2010 at 8:00 AM #

    4 fumbles, one of which was a guaranteed TD fumbled into the endzone….

  9. McCallum 10/18/2010 at 8:09 AM #

    Couple of points:

    1) Clemson has a nice running game especially if they keep the ball in Ellington’s hands. They have ZERO passing game at this point. Let me repeat, other than a wheel route to a running back and a streak to Allen, they have ZERO passing game.

    2) I’d like to put an APB out for George Byran. He has all but gone from the State offensive game plan and I suppose there are reasons for that. 5 to 10 and outs or sit in the middle of the field were open for him all day Saturday.

    3) State will not beat FSU. They combine the run and the pass and unless State allows tons of blitzing, which Oklahoma did, then look for a very long day.

    4) Archer seems intent on imposing his style of play on the defense. There is much less blitzing overall and the result is much less pressure on the QB or the running game.

    McCallum

  10. packplantpath 10/18/2010 at 8:13 AM #

    I think Tenuta was fired prior to Saturday. You knew things were bad when we played a 3-4 or what 3-3-5? at some point.

  11. GoldenChain 10/18/2010 at 9:46 AM #

    I haven’t read all 85 posts but two things:
    1) If we don’t come away empty on the early turn-over then all this mute. We’d all be slapping each other on the backs and saying “ECTC gave us their best shot and STILL lost”.
    2) Blaming LF for this loss is like blaming Bush for the $1.3trillion deficit. You have to schedule games, you have to win those games. We were a 8 pt favorite. No excusses.

  12. Classof89 10/18/2010 at 10:10 AM #

    Russell Wilson is sort of the Favre of the ACC. He will put up outstanding numbers, but will more often then not have a WTF? sort of throw when the game is on the line that will cost you some wins…

    Both losses this year directly traceable to bad decisions by QB in situations where the right decision would have avoided terminating the game winning drive.

  13. Gowolves 10/18/2010 at 12:14 PM #

    Yeah I hate this lose as much as anybody else. With that being said I dont see FSU and Clemson and especially MD being that much better than us. FSU struggled against a weak BC team. MD put some scare into Clemson this weekend. The sky is not falling as everyone may think it is. We still have a good shot to win the our side. If not a good bowl is still in the cards. Everyone needs to back away from the ledge. If Russell can just slow down a bit towards the end of games we have the players to make plays. As far as ECU goes we just played like crap for one quarter. This time it was the first quarter instead of the forth. Ths team has to know if it puts 4 quarters together they can beat anyone.

  14. GoldenChain 10/18/2010 at 1:46 PM #

    ^ word.

  15. Bowlpack 10/18/2010 at 5:03 PM #

    It’s still anybody’s conference. I kept flipping back to the FSU-BC game and guess what? They are certainly beatable. So are Clemson and UNC. I wouldn’t project that the wheels have fallen off the bus just yet. If we have another epic collapse like we did last season then all we will have to hang our hats on is a potential win over the ‘holes and that doesn’t satisfy me enough. I want to go 10-2 and take a trip to Charlotte for another shot at VaTech.

  16. mak4dpak 10/18/2010 at 7:20 PM #

    Another shot at VT in Charlotte would be nice, but we first have to take care of the business at hand, beating FSU. Play every game like a championship, and cut out the mistakes, and be on our A game. We have the talent, and Russell has to show the leadership, and play smarter when passing the ball, especially if the game is on the line. We still have a shot!

  17. McCallum 10/18/2010 at 9:02 PM #

    If you rush 4, have the linebackers reading 5-7 yards off the ball and the defensive backs playing a soft deep zone package I’ll take a Div II team and rush for 100 yards on you.

    Something is up with the defensive play calling and it has been on going since the Va Tech game. The entire attack mode, bringing corners at times but certainly always one linebacker coming has been shelved and I’d like to know why.

    If the “play’em straight” style is what we are going to see for the next 5-6 weeks then I suggest State will be lucky to beat the lucky sperm club or Merryland.

    I never liked the Herring style of pressure since it was so predictable and the “play’em straight” style is that as well.

    McCallum

  18. tuckerdorm1983 10/18/2010 at 9:28 PM #

    I know this is not popular, but at what point does TOB pull RW. How many INTs in a game before it happens? RW will not be back next year. I see his NFL prospects as slim and none. He just is not tall enough. We could have won both VT and ECU game but they both ended in mindless INTs with timeouts and downs left. WTF?

  19. wolfpack4ever 10/19/2010 at 12:16 AM #

    I have not posted for a good while (just found my password). However, this game just left me angered and demoralized. Agree or disagree with them, but here are my points of contention.

    1) The team was not ready to play. We had no business falling behind by 3 touchdowns in the first qtr. This is squarely on the coaching staff. I have been preaching patience to my son on behalf of TOB and the staff. However, after this game I am off of any TOB bandwagon. If I was still inclined to be on it, I would stand stoic and emotionless as a testament to a great leader.

    2) Play calling was disappointing. As bad as we played, we still have a chance to win in OT. A good run gets us inside or near the 15, if I recall correctly. Here we are in basically four down territory to make a first down. A touchdown is not an absolute requirement ath this point. Two more bland runs and then a forced pass to the goal line = interception and ball game. I could understand the run on first down. Make them prove they can stop it. However, follow it up with another? Even at 3rd down, call something that a.) gives a chance for positive yardage, b.) allows us to live for 4th down and short perhaps at the worst. Getting another first down needed to be the main objective.

    3) Give RW some freedom. It totally appears that RW has been told only pull it down and run as a last ditch effort to avoid a loss. This has resulted in far too many forced passes into coverage. I refuse to criticize RW. He is a young college student/athlete. He is not getting paid for his performances. I criticize the coaching staff for, apparently, removing the opportunity to freelance when a play breaks down. He made better decisions with some liberties to “ad-lib” so to speak in previous seasons.

    4) Never schedule a game with EZU in mid-season and on the road. Good riddance to Lee Foulup. They are in Conference USA for crying out loud. When they are on our schedule, it should D@#% well be in Carter Finley. We don’t owe them a D@#% thing!! Playing us at their place was the season highlight for them. We have absolutely nothing to gain and much to lose. We win = we should have. We lose = WTF!! Their coaching staff can go to recruits with “why go to NC State, we beat them, come here to Party U”. “Why deal with ACC academics, come here, help us beat them again while enjoying Party U”.

    Thank goodness for Chancellor Randy Woodson and Athletic Director Debbie Yow and also a shout out to Interim Chancellor James Woodward for starting to clear a pathway through the dead wood. Hopefully, this type of “NO WIN SITUATION” will be a thing of the past.

    Slowly stepping down off of my little soap box now. Please forgive my rant.

  20. Footballfan 10/19/2010 at 11:23 AM #

    Everybody just calm down. I will give you a moment… Good, now that we are back to reality that NCSU never actually had a chance at a BCS Bowl let alone a (chuckles at the ignorance) National Title, and that Russell Wilson is certainly not Heisman material and never was, we can look at this situation with a, down-to-earth kind of mentality.

    NCSU is definitely a good looking football team. They were the sleeper team in the ACC and surprised the hell out of everyone at the beginning of the season. Bravo! Then came VT. Of all the monstrosities to have ever been brought into existence, VT is the worst of them all (followed very closely by UNC). NCSU should have won that game but they didn’t… We all know the story, no sense in repeating it. However, NCSU was humbled greatly and reality set in that they never actually had a real chance at doing anything special. The story goes the same way for VT, who are constantly overrated at tthe beginning of every season and then blow it all.

    Then come ECU. Apparently, “EZU” is not as bad as everyone always assumes them to be. ECU is always the underdog, no matter who they are playing and especially when they are playing NCSU, UNC, VT and the like. Then, out of nowhere, those teams who overlook them and count on them as being a automatic win are stunned by them. NCSU was the one to get it this year because, obviously, UNC and VT did not overlook them. We all know this story too: NCSU loses to ECU in overtime because of bad play calling and coaching. Even though NCSU fans decided a week before the game that they could easily score over 50 points on any NC team. Now, my friends, or enemies, NCSU has been humbled again and the fact that they never really had a shot at doing anything special and that RW is certainly not, and never was, Heisman material, has shown itself again in a dark haze of purple.

    Play the loss off as “inconsequential” all you want, it is still a loss and a humbling one. Now, all of a sudden, that “easily score 50 points on any NC team” mentality is deminishing and UNC is starting to be feared, and possible wins over FSU and Clemson are slowly fading from memory like a bad dream.

    You may predict all you want, however the truth will arrive soon enough.

    To wolfpack4ever and others who make similar comments:

    ACC Academics? WTF is that? It sounds to me like someone trying to compensate for that fact that most students of NCSU only get into the community college that is affiliated with NCSU (no SAT required) and, perhaps one day, they will be able to get into the actual 4-year university.

    Party-U? WTF is that?
    Sounds to me like a schools with a girl to boy ratio of 9-1. For those of you just in the community college of NCSU that means: for every male, there are 9 females. Is there a problem with Party-U? Sounds like a more relaxed environment to me because people are actually getting laid. That’s what happens when your two main schools are nursing and teaching.

    Did you know that the conference in which a school’s athelietic teams mean nothing to the school’s actualy academics or are you that ignorant? Did it ever occur to anyone that someone may choose a school because of the programs in which that school specializes in? For instance, if I wanted to major in nursing, or education, or music, I would certainly apply to a schools like ECU. If I had always dreamed of being a engineer or a veteranarian, I would certainly apply to a place like NCSU. If I wanted to be queer and make out with gay guys, I would certainly apply to UNC.

    wolfpack4ever: Let’s think about what we say before we say it shall we? “Never schedule a game with EZU in mid-season and on the road…”
    It seems that, if NCSU was as good as everyone thought they were at the beginning of the season, a game at Dowdy-Ficklen in mid season should not be an issue. Just go there for a while and come back home. Not so easy was it? But that’s ok, because that loss doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter until NCSU wants to go to a bowl game and are one win short of eligible. It doesn’t matter until a fan from ECU says something to a fan from NCSU and, all of a sudden, fists are flying. It doesn’t matter.

    “When they are on our schedule, it should D@#% well be in Carter Finley”
    Did you know that NCSU is also on ECU’s schedule? Weird I know. If NCSU is too scared to go to Dowdy-Ficklen every other match up, perhaps they are too scared to actually play ECU at all.

    And to the person who said they would have to listen to ECU talk about this game for years: NO SH*T. That’s a beauty of an in-state rival. Braggin rights. And it won’t be for years, only until the next match up. If ECU wins, then you will hear about THAT game. If NCSU wins, then they get the bragging rights back.

    Welcome back to reality Wolfpack fans. It’s a dreary place, I know, but, life goes on.

  21. TomCat 10/20/2010 at 6:59 AM #

    I also disagree 100%. NC State v. ECU matchup is the best and most electric football environment in the state of North Carolina. Saturday’s game only further reinforced that fact. When we were trying to rebuild our program from the Amato fiasco we benefited greatly from upsetting a favored ECU team twice (they were ranked #15 in the country in most recent State win) in front of record crowds in both stadiums. Those wins along with the UNC wins were– our bowl games in those lean years. It is a matchup which is good for this state and fans love it- which exemplified by the record crowds. For the small minority who are scared to play– operating from a position of fear is the wrong message to message and small minded. It is simple. Win the game. ECU is a good program in our backyard and a great matchup. No goal posts came down in that game Saturday. I think the fear deal is a old and tired excuse. I support the Pack and playing this game every other year as a great anticipated matchup. My only regret is we don’t get another shot at them till 2013. Until then– Beat UNC.

  22. inhoc... 10/20/2010 at 8:27 AM #

    Just effing pathetic. Pretty obvious the wheels are coming off the bus now and the season will end up with this team limping across the finish line barely holding it together to go to a tampax 500 bowl. A 9 win season all but materialized because a couple plays (stupid decisions). Literally 2 plays away from 7-0.

    Just when the season was getting to be fun. The FSU game is going to suck. There better be a change to the status quo in that locker room and some people better meet Jesus real soon. This loss served more as a total deflation of expectations and hope rather than a wake up call. Its just a reminder, oh yeah its the wolfpack. they suck. still…

1 2 3 4

Leave a Reply