Outscored 41-13 at home

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If you can stand it, then you can use this entry to discuss the aftermath of being outscored 41-13 by Virginia Tech after taking a 17-0 lead.

Oddly enough, my biggest frustration while sitting in the stands was not the conventional wisdom that our defense was collapsing. My unverified (at the time) frustration was the collapsing offense. It felt like almost EVERY first down play call was a predictable run that ultimately yielded a 2nd down and 10 yards to go.

I say ‘unverified (at the time)’ because the good folks at Riddick & Reynolds were noticing the exact same thing and blogged the following:

State routinely struggled to generate significant yardage on first down in the second half, due in large part to VT nullifying State’s running game. As a result, State was often behind schedule in down and distance, limiting State’s flexibility on second and third downs. Here are the yards gained on the first down plays of the third and fourth quarter:

* 1-yard rush
* 3-yard rush
* 34-yard TD pass
* 18-yard rush
* 0-yard rush
* 9-yard pass
* 0-yard pass
* 0-yard pass
* 1-yard rush
* 9-yard rush
* 1-yard rush
* -1-yard rush
* 23-yard pass
*0-yard rush
*1-yard rush
* interception
* 17-yard pass to end the game

As you can see, it’s a moderate amount of feast and a lot of famine. Other than a few big gainers and the 34-yard touchdown strike, State had nine plays that gained one yard or less and the crippling interception at the end.

Give credit to the Hokies and particularly Bud Foster for making effective defensive adjustments after it looked like State might put the game away early. State managed only three points in the critical 4th quarter while the Hokies were scoring 20 to take the game over for good.

More observations from the N&O available here.

* N.C. State linebacker Nate Irving was a bit tentative early in the season after missing all of last season because of injuries suffered in a car crash.

Now he’s starting to round into 2008 form after making zero tackles in the opener against Western Carolina. Irving made tackles for losses on consecutive plays in the first quarter where he made good reads and annihilated the Virginia Tech players who were carrying the ball.

On the heels of a 16-tackle performance at Georgia Tech, Irving’s 13-tackle effort against the Hokies should put him back in the conversation for a decent spot in the NFL draft.

* Punter Andy Leffler, making just his second start, had a strong performance against a Virginia Tech team known for frustrating opponents with its special teams play.

Leffler averaged 43 yards on four punts with a long of 56 yards, despite getting knocked over on a running-into-the-punter penalty early in the game. He downed two punts inside the 20-yard line.

* Freshman David Amerson made his first start of the season at boundary cornerback in place of Justin Byers.

He said last season at Greensboro’s Dudley High, he didn’t face anybody comparable to speedy Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

“He’s a tremendous athlete,” Amerson said. “That’s God-given. You can’t teach that.”

Please feel free to share other articles about the game in the comments section of this entry so we can have a centralized place for readers to research and sulk. Our message boards can be accessed by clicking here. They’ll be slow today but should be robust again on Monday.

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40 Responses to Outscored 41-13 at home

  1. leewolf 10/03/2010 at 4:45 PM #

    While I’m disappointed with the loss, I will only be really disappointed if we let VT beat us twice and lose to BC next week. It is pretty clear that we were outplayed in the second half yesterday, and VT made big plays (well Taylor did) when they needed to, we didn’t. While there were some nitpicky things that I wish we had done differently (some play calling on both sides that got me a little), it came down to making plays and a lack of execution when VT did execute.

    The key is, turn around and get ready for BC. Gotta win this one to get back on track. Honestly, there is no reason this team should not win the next two (@ ECU) and get to 6-1 (2-1). From what I have seen so far, BC is offensively challenged and their D is only so-so. ECU has an ok offense and a very poor defense (as evidenced by giving up 42 points to UNC yesterday). State has looked like the better team so we need to bring it the next two weeks and prove it. Get to 6-1 (2-1) and we are still in the hunt for the Atlantic Division title going into two huge games v. FSU and @ Clemson.

  2. danceswithwolves 10/03/2010 at 5:15 PM #

    Ill tell you what kills me, the fact that at the beginning of the year (this past summer), everyone was sooo worried that we would even win 5 or 6 games and that this was probably TOB’s last year. Sooo many people ready to see TOB go because our team is not what it is supposed to be at this point. Now here we sit, 4-1, with our first loss of the year coming to a team that we all know will be ranked by the end of the year, the team that was picked to win the ACC, and you would think that the season is going to go down the drain. We have seven games left people, i think that this team is going to muster enough to get a few more victories. Maybe I am wrong but, I think that this years team will be just fine. And stop talking about what has happened in this month or that month in the past. Who freakin cares what happened in oct. And stop thinking about dec., these “STUDENT athletes” have one thing on their mind starting today. Boston College. They are 0-0 and its a one game season.

  3. danceswithwolves 10/03/2010 at 5:21 PM #

    The point I was trying to reach was, what did you think we would be, national title contenders? one week at a time guys. we are getting to where we want to be.

  4. tuckerdorm1983 10/03/2010 at 7:26 PM #

    I thought at the end they would run the time out and kick a field goal. When they scored a touch down I thought you know this may be the mistake that cost them the game.

    I felt we were gonna win it with 1:25 left to go and all of our timeouts. RW would take us down the field and score to win. I said to my friend watching the game with me right before our last play that we can do anything but commit a turnover. There is no need to try the hail mary. RW could throw some passes down the field. Even run a draw when the defense is in prevent. It didn’t work out that way. DAG NABBIT

  5. choppack1 10/03/2010 at 7:48 PM #

    “The play that mattered most IMO was Wilson’s first interception at the end of the first half. Had Wilson made a better throw, it would have been 24-7. Or worst case an incompletion, and a likely 20-7 lead.”

    Amen. People want to blame the second half, but we lost this game in the second quarter. VaTech was in trouble, we had them on their heels, and we failed to capitalize.

    There’s a reason VaTech hasn’t missed a bowl game in a very long time -and one of them is that when that they get down 17 points, they don’t roll over and play dead.

    This was by far the worst game I’ve seen from RW – in terms of decision making – in his 3 year career here. Va Tech’s D did have a lot to do w/that.

    At the end, the VaTech QB made great plays, the NC State qb didn’t make nearly as any.

    Like others have said, our bomb on every other play was a bit baffling, but I’m guessing the coaches saw something on tape that led them to call those plays.

    We can’t say that our staff is too chickensh*t or that they didn’t go for the juglar. I think TOB summed it up well – we played hard, didn’t play smart.

    Oh well, BC game is huge now.

  6. WolftownVA81 10/03/2010 at 8:05 PM #

    I was at the game and agree with everything above. In the second quarter I kept thinking about the previous entry on an emotional let down. We’ll I think this game qualifies. We definately need to develop a killer instinct. Getting ahead early may have caused us to get complacent. Never the less we can come back and do some good things this season. No one in particular to blame for this. This was a team loss. I do wish we would have kept up the pressure on Taylor. Seems to me like we backed off instead of keeping him on his heels.

  7. truthserum 10/03/2010 at 8:23 PM #

    Very troubling game to me. I am sorry but I will not give “props” to Virginia Tech for anything except more heart, guts, intelligence, and effort yesterday. This looked too much like the Virginia game in ’86 and the Georgia Tech game in ’02. State has a chance to make a big step and chokes it away pure and simple. If you want to be “big time” you do not blow a 17 point lead at home to an overmatched team that has already lost to a JMU. This was not Alabama or Oregon. State’s history is to have “nice” coaches that either do not know how or do not have it in them to bring the proverbial hammer to kill a gnat(except for Tomato who was just a complete goon and idiot). Though I would not want the types of thuggery that Miami had in its heyday I did always admire their ability to turn a relativley tight 10-3 or 14-3 lead into a 38-3 blowout before you knew it–particularly in road games. Over the years when State would pull one of their routine choke jobs I would find it somewhat therapeutic to watch one of the elite programs woodshed an opponent the way it should be done. Weaker opponents were never allowed to “hang around” the way Sheridan let happen. Now, it appears that NCSU may have another Sheridan and will never even sniff the status of “powerhouse” in college football. The repeated blown leads this year finally caught up to them after watching the almost-collapses against Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Georgia Tech. I am not for running up scores after an outcome is decided but I think Jimmy Johnson learned at Miami in ’84 against Maryland that no lead is ever too big. Don’t get me wrong, I have been all for giving O’Brien a chance–particularly this year. Its just that I think the game yesterday may have been the watershed game to let this program know, unfortunatley, what they have at the helm. State has been down this street of medicority far too many times.

    PS–To back up my assertion about the Sheridan mentality I recall a conversation I had with a player form the ’91 team regarding the Peach Bowl collapse against ECU. I asked him what happened after State went up 34-17 in the 4th quarter. To paraphrase his response: He did’t know. The coaching staff was saying they had the game in the bag and they would play conservatively. They began to call basic prevent defenses that Jeff Blake started to pick apart. He said that the players were going nuts on the sidelines and repeatedly getting into it with the staff about playcalling. The players wanted to remain aggressive and felt they could have really poured it on as far as scoring but at some point realized that the staff was going to lose the game for them. The implication I got, without it being overtly stated, was that the players did not forgive the staff for that one. I won’t even get started on the ’86 Peach Bowl against–oh yeah–Virginia Tech.

  8. Primewolf 10/03/2010 at 9:02 PM #

    If you go back and look at GT game, it was alot closer than the final score. In fact, the game hinged on a few plays and mistakes. I think the same can be said for this game. While VT dominated the lines from the middle of the second quarter, the game still came down to a few plays. Score at the end of the first half instead of the interception and score on the drive where the holding penalty stopped us, and we likely would have won it.

    I was disappointed we kept trying to run the ball on first down in the second half.

    This next game is the biggest one, like the next one always is. We must beat BC. I don’t think it will be easy given how weak our line play looked against VT.

  9. mak4dpak 10/03/2010 at 10:58 PM #

    I checked the stats, since I heard so many comments about being dominated by VT. We actually had about 100 more yards of total offense, and more time of possesion. This game was clearly a gift from us, and hopefully the last one. I guess we will see how we respond against BC, Saturday.

  10. Rick 10/04/2010 at 7:07 AM #

    The question is “was this a blip or did VT give other teams a recipe to beat us?”

  11. McCallum 10/04/2010 at 7:58 AM #

    I might have missed it but was there any analysis on why State stopped bringing pressure with the three linebackers?

    I said two weeks ago that the kicking game would cost State at least two games and the Va Tech was game one. In fact, I was at Players Retreat last week when a few yahoos from the Wolfpack Club walked in and I mentioned that to them as well. Of course they made no comment but you must suppose that being institutionalized goes with that territory.

    And what happened to Tenuta? It was almost as if he took the world’s longest dump and never made it back to the coaching box after halftime. The defense play calls of the 2nd half were classic Archer.

    Va Tech put out the template to stop Wilson (or at least slow him down).

    State was out coached: bottom line.

    McCallum

  12. goalielax 10/04/2010 at 9:59 AM #

    what do you mean what happened to tenuta? this is what you get with him. great blitzing – zero adjustments. just look at the UCF game. they were in position to tie the game late until their turnover. the new QB came in and the defense never made adjustments to stop them. VT made adjustments, State did not. that’s why bod foster is highly regarded and has a safe job while tenuta has been demoted on his 3rd stop in 4 years

  13. PoppaJohn 10/04/2010 at 11:56 AM #

    I agree with much of what has been said, but I think our key weakness is on both lines. Give RW enough time, he doesn’t give the ball away three times. Give TT less time consistently, he doesn’t kill us. When we got to him, it was our DBs.

    I think programs progress through stages, first you get offensive talent in the money positions (QB,WR,RB) and you win some games, and put butts in the seats. But basically you are outscoring the opposition. Phase 2, you get defensive talent in the money positions (DB,DE) and you start getting better. Then you’re still scoring, but also slowing the opposition. Phase 3, you get quality linemen on both sides of the ball and you begin to dominate the opposition consistently.

    I think we are maybe at phase two, but not to phase 3 yet. I think VT is at phase 3. We could hang with them for a quarter, and with that lead try to stay ahead, but it seemed inevitable that they were going to overtake us. And they did.

    Last year we were awful, this year we have improved immensely. I feel good about that.

    I think we generally agreed that a bowl this year was a required indication of progress that would keep TOB his job. I think that should happen.

    I hate the loss, but have to acknowledge that – for now – they were the better team and should have won.

  14. boonami 10/04/2010 at 1:51 PM #

    We were at the game and here are a few things I noticed:

    2nd half adjustments go to VT. Wilson is throwing just about every pass off his back foot due to VT’s blitz package.

    We gave up on using the tight end and throwing to the backs and continued to try and go deep. VT adjusted to that as well.

    Play action counters worked well as well as center traps but we stopped calling those plays too. VT is to fast to go lateral.

    Add poor tackling and there you have it.

    Positive was the continued amazing play of Nate… glad to see him back.

  15. coach13 10/05/2010 at 9:13 AM #

    I agree with most of what was already posted as far as game issues.

    I thought poor tackling was #1 reason we lost. We make a couple key stops we have a better shot. Hey…we were winning with 4 minutes and change left.

    VT defense adjusted better than our offense. What happened to the intermediate and underneath passing? I remember before Wilson was QB thinking we never throw deep. Now we go deep too much(IMO). I do think our receivers make awesome catches at times and drop some easy ones. Go figure. I think it is lack of concentration.

    And if you remember, fast QB’s that can throw and scramble are going to be an issue for us. The CF QB may have beat us if he had started the game.

    Finally, I would like to wish my fellow Pack fans not to hang our heads. We are still a good team by ACC standards, definitely improved from last year, and we still have a chance at a very good season (certainly better than we originally expected). We beat BC this week and get back on track. There are 5 very winnable games left and 2 toss ups in my opinion. There are still some awesome goals to within reach.

    1-bowl eligible. 2-a Good bowl. 3-Atlantic title. 4-ACC championship game.

    However realistic or not, they are on the table and I see no reason to count us out of those until the fat lady has sung.

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