The Abyss 34, State 27 (Sunday 10am Update)

'11 Football179

News & Observer:

“They had more energy than we did,” O’Brien said. “You can’t do that, especially on the road in a conference game. We have to look for leadership. We certainly haven’t gotten any out of anybody on this football team.”

You can say that again, coach. Keep in mind, leadership starts at the top.

*****

That went about as well as many of us expected. The losing in Winston-Salem (1997, ’99, ’03-’11) will continue at least until 2013; there are students that were in elementary school the last time State won in Winston. Once again, Jim Grobe outcoached TOB and Wake Forest was the better team.

Stat of the Day: TOB is now 0-11 on the road against Atlantic Division opponents. Wolfpack Unlimited!

Box Score

Feel free to meltdown below.

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'11 Football

179 Responses to The Abyss 34, State 27 (Sunday 10am Update)

  1. Ed89 09/10/2011 at 9:14 PM #

    We shoulda seen it coming…Taking the WF game out of the equation, but reaching the same conclusion, giving up 400+ yards of total offense to Liberty is inexcusable.

  2. 61Packer 09/10/2011 at 9:35 PM #

    We lost to a mediocre team with a QB on a bad leg. We got 3 TDs behind late in the 3rd quarter. We’re tough at home, but away from home we’re road kill.

    Same old song for NCSU athletics. Does anyone who wants us to go to the SEC think we’re ready now?

    What we’re suffering through is, I think, remnants of Lee Fowler. He’s finally gone, but his coaches linger on. Maybe it’s time we fire the whole bunch he hired (those who are left), and start from scratch.

  3. eas 09/10/2011 at 9:46 PM #

    I agree that Glennon did a decent job and he is learning. I think he will be a solid QB.

    However, just because I want to critic Glennon it does NOT mean it is a RW vs Glennon comparison. So that being said, Glennon needs serious work on seeing MORE than one receiver and pointing like a bird dog to that receiver. He needs to fine tune his accuracy and try a pump fake or two. All of this will come with more playing time. Well except one….someone needs to work with him on seeing the whole field and not locking in on one receiver.

    The defense needs serious work!!!! Also, Dana Bible has got to change things up and run some new freaking plays. It’s like watching a replay of the same game plan (line by line) every game!

    What is tough to swallow is it seems we have 2 very big concerns. The Defensive Coord and Offensive Coord positions. Not a good combo problem to have. Bible is a really good coach but he is 100% predictable and conservative. Archer has struggled almost everywhere he has been (including Raleigh) and TOB has got to see these issues. He has got to make a change or it will be his head in the end.

  4. Prowling Woofie 09/10/2011 at 9:54 PM #

    Either Bryan is smoking weed again, or he NEEDS to smoke weed again. He’s freakin’ awful…

  5. wolfpack15 09/10/2011 at 10:02 PM #

    Mike Leach? He’s looking for a job. Jim Tressel? They win.

  6. Gowolves 09/10/2011 at 10:11 PM #

    Where is TBK? I need you to explain to me where all this talent is for the Pack. What I saw today had nothing to do with talent. I saw a team that was not prepared for the type of offense Grobe runs. I thought this type of team went out the door with Amato. Why can’t we fill gaps? This is truly embarrassing. Assignments were missed on many occasions for the defense. I cannot see why we are supposedly so deep but when a couple d-lineman go down we can’t tackle or make plays. Our tackling was pissy at best!

    Sick of it!

  7. packplantpath 09/10/2011 at 10:13 PM #

    LOL, poor TBK.

  8. john of sparta 09/10/2011 at 10:16 PM #

    as stated before,
    TOB retires after
    this season.

  9. packfanfornow 09/10/2011 at 10:41 PM #

    TBK doesn’t show up after losses. You should know that by now and he’s the one that earned us the delusional label.

  10. mak4dpak 09/10/2011 at 11:37 PM #

    At the game today, and quite surprised we even came back to have a chance to win. I think Glennon grew alot today, in the game, and will continue to improve. However I feel the main problem for us, was the defense, especially pass defense. The WF QB, picked us apart. If TOB, is to remain coach, he should be required by, DY, to fire Mike Archer. He has to be one of the worst, if not the worst, defensive coor, in Division I, football, and we are (not) lucky to have him. And you can throw Bible in there too, as his play calling is quite predictable, and he doesn’t seem to have any new plays since day 1. Piss poor! And I will predict all of our future opponents will be throwing the ball alot, on us, until we can improve our pass defense. Ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  11. Ashman87 09/10/2011 at 11:56 PM #

    I was hoping that our secondary was going to take some big steps this year. I guess I was wrong. And I have to agree with getting rid of Archer. I’m glad we have Teneuta, but Archer wasn’t that great of a head coach as LSU (he did win a couple of SEC titles, but then LSU football was removed from the face of the earth for over a decade).

  12. NCSU@UNCG 09/10/2011 at 11:59 PM #

    (Unnecessary bashing of posters has been deleted… we don’t need to start yelling at each other, here.)

    Our blitzes were far less effective than last season. The secondary wasn’t sharp today but they are a better, more experienced group than they were last season. We still seem to miss tackles in the backfield time and time again. Hopefully the D line shows some rapid improvement when Sweezy returns.

    The offensive line looked a little better this week, not great by any means. I don’t recall Glennon getting sacked or throwing the ball away like he did much of the Liberty game. Underwood continues to be the more polished runner, yet Washington still continues to get more carries. Why in the hell we have Washington run the ball up the middle on third down is beyond me. That carry should clearly go to Thunderwood as he is the more powerful of the two backs and has shown that he can actually shed a tackle occasionally unlike his counter-part. Our receivers looked better today as well. Glennon wasn’t perfect today but he certainly improved in the 2nd half. Also GB needs to be our go to hands… what the hell is up with him? Our personnel is suited to use double tight end sets yet we rarely do that.

    In conclusion, the offensive playbook is actually more boring than watching paint dry. When have you seen us run effective play action? maybe a pitch or a sweep? How about a reverse? All we hear about is how fast our WR’s are this season, SHOW IT. I hate the damn run up the middle with Washington on first down. The defensive sets are equally as bizarre. Special teams looked pretty good today aside from our kickoff coverage which was rather shaky again this week, although Wake’s td return got called back. Really hope to see improvement in the following weeks but my expectations stay tempered because, after all, I am a State fan.

  13. Wolfy__79 09/11/2011 at 12:31 AM #

    POST 1:
    ^wasn’t our td at the end of the third quarter a play action fake? i’m pretty sure it was.. just had to correct you but i’m on board for some archer and bible bashing…

    POST 2:
    so let’s start with mike f-ing archer! he is not doing jack with our defense or not what we were used to with chuck amato here.. and how he doesn’t accomplish this with john frikkin tenuta on his staff is beyond my vision of understanding. our defense should be ready to play on the first snap. we are so plain jane on defense it KILLS me. tenuta can’t even make a mike archer defense grade better than a C.

    FIRE HIM NOW AND LET TENUTA RUN THE F-ING DEFENSE….NOW!

    POST 3:
    I HATE DANA BIBLE’S OFFFENSE! it is absolute garbage to run this and entire game. i’ve hated it since TOB & Co. “arrove!” not that it doesn’t completely work, but it’s just boring.. it has to kill recruiting. how do you expect to get top notch … say RB recruits when you only line up in shotgun formations? and seriously, where in the hell are our top notch wr’s? we recruit about as well as fayetteville state?

    POST 4:
    imo, none of the blame goes on any of the players. it’s all about the coaches! glennon wasn’t “turble,” nor were our defensive players.. the results were, but not the players. the coaches stunk it up the first half!

    we are far too conservative on offense and defense. even with tenuta dialing up blitz’s. it could be alot better quickly. if we played the first half like we did the second half, we would have won the game.

    NCStatePride: We can rant, but we’re not going to turn our blog into the monkey boards. I condensed your posts into one so you weren’t spamming the blog.

  14. Wolfy__79 09/11/2011 at 12:51 AM #

    ok, last one pride!

    wake isn’t a bad team and they out played/coached us today. we were in it in the end but much of that was luck to me. we should have never been in that position.

    despite our boring offensive approach we had some success rushing & passing today. i think we can have success on the ground against most of our opponents the rest of the season..save fsu. and that gives me hope for our passing attack. aside from glennon’s int, he was as solid as i could have asked for! we just have to be more aggressive. if we weren’t behind the whole game.. i think we would have looked even better running the ball.

    the defense had good but mostly bad moments. they seemed to get it together as the game progressed. i still cannot get over the flippin reverses and whooptie do plays that accounted for three of their tds. that really opened our defense up. one of my bright spots on defense was the play of terrell manning. is it me or is audie cole a non factor thus far into the season? our defensive line didn’t get it done today… and i’m not trying to take any credit away from wfu, but cmon man.

  15. logarithm 09/11/2011 at 1:59 AM #

    We just can’t seem to get it all in one pile. This had better be a damn kick in the pants to everybody in the program. Better get it together fast or this has potential to be worse than 2009 and it’ll take another 5 years before the words “O’Brien” and “program builder” are uttered in the same breath.

    And nobody will ever shut up about Russell Wilson unless they’re given some wins to talk about instead. It’ll continue into next season if Glennon isn’t under center for enough wins this year. He’ll still be “struggling to climb out of the shadow” or some such media bull.

  16. NCSU@UNCG 09/11/2011 at 2:16 AM #

    I don’t appreciate a portion of my last post being deleted. I wasn’t yelling at or bashing anyone. I was simply stating the facts. Whenever we as a fan base start to accept that we aren’t the perennial force yet that we act like we are, our lofty ass goals will become more practical. I want to see us do well, I’m a true die hard, I watch every game and every down because I want what few posts I make to be relevant.

    Simply put, without any “bashing” the secondary wasn’t the reason the defense looked horrible today. Our defense got scorched because Tanner Price had all day to throw the football. It is impossible to cover a guy on and on. When we did pressure Price, he threw some errant passes. Glennon had much less time to throw the ball today than Price. I’m just telling it like it is, sorry for the precise report.

    NCStatePride: Your point is well taken. You attitude was not. Popping up with the occasional post and saying “Some posters ______” and “Our fanbase is _______” is venting your rage in the wrong directly. The fans didn’t cause the loss yesterday and if we lose-out the rest of the season, they won’t cause that either. Stop blaming the fans and stick with your analysis of the situation which happens to be accurate.

  17. mak4dpak 09/11/2011 at 2:54 AM #

    I for one would have no problem with Tenuta taking over the defense, and Archer given his walking papers. And since Bible seems to be TOBs man no matter what, maybe we could send him back to the updated version of the school of offense. Can you see us calling that trick play, where WF scored their TD, with the back throwing the ball to a wide open, uncovered receiver? NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER!

  18. GoldenChain 09/11/2011 at 6:22 AM #

    I can’t wait until we join the SEC!
    Maybe the SoCo is more our style.

  19. Prof_Turby 09/11/2011 at 6:32 AM #

    I was at the game with my son and better half…
    Here are my observations…

    Front 4 on defense were ineffective in getting pressure on Tanner Price…
    We had some possessions where our secondary had good coverage but were in it too long and Price could extend the plays and burn us…
    Wake’s third down efficiency was out of the roof…
    When we did come with pressure Wake would typically be in max protection…
    Hopefully our returning front 3 starters will help us out when they come back…

    Don’t understand all the hate on Glennon…
    He made 2 great throws that burned Wake and kept us in the game…
    One under full blitz where he stayed in the pocket and delivered a great pass in stride…
    The other where he rolled right and threw it 70 yards on the run…
    He’s gonna be fine…

    Even after being out coached and out played the whole game, if Bryan makes a catch on 3rd down in the 4th quarter, we are still in it…
    George had too many dropped passes…

    We are gonna probably win 6 to 8 games and get in a lower tiered bowl…
    I don’t like it but that is the way it is…
    We’re not on probation and we are not Carolina…
    That in itself is a blessing…

  20. jrsr 09/11/2011 at 6:51 AM #

    I was at the game and very upset after the first, second half was much better, not perfect, but much better. Glennon will get better with each game.
    NOW, lets not forget that Obrian is running and will run a clean program and will be graduating kids with degrees they have earned!!
    I have a child at UNC-CHeaters now, told me last weekend that several football players were in one classe, spent the entire class watching video on their Iphone on how to roll the perfect joint and drunk girls at partys and never wrote down the assignment information. The question was, Dad how can they do that and still pass the class?? UNC STILL has major attitude and cheating problems!
    Go Coach Obrian!

  21. acc 10k 09/11/2011 at 6:53 AM #

    I got three-quarters of the way through this before I saw someone mention the real defensive problem: Repeatedly letting them off the floor on third and long (or in one case where that play worked, letting off the floor on fourth and long.) And most of those plays we were blitzing, when the odds were heavily in our favor playing straight defense. It was enough of a pattern that I was yelling “stop blitzing on third and long!” by the second quarter.
    The problem was NOT that we couldn’t stop Wake’s offense; after the first drive, we repeatedly had them in second-and-long, third-and-long, situations where probability says the drive is likely to end. When you do that, and take care of the ball (only one turnover) and special teams (only one long KO return, great punting) you should not give up 34 points before the end of the third quarter.

    As for the offense, numerous people have nailed it – the running game was good from the start, but we didn’t use that to set up play-action. At the same time that we were having trouble giving Glennon enough time on straight passing plays. Bewildering.

  22. Rick 09/11/2011 at 7:05 AM #

    “I can’t wait until we join the SEC!”

    At least when we suck in the SEC we get paid well.
    In the ACC we suck for a pittance.

  23. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 09/11/2011 at 7:24 AM #

    TOB career will live or die on Glennon’s performance, as it should. What is just vile about the TOB choice is his attempt to cover it in some high-minded ethical standard. No, Tom this wasn’t about what was best for the team but about your selfish personal interest…

    Wilson, a former NC State standout who gave up a minor league baseball career to return to college football, continued his successful start with the Badgers.
    “He works harder than anybody, and we’re happy he’s here,” Pedersen said.

  24. Wulfpack 09/11/2011 at 7:30 AM #

    “I can’t wait until we join the SEC!”

    Yea, sucks a lot worse to lose to the likes of Wake, Maryland, and the Big East schools than Bama, Auburn, LSU, Florida, etc. And I’d rather play in man-sized stadiums than glorified high school stadiums any day of the week. Some state fans have a completely defeatist attitude.

  25. mak4dpak 09/11/2011 at 7:41 AM #

    RW had around 189 yards passing for Wisconsin yesterday, and MG had 300 plus yards. RW has a great supporting cast on both sides of the ball, and MG didn’t. MG didn’t lose the game for us. Again coaching and defense was our biggest problems. We can be successful with MG, when we fix the afore mentioned problems.

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