Postgame observations: BC 45,State 24
Coach Dave Doeren, in his postgame comments on Saturday, characterized his NC State football team as an "up and down team." There's no question as to which category the Wolfpack's 45-24 loss at Boston College falls into.
Here are some quick observations from an ugly afternoon in Chestnut Hill ...
◼ Of all the things that went wrong for the Wolfpack, by far the most troubling is the way it was manhandled by the Eagles at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The physical disparity was most glaring when BC was on offense. While the game was billed as a matchup of strengths, with State leading the ACC in rushing defense and the Eagles ranking second in the league in rushing offense, the showdown turned out to be a mismatch. With David Bailey doing the damage in the first half and star A.J. Dillon dominating the second, BC rushed for 429 yards. That's 29 more yards than State had allowed on the ground in its first six games COMBINED. Yes, senior defensive end James Smith-Williams and top cornerbacks Chris Ingram and Nick McCloud missed the game with injuries and may have been able to make a difference had they played. But not nearly enough of a difference to have changed the outcome.
◼ On the other side of the ball, BC defensive front had State's offensive line on its heels -- and sometimes behinds -- from the first possession to the last, leaving precious little time for either of the two quarterbacks that saw action to find receivers downfield and throw the ball. That pressure played a major factor on the throw by starter Bailey Hockman that was intercepted by Jason Maitre and returned eight yards for BC's first touchdown of the day. The Wolfpack's inability to block the Eagles also erased any semblance of a running attack for State. Between them, Zonovan Knight and Jordan Houston managed only 61 yards. And most of those came in the fourth quarter, long after the issue was settled.
◼ State doesn't have a quarterback controversy heading into its second open week of the season. It does, however, have a quarterback mess. All three played in Saturday's game. Hockman started and was given a quick hook after throwing the pick six and going only 4 of 10 for 27 yards. One-time starter Matthew McKay was used as a runner out of the Wildcat formation in the red zone with little success. That allowed Devin Leary to move to the head of the class ... at least for now. The redshirt sophomore completed 15 of 32 passes for 259 yards and all three of the Wolfpack's touchdowns. He showed off a strong arm -- although he needs to learn how to take something off the ball on touch throws -- and a calm under pressure. Whether he is the answer moving forward is yet to be seen. But he's clearly the frontrunner as Doeren and his staff re-open the competition for the starting job for the third time this season.
◼ The Wolfpack still has yet to solve the riddle of scoring touchdowns in the red zone. Yes, Leary got his team into the end zone three times in the second half. But each of the touchdown passes -- two to Thayer Thomas and one to tight end Cary Angeline -- came on fourth down plays after State failed on its first three plays in goal-to-go situations. Beyond that, the Wolfpack left 17 points on the field by twice failing on fourth down passes inside the five and settling for a Christopher Dunn field goal on a third first half trip into the red zone. "We have no problem getting down in the red zone," Doeren said. "It's scoring touchdowns when we get down there. There's a lot of things we've got to do better. That's just one of them."
◼ All-in-all, it was a game in which everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. And now, with the toughest part of the schedule still to come, it's not a given that the Wolfpack will be able to find at least the two more wins needed to gain bowl eligibility. Needless to say, Doeren and his staff have a lot of work to do in the two weeks they have before State's next game, at Wake Forest on Nov. 2.
"I'm sick to my stomach," Doeren said immediately after the rout. "It starts with me. That's my football team. We didn't stop the run. We didn't run the football. We lost the line of scrimmage on both sides. It's not just linemen involved, it's everybody. We didn't play 11 tough guys playing together today."
