Rob Kinnan/USAToday sports
Wolfpack ends season with a whimper, not a bang
With apologies to that literary genuis T.S. Eliot, NC State's football season ended Saturday night not with a bang, but with a whimper.
It ended with an all-too-familiar 41-10 drubbing at the hands of arch-rival North Carolina in a Senior Night defeat that served as a virtual "worst of" compilation for everything that went wrong for the Wolfpack during a lost 2019 season.
Coach Dave Doeren's struggling team got off to a decent enough start against the Tar Heels on a cold, wet night at Carter-Finley Stadium, actually taking a lead into halftime for the second time in the last three games.
But just as it did against Louisville two weeks ago, State imploded in the third quarter under an avalanche penalties, turnovers, defensive breakdowns and various other self-inflicted mistakes to mercifully finish the season at 4-8 (1-7 ACC).
"Without a doubt, we fell apart in the third quarter," a somber Doeren said after the Wolfpack's sixth straight loss, all but one by double digits. "There were three straight drives with turnovers offensively and we didn't stop them defensively."
It didn't help that State all but abandoned a ground attack that was so effective in the second half last week at Georgia Tech and got off to a strong start against UNC.
With Zonovan Knight and Jordan Houston doing the work, the Wolfpack rushed for 83 yards on 11 carries in the first quarter Saturday. It managed only 39 yards over the final three periods after that.
In the mean time quarterbacks Devin leary and Bailey Hockman combined to complete only 13 of their 30 passes for 157 yards and three interceptions.
"The first half had a lot of good things happen and the second half no good things happened," Doeren said. "We didn't make anything good happen. We've got a lot to fix."
Some of the Wolfpack's problems can only be solved by time and the healing process. Coming into Saturday's game, the team had lost 95 games to injury among 29 players this season.
But as Doeren pointed out, not all of the things that led to State's downfall can be blamed on injuries and the inexperience of the players that were forced to fill the void.
Many of the areas in need of the most attention were on full display Saturday.
They start with turnovers. The Wolfpack committed four of them against the Tar Heels, three of which came in that decisive third quarter -- two on interceptions throwin by quarterback Leary and one on a fumble by Knight.
They led directly to 21 UNC points and helped turn a 10-6 halftime advantage into an insurmountable 34-10 deficit in a matter of just 15 minutes. State finished the season with a minus-17 turnover ratio with its 21 giveaways turning into 87 points for the opposition.
"We were minus-3 tonight," Doeren said. "You're not going to win a game like that. ... We'll never be a good football team doing that."
Another area in need of improvement is pass coverage.
State's defensive line did what it could to help protect its patchwork secondary by putting consistent pressure on UNC quarterback Sam Howell during the first half -- sacking him twice, including two by sophomore nose tackle Alim McNeill.
The rush wasn't as effective in the second half, though, allowing the star freshman to stand back in the pocket and pick the Wolfpack apart. He finished 23 of 33 for 401 yards and three touchdowns. On one of those scoring strikes, a 52-yarder to Dyami Brown, cornerback Kishawn Miller was called for holding, but the UNC receiver still managed open up at least two steps of separation on him to make the catch.
"I thought our guys played with a lot of heart in the first half," Doeren said. "We did absolutely everything possible to lose that game in the third quarter. It started with penalties on the first drive that we got the football and went downhill from there."
Yes, the penalties.
In the first half, the Wolfpack fell for UNC's attempt to draw it offside on a fourth-and-three situation from the State 43, giving the Tar Heels a free play. Howell took advantage by hitting Brown with a 33-yard pass that set up a field goal.
On UNC's next possession, defensive end Ibrahim Kante jumped offside on a third-and-five play to extend the drive that produced another 3-pointer. Then coming out of halftime, State set itself back by committing two holding penalties, setting into motion the events that led to a familiar demise.
Saturday's game marked the third straight in which the Wolfpack produced one good half, only to undo the good it accomplished by pairing it with an equally awful 30 minutes of football.
It's a pattern a frustrated defensive tackle Larrell Murchison was at a loss to explain.
"We wanted this win," he said. "They made adjustments, of course, but I just felt like we played harder in the first half."
When asked why he thought that happened, he shook his head and said "I'm not sure. I'm just not sure."
Murchison is one of 12 seniors that played their last game for the Wolfpack Saturday. Now that the season is over, those that will return must begin the process of figuring out what went wrong and what needs to be done to fix it.
"I'm not glad the season is over. I love football too much not to play," redshirt freshman linebacker Payton Wilson, who had an interception against the Tar Heels, said. "We need to get in the weight room, we need to get healthy and we need to get better. We've got a lot of work to do."
