I contend from that point forward, we were clearly stalling and playing more not to lose than trying to win.
So I take it you would have been airing it out, risking an INT and stopping the clock on incomplete passes in that last drive. To quote Lou Holtz, “When you throw the football, only 3 things can happen and 2 of them are bad.”
I’ve read a crap load of comments about the game, yours is the one of the few if not the only one I’ve read say we were “clearly stalling.”
Grey: We ran the ball 37 times at an average of 3 yards per carry. That’s enough running to keep it balanced, but hardly a strategy designed to score points.
First, keeping it balanced is a strategy to score points. We, as you say, got 40+ yards off the ground to go up 27-13 in the 4th quarter. The scoring play, the shovel pass, is in essence a running play set up by the fake toss sweep.
Your whole post sounds like you were afraid that big, bad FSU was going to breakout any minute and pull it out against poor old NC State. Say what you want about those 138 yards. The only TD was a short pass where the FSU receivers picked Alston to free Tate in the end zone. That, Rye, was the only TD FSU scored. Our miserable secondary played the entire game and allowed one TD.
Sorry but I don’t think any of Tate’s yardage was “over the top” which was my point — not that he didn’t get some yardage off those deep sideline passes. Those completions IMO were the result of great throws and very good catches. You may remember from the USC game, it isn’t the team with the most yards gained that is always the winner.
Great job of managing your time outs, Jimbo. FSU was out coached the entire game. Our OC took advantage of the 2 starting LBs being out,just as FSU took advantage of Stevens being out. Having a good ground game and playing solid defense in not necessarily playing to keep from losing. With a 6 point lead, it just might be a sound strategy to win. As you say, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that.
