I thought NC State played quite well. The spread had tightened up over the week, so evidently there was a lot of late money to the Pack, so maybe it wasn’t as big of a surprise as some might have thought.
The first quarter was a thing of beauty. That’s probably the best NC State has played in several years. Everything was clicking and we had FSU on the ropes. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t quite put them away. I knew when it was only 24-21 at the half that we were in trouble.
Highlights:
– First quarter offensive plan. All the formations, changes, etc. seemed scripted and really caught FSU off guard.
– Brisset made some great plays. He’s a game changer and reminded me of a mix of a bigger, stronger Jamie Barnette. We don’t have to have PR or RW back there, but if we’d have just had a Barnette over the years, we’d have done very well. He went toe to toe with Winston, and I’m not sure that JW was clearly better.
– Forcing 3 turnovers and winning the turnover battle
– Lots of individual efforts to be proud of
– DD going after the officials after the game. I believe we need to do that some to get some respect, particularly as a young coach who is technically now on a 9 game ACC skid. He’s on the bottom of the pile with the ACC refs in “respect.”
Things I didn’t quite understand:
– The Wildcat. I’ve debated with some on this one. It worked in the first quarter, but FSU was eventually going to adjust………..
– Abandoning the run outside of the wild cat. We were best when balanced. As good as JB was, he can’t beat FSU when they know we are conceding the run.
– No onsides kick at the 6 minute mark. I didn’t think we could stop FSU.
– Some of the calls were….. interesting. We didn’t lose because of them, but the officiating just wasn’t good.
What I’m really hoping is that we can regroup, focus and carry some momentum into Death Valley. It’s really a shame that we didn’t get FSU in Tallahasee LAST week and Clemson in Raleigh this week. There’s hope against Clemson, but we need the same level of effort.
