Playing for Bowl Eligibility vs. Georgia Tech

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  • #60742
    Classof89
    Participant

    I saw the GaTech/UNC game. They have an amazing offense. If they have zero turnovers on Saturday, we have zero chance of an upset. Maybe they will see red jerseys and think we are Georgia (they are 1-12 vs. Georgia since 2001)!!

    #60743
    pakfanistan
    Participant

    Yeah, but UNC is garbage on defense. I wouldn’t draw any conclusions based on that game.

    ECU put 70 on them, and then only scored 10 against Temple.

    #60744
    Mike
    Participant

    Once again, their STRENGTH is our WEAKNESS – any time you match up another strength with your weakness it is never a good thing.

    As for JB getting happy feet, that is somewhat true for a couple reasons. First, Cuse was blitzing frequently and often, and we had no counter for it. This JB was scrambling before he even had a chance to look at his progressions, But that leads to the next point – yes now he is panicked even when they dont blitz based on expectation.

    The only time I remember a screen being called, which is a great play to slow a blitz, was late Q3 or early Q4. Had a screen set to Dayes on the left side, JB pump fakes it and ate the ball or threw it away, dont remember. The replay then showed a myriad of blue shirts around Dayes so credit JB for not trying to force what would have been a sure pick. Manning, Elway, Marino, Rivers – I dont know what your name is, given the time our QB has had to throw recently – none would be successful given the circumstances. Hopefully that changes this week but expect to see more blitzing because as someone else pointed out, our OL is tired and not much depth.

    #60745
    Mike
    Participant

    Also, I keep reading everyone saying WF is sure win #6. Dont be too optimistic. This team has no reason to be overconfident nor any margin for error. Yes, we SHOULD win at home against WF but the ball takes funny bounces.

    #60746
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    We have played their system already this year, and we didn’t do that badly against GSU (relatively speaking). If Jacoby is right, we have more than a puncher’s chance.

    I worry about top passing teams WAY more than running teams. Our secondary is terrifying. They are basically as bad as we all feared the linebackers would be.

    #60748
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    We’re gonna play a “BOWL GAME” this season…

    First … we are going to “BOWL” ‘dem ‘Holes….
    as in… BeatOnmarquisWilliamsallafternoonLong…

    Coach DD and staff will NOT hesitate to pull out all the stops…
    if ( $trickeration + $solid_defense !== $Victory) { $botb = $SMH_bigtime; }

    Then it’s on to Charlotte or where-ever for Bowl Game #2…

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
    #60750
    Greywolf
    Participant

    I hope for your sake that the geniuses who schedule these games will find a better time of year to schedule State-Carolina in 2015. Thanksgiving week when the students are away?

    I’m grateful to the geniuses that the game is at Kenan and it will be the Ewenc student section that is empty.

    I’m really disappointed that our football program has reached the point at which large numbers of our fan base celebrate a 6-win season with gusto.

    The “gusto,” if there is any, is for improvement and for the extra practice time due granted to those who are participating in a bowl.

    Sorry your attitude keeps you away next season but perhaps your negativity missing is just what State fans need. Perhaps a few more of your nancy friends will join you. Negative vibes don’t enhance my experience of being in C-F on a fall Saturday.

    #60751
    YogiNC
    Participant

    Way too funny Grey. I swear, they b**ch because the streak was 12, we win one and they still B**CH. 13, we aren’t celebrating, BUT, there are quite a few of us who feel we are turning a corner. There is a faction on here that reminds me of quite a few UNX fans I know. They don’t wear their colors right now because they know they cheated to win all those years. Through thick and thin I wear RED, with as big an S on it as I can find. Sunday I had on a State golf shirt and one of my many State jackets. And I’ll keep on wearing my colors until I die, win lose or draw. Why? Because I take pride in pulling for the Pack. They are MY team. I was on the main drag in 74 when they beat UCLA to go to the championship game on Monday night, it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. In 83 I was stationed on a submarine in Charleston and I had over 100 bucks in bets. Everyone was giving me 20 points. Told ’em they were nuts, Jimmy V wasn’t about to let that game go over 50 points and State would be in it at the end. They were in it alright. I’ve seen incredible wins and loses at CF, but I’d rather be there than anywhere on a fall Saturday or Thursday night. So 13, keep your money in your pocket. I hope you regret it next fall.

    Smarter than the average bear

    #60758
    tjfoose1
    Participant

    GT’s offensive strength will be matched with our defensive Achilles heel

    Those of you expressing this sentiment, please elaborate. It’s not that simple. Football is a game of matchups, not just unit vs unit, but player vs player and scheme vs scheme. I actually think our defense matches up better against a GT type offense than any regular set offense. I think the match up is better for this game than it was for ODU.

    What might be liabilities or weaknesses against one offense might be a strength against another.

    D Wright, for example, especially the way he’s playing now AND the position that he plays, should be a strong asset for the Wolfpack this weekend. But if we were playing Duke or TAMU, I think he could be a vulnerability that the opponent would try to exploit.

    I’m not saying you are wrong, I just want to understand the reasoning.

    I’m no help. From what Ive seen thus far, depending upon game plan and tackling, I wouldn’t be surprised if we held them in the 17 to 24 point range or if they put up 56 on the board.

    #60762
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    Agreed, this game to go any number of ways. I just don’t get how this is such a clear mismatch. Best aspect for us is that we will know for sure what’s coming from the Bees’ middle school offense. We may not be able to STOP it, but we sure as hell can focus our prep work.

    #60764
    66pack
    Participant

    Agree with 13 about the 6 wins.When teams played 10 games, a 6 win season was only a so-so record.Now 6 wins gets you a 13th meaningless game.And as far as the improved defense remember it was against Syracuse with only wins against Villanova,C. Michigan and Wake.Hope it does not happen but would not be surprised if GT has a 500+ yds game.

    #60765
    ncsu1987
    Participant

    Those of you expressing this sentiment, please elaborate.

    I shouldn’t have made a blanket statement without some degree of explanation. I was really looking at this from a macro level – I believe that one key to the game will be our ability to get the defense off the field. Not necessary to get 3 and out’s every time, but limit each possession to a few first downs while minimizing the big plays. To see what to expect, I looked at the following stats:

    GT, 3rd down conversion pct, offense: 0.574, rank 1st
    NCSU, 3rd down conversion pct, defense: 0.504, rank 121st
    (Note: this is the same stat mentioned by Va, above…)

    and less importantly,
    GT, 4th down conversion pct, offense: 0.750, rank 11th
    NSCU, 4th down conversion pct, defense: 0.500, rank 57th

    I did see that GT has only attempted 12 4th down conversions this year, but this is likely correlated to their high 3rd down conversion rate.

    Foose: I absolutely agree that individual matchups, game psychology, and game prep can throw all macro stats out the window. But I don’t have sufficient football acumen to evaluate individual matchups, so I use what I “understand”. I greatly appreciate, however, the counter viewpoint from a lower, more granular and decidedly more knowledgeable level.

    #60768
    ryebread
    Participant

    tjfoose: I agree with you. Our defense matches up better against GT’s offense than our defense against say UNC’s offense. We’re strongest up front and get weaker as we go back.

    GT’s offensive system struggles against teams that are strong up front. If anyone watched Navy/ND this weekend, or GT/Iowa a few years back will be reminded of this.

    I’m not saying we’ve got the talent up front that ND does or Iowa did that year, but if there’s a type of offense that we’ll match up well with, this is it. We just need to stay disciplined (which DD coached teams are for the most part), stay in our lanes and tackle (which looked better this past weekend).

    We also need to grind out some long drives. More than anything, we need to rest the defense.

    #60785
    VaWolf82
    Keymaster

    The sudden and strange support for State’s obviously weak defense reminds me of what was said after I called State’s offense “average” after the Clemson game. (Note that the offense hasn’t even lived up to my low evaluation since then.) I would love to be wrong about State’s defense come Sat. But I don’t think that I am.

    The key to stopping GT’s defense is penetration by the DL. IF they can get through GT’s OL as easily as they got through the ‘Cuse, then State might have a chance to win without hoping for GT fumbles. If State doesn’t get penetration or fumbles, then I’ll probably be doing something else by 1:30pm.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we held them in the 17 to 24 point range

    Considering that GT has scored more than this against every ACC opponent, I would be shocked.

    #60787
    JohnGalt78
    Participant

    Greywolf, it was a general sentiment…like NCStateSh!t. Not regarding this team, this year or even this sport.

    #60791
    Greywolf
    Participant

    Greywolf, it was a general sentiment…like NCStateSh!t. Not regarding this team, this year or even this sport.

    Okay, and why not read the posts of knowledgeable members and try to understand what’s happening in this sport, this year, with this team instead? No offense intended but I’d suggest that aligning yourself with the losers who are making mindless comments like “NCStateSh!t” is not where you really want to be.

    Yogi puts it this way:

    Through thick and thin I wear RED, with as big an S on it as I can find. Sunday I had on a State golf shirt and one of my many State jackets. And I’ll keep on wearing my colors until I die, win lose or draw. Why? Because I take pride in pulling for the Pack. They are MY team. I was on the main drag in 74 when they beat UCLA to go to the championship game on Monday night, it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. In 83 I was stationed on a submarine in Charleston and I had over 100 bucks in bets. Everyone was giving me 20 points. Told ‘em they were nuts, Jimmy V wasn’t about to let that game go over 50 points and State would be in it at the end. They were in it alright. I’ve seen incredible wins and loses at CF, but I’d rather be there than anywhere on a fall Saturday or Thursday night.

    Well said and that’s the kind of fan with whom I’m aligning myself. I’m more proud to be a Wolfpacker every day. I will give you this much, I’d rather have “NCStateSh!t” than “CarolinaWaySh!t.”

    #60796
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    Quoting YOGI — I’d rather have “NCStateSh!t” than “CarolinaWaySh!t.”

    ^This 1000 times… every f’ing day…

    Anybody else noticed that all the CaroWhinner boys have been muzzled and told to stay in the barn this week ?? I hope they got custom fitted… ’cause they’re gonna be wearing them for a while…

    It’s just a matter of time before a couple of those old mules get put out to pasture… for good…

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
    #60802
    ryebread
    Participant

    VaWolf82: I agreed with your assessment of the offense then, and have since. It was average by NC State standards when you made that point, and has regressed since. We peaked in the first quarter against FSU and it’s been downhill since (including our seeming abandonment of the run).

    Since this staff was hired, I have always had more hope on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe it’s just me (because I want to see it). Maybe it was the bye week (the rest, the chance to get healthier, and the chance to prepare two weeks for an opponent). Maybe we played a pathetic offense (that admittedly put up only 6 against Clemson). Regardless, I thought the defense looked better. I actually have thought it’s looked better ever since the first two drives of the BC game. I don’t know what it is, but it appears that something is different there (though I do think that Hux is now up in the box).

    Call me crazy, and I could possibly be proven very wrong, but I think we could hold GT to ~ 24. A lot of that will depend on the offense though and whether they can generate their own drives. If they can’t, the fact that we didn’t hold GT to 24 or less won’t matter anyways.

    #60811
    Greywolf
    Participant

    Regardless, I thought the defense looked better. <snip> I don’t know what it is…

    I don’t know what it is either and I don’t really care what it is… but it is better. And that I DO care about.

    I’m the one who was arguing with VaWolf82 that our offense was above average. There are times good people do bad things. In my mind our offense is still an above average offense — one that is not performing above average at this point.

    I believe the Wolfpack offense will shake off these bad times and start to produce consistent with the talent we have at QB, RB and receiver. Our offense is not and will not be great until we get an OL that can dominate the LOS.

    #60831
    ryebread
    Participant

    Grey: I hope you are right, but I don’t have high hopes for the offense unless something drastically improves in the OL or we get a lot more speed. Until we get an OL that can create running holes, and protect the QB, we’re going to be finesse.

    I think this OC’s style of finesse is going to need a whole lot of speed to be effective. To my casual eye, an awful lot is tipped ahead of the play via formation, personnel and motion. You either have to out muscle them, or out run them when that happens. Right now we can’t do either.

    VaWolf: I’m not trying to slobber on the defense. Part of it looking better is because we have FSU, Clemson and Louisville behind us. Those are going to skew the numbers some. I suspect UNC will as well. We are better though than the defense that played he first couple of games. We’re also (to my eye) more dynamic and aggressive (which I like).

    #60836
    VaWolf82
    Keymaster

    Dick Sheridan’s game against ECU in the Peach Bowl forever turned me against soft zone defenses. I literally felt nauseous before TOB ever coached a game when he said he preferred to wait on the other team to make mistakes on offense. I would rather go down swinging with an aggressive defense than to die the death of a thousand cuts from a passive one.

    That last line about sums up what I expect to happen on Sat….4-6 yds per play for the 5-6 minutes it takes to score a TD. Except for fourth and long, I expect to see GT use all four downs anytime they are near or past mid-field.

    #60863
    Greywolf
    Participant

    …what I expect to happen on Sat….4-6 yds per play for the 5-6 minutes it takes to score a TD. Except for fourth and long, I expect to see GT use all four downs anytime they are near or past mid-field.

    With 4-6 yds. per play, there’ll be no 4th and longs. 😉

    4th and long, a lot of 4th and longs. That’s what I want to see Saturday.

    #60864
    Greywolf
    Participant

    We haven’t fared well vs. big, strong, athletic D-lines and that’s what we saw vs. FSU, Clemson, BC and L’ville. ‘Cuse bringing 5 & 6 was a handful also. Our offense compensated by using shorter routes which put more defenders in a concentrated area causing fewer open receivers, naturally giving the big, strong, athletic D-lines more time to pressure Jacobi. It’s a vicious circle, no pun intended. If there is a weakness, DC’s will usually find it.

    Perhaps GT’s weaker D-line will give us a chance to run our longer routes and open up the middle for our slot backs and TEs. I would guess that GT is saying with their weaker O-line maybe our D-line can put more pressure on the offense. What we don’t need is more 2 yd. passes on 3rd and 8. Easier said than done. No scheme works when you are getting your arse whipped on the O-line.

    I don’t expect 20 yd. gains every time but I say run Samuels more frequently until a defense proves it can stop him. Then exploit what ever they do to stop Samuels. Take what they give us, whatever it is. I’m out of clichés so I’ll close.

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