NC State football: What they're saying about East Carolina win
NC State football escaped Greenville with a 21-20 win over East Carolina Saturday afternoon. Here is some of what those who covered the game are saying.
Matt Carter, The Wolfpacker — Column: NC State football dodges a bullet
NC State football head coach Dave Doeren preached all offseason, training camp and even during a pregame interview with ESPN’s College GameDay crew that the Pack’s No. 1 opponent each week is themselves.
He’s right.
If NC State wants to be as good as they believe they can be, first they will simply have to get a lot better between Week 1 and the rest of the year. Secondly, they need to listen to their head coach.
Don’t fumble at the 1-yard line. Don’t fail to punch the run in from the 1-yard line on 4 consecutive tries. Don’t miss multiple tackles to allow for yards after the catch. Don’t commit offensive penalties to either stall a drive or set back good field position. Don’t throw a costly interception in the fourth quarter.
And most of all, put away your opponent when you have the chance to do so. A touchdown at any point in the third quarter from the 1-yard line probably leaves only the spread in doubt. Instead, what was in question at the end of the game was would the dream season end before even starting for NC State?
Ethan McDowell, The Wolfpacker — ‘A win is a win,’ and more notes from NC State locker room
Doeren has constantly emphasized special teams during his 10-year tenure with NC State, and that phase of the game proved to be the difference during the matchup. After a third-down quarterback sneak fell short of a first down, ECU’s field goal team sprinted onto the field to attempt the winning kick.
Doeren called a timeout before they could snap the ball— a calculated decision based on personnel and the momentum of the game. Two players for NC State had been injured on the prior play, and the Pack was shorthanded for the play without using a timeout.
“He had just missed an extra point, so I thought he’s probably in his head a little bit,” Doeren said. “We had two guys jumping, we thought we might get a low kick because he had to drive it. He didn’t, he just missed it.
“I wanted to have 11 people in the game obviously, and we were going to run our max block type thing, and one of the guys who would have been in on that was out with an injury, so we had to find his backup.”
They walked off the field with their heads down, faces somber, absent joy. Devin Leary didn’t even take his helmet off. Athletic director Boo Corrigan had the opposite emotion as he moved among them, trying to cheer them up, a man who could appreciate the difference between 1-0 and 0-1 even if the players, in that moment, could not.
The winning team looked very much like it had just lost — and No. 13 N.C. State probably should have, the way East Carolina played in the second half — but for a change the Wolfpack was the team wondering how it had somehow dodged fate, profiting from the agony of a college kicker instead of being punished by it.
Saturday’s final-minutes combination of a missed extra point that would have tied the game and a missed field goal that would have won it is certainly one that doesn’t veer far from N.C. State’s tortured repertoire of historical experience — if Kyle Bambard wasn’t watching, somewhere, he must have felt a great disturbance in the force — but for once the Wolfpack got to see how the other half lives, at East Carolina’s expense.
“The one thing I can’t do is change our record tomorrow,” N.C. State coach Dave Doeren said. “We’re 1-0. As ugly as it is, it doesn’t count any different than if we won by 100.”
After all the preseason talk about rankings and championship possibilities, it was finally go-time for No. 13 N.C. State as it cranked up the 2022 season Saturday.
Starting the season on the road, against East Carolina, had everyone’s attention all through spring and fall practice. The Pirates, in Mike Houston’s fourth year as coach, were coming off a bowl season, had many returning players and were mindful of ECU’s past success against the Pack in Greenville.
The Pack won it Saturday. Or, it might be more accurate to say, N.C. State survived after a wild fourth quarter to escape with a 21-20 victory at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The Wolfpack defense forced ECU quarterback Holton Ahlers into two first-half interceptions but struggled to get off the field in crucial situations.
The Pirates converted on 9 of 17 third-down plays, and their offense did enough to nearly steal a win.
The loss of Payton Wilson, who left the game with an upper-body injury in the first half, will loom large over the defense this weekend.
There were plenty of Week 1 mistakes, but more mistakes than expected for this seasoned Wolfpack defense.
Patrick Mason, Greenville Reflector: Pirates’ upset bid of No. 13 NC State sails wide right
The East Carolina football team was one kick away from Saturday’s performance against N.C. State being immortalized in the program’s lore.
All that stood between the Pirates and an upset of the No. 13 Wolfpack was a 41-yard field goal. Kicker Owen Daffer lined up the potential game-winning try with nine seconds remaining, but the sophomore’s try sailed wide right, N.C. State exhaled and the Pirates came up just short in a 21-20 loss to open the season.
“We were very confident this morning and I know nobody outside of Greenville gave us much of a chance, but those kids never doubted,” ECU coach Mike Houston said. “We should’ve won the ballgame. We outplayed them. We dominated them physically in the second half. I just really hurt for those kids in that locker room. They brought this program from the depths back to what it was today.”
Associated Press — No. 13 NC State hangs on to win at ECU after missed kicks
North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren watched from the sideline as the late field goal that could have topped his 13th-ranked team sailed wide of the uprights, then offered a fist pump that was far more restrained than jubilant.
The Wolfpack had survived — and that was about as positive as anyone clad in red could be about Saturday’s 21-20 win at East Carolina that featured the Pirates missing two critical late kicks.
“I think they’re probably more mad than I’m going to be at them right now,” Doeren said of his players.
N.C. State went from up 14 in the third quarter to barely hanging on thanks to a pair of plays that weren’t even in its control. The Pirates were in position to hand the Wolfpack a surprising loss when they got the ball back late down one, not to mention offer Owen Daffer a shot at redemption after he pulled a tying extra point wide left after Rahjai Harris’ short touchdown run with 2:58 left.
Holton Ahlers’ keeper set up a 41-yard field goal in the final seconds for Daffer in the season opener for each school. But he missed this one wide right with 5 seconds left, prompting many of the fans in the once-rowdy crowd to put their hands on their heads in disbelief.
Shyheim Battle emphatically waved that the kick was no good as Doeren offered that fist pump for the Wolfpack, yet the moment quickly looked more like relief after another bumpy trip to Greenville.
Brett Friedlander, Saturday Road — For a change, #NCStateStuff takes a day off
One by one, members of the NC State football team filed out of their locker room at East Carolina’s Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday looking at the ground with long faces.
Postgame interviews were done mostly in the kind of low monotone normally associated with a heartbreaking loss.
Only the Wolfpack won.
Barely.
But they won, which is saying something considering that they seemingly tried everything in their power to lose.
It took a missed 41-yard field goal on the game’s final play by a kicker named Owen Daffer, who also missed an extra point 3 minutes earlier, for State to escape with a 21-20 victory.
“There was a weird feeling in the locker room, honestly,” quarterback Devin Leary said after going just 17-of-33 for 211 yards while failing to get his team into the end zone in the second half. “Guys were happy that we won. Guys were satisfied that we were able to pull that off. But at the same time, guys were mad, saying it was a reality check for us.
“Credit to ECU. They came in, they humbled us a little bit. That’s something in the long run we might say we needed a little bit.”
Ben Ellis, Technician — NC State survives Pirate scare, scrapes by ECU in season-opener
Whew.
That was the sound the Wolfpack nation collectively made as East Carolina kicker Owen Daffer missed what would have been the game-winning field goal for the Pirates. Instead, Daffer sent it wide right and the No. 13 NC State football team eked out a 21-20 win at Dowdy-Ficklen stadium on Saturday, Sept. 3.
“He just missed right, thank God,” said redshirt junior quarterback Devin Leary. “Sometimes that’s how football is. But we’re not satisfied at all with that win.”
After all the hype it received in the offseason, the Wolfpack (1-0) put forth an underwhelming performance, scoring zero points in the second half as the Pirates (0-1) nearly came back from a 21-7 halftime deficit.
However, the football gods decided to be kind to NC State for once in Greenville. After the Pirates scored a touchdown that should have tied it up, Daffer missed a chip-shot extra point that kept it a one-point game. Moments later, following an interception by Leary on the ensuing possession, Daffer once again missed the game-winning kick — a crucial 41-yard field goal attempt with five seconds left.
