NC State’s offense knows it needs to be better after tight win at UVA

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Shortly after NC State graduate quarterback Brennan Armstrong sat down at a table in the inner workings of Scott Stadium late Friday night, he had an honest take on his team’s gritty 24-21 win over Virginia. 

“I’m bad at taking wins when the offense doesn’t do their job,” Armstrong said. 

NC State’s offense, when given two opportunities to close the door on UVA in the fourth quarter, couldn’t finish the job. Its defense played with its back against the wall multiple times in the period, and made the plays it needed to, but the Wolfpack offense handed the ball right back to the Cavaliers both times.

“A win’s a win, but still I run back through plays in my head,” Armstrong said. “The game should have been over. The defense gave us two opportunities to seal the game, and we didn’t do that as an offense.”

First, it was a tip drill interception by redshirt sophomore safety Sean Brown after junior safety Bishop Fitzgerald broke a deep ball up and it landed directly in his teammate’s hands with under 10 minutes to play. But NC State’s offense only managed to take two minutes off the clock — across five plays — and needed to punt. 

Wolfpack punter Caden Noonkester was able to flip the field, and the NC State defense made another play, a goal-line interception by junior cornerback Aydan White with less than six minutes to play. 

But again, the Wolfpack offense couldn’t close the door. NC state went three-and-out on a trio of runs, the longest a two-yard trot from redshirt junior running back Delbert Mimms III. That allowed the Cavaliers to get the ball back with 3:29 to play, and they marched down the field to tie the game. 

While NC State’s special teams set up the game-winning field goal after a return from standout redshirt sophomore wide receiver Julian Gray started the offense at midfield, Armstrong was pleading with his offense to help the defense out one time. 

“We just kept getting three-and-outs,” Armstrong said. “That puts a lot of stress on the defense. The defense came off a long drive and got a stop, and I remember coming off the sideline like, ‘We’ve got to hold this ball. It doesn’t matter what we do, we need to keep this drive going.’”

Though the Wolfpack tried to run as much of the clock as possible through its run game, it struggled to do so with inconsistent carries. Armstrong logged the longest rush of the fourth quarter, a 12-yard scamper. 

Outside of that, NC State’s running backs couldn’t get anything going in the final 15 minutes. Armstrong finished the night as the team’s leading rusher with 15 carries for 64 yards, while sophomore Michael Allen rushed for 36 yards on 10 attempts and Mimms added another 20 yards on 8 tries. 

For NC State coach Dave Doeren, whose team lost senior running back Jordan Houston to redshirt on Thursday, the run game is a chief concern through four weeks of play. 

“I think having a consistent run game right now [is a concern,]” Doeren said. “It’s been inconsistent. And we’ve got to narrow some things down. We’ve tried a lot of things, but as you get into the season, Robert’s going to start ‘here’s what we’re good at, here’s not.’ Just being consistent, being efficient with the run game.”

As Doeren alluded to, first-year offensive coordinator Robert Anae is going to start to narrow the playbook moving forward. The 11th-year coach of the Wolfpack said that as the team slims the amount of plays it has, NC State can become better at a handful of things instead of having a wide variety to pull from. 

“This offense has a lot of parts to it, and there’s a lot of new pieces playing in it,” Doeren said.

NC State was outgained 384-319 against UVA, and the Cavaliers held the advantage in passing yards (271-180), but the Pack outgained them on the ground (139-113) thanks to stout defensive line play from the red and white. 

Armstrong, who is in his sixth year in the ACC, noted how hard it is to win in the conference. But even though the Wolfpack is 1-0 to start league play, NC State has a lot to clean up.

“There’s stuff to improve on, but to start ACC play with a win on the road, it’s a great thing, it’s hard to do,” Armstrong said. “But we’ve got to get better as an offense, that’s all I’ve got to say.”