NC State's offense stalls in disappointing loss at No. 17 Duke

DURHAM, N.C. — A week after NC State recorded its highest point output against an FBS team in five years with 48, the Wolfpack took a 180-degree turn at No. 17 Duke with its lowest point total in nine years. 

With the chance to make a statement win against a top-20 rival, the Wolfpack only managed a field goal in the 24-3 loss at Wallace Wade Stadium. NC State’s lone points came on a program-record 57-yarder from graduate kicker Brayden Narveson. 

And those points? Yeah, they came as the Wolfpack’s offense sputtered after a redshirt junior cornerback Shyheim Battle interception on the first drive of the night. NC State’s offense took over at the Duke 38-yard line and ran four plays to gain zero yards. 

The Wolfpack needed a record-setting field goal to get on the scoreboard, and that scoring drive did not bode well for the rest of the night. 

The three points were the fewest scored by the red and white since NC State was shutout by Clemson in 2014. It marked the Wolfpack’s lowest point total against the Blue Devils since it lost 35-3 in 1964.

As NC State struggled to score, it came as it could not get over the midfield hump. It had one drive that made it to Duke’s 20-yard line — its last one — but sophomore quarterback MJ Morris was sacked to move the Pack back to the 30. 

Other than that, NC State’s offense appeared to run out of gas near the Duke logo on the natural grass playing surface. The Wolfpack had six drives where it finished in Blue Devils’ territory, but four of them ended at the Duke 44, 45 or 46-yard line. Those series ended in three punts and a turnover on downs. 

“You gotta give Duke credit, they outplayed us, they outcoached us,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. “We’ve got to play better. … There’s really nothing you can say — they outplayed us, they outcoached us. It wasn’t good enough.”

Moving the football was not an issue for NC State in its own territory, but self-inflicted errors on penalties caused the parking brake to be turned on as the Wolfpack appeared to be stringing a scoring drive together. 

NC State was penalized eight times for 47 yards on offense, including four false starts in the first quarter alone. Those mental miscues kept NC State behind the chains for virtually the entire night. Instead of resetting the sticks on 10-yard gains, the Wolfpack was just trying to create manageable third down opportunities. 

“We beat ourselves, really, throughout the whole game,” Morris said. “We started out slow, beat ourselves. … I don’t think that they beat us, that’s my honest reaction to the game.”

The Wolfpack knew penalties had to be limited against the Blue Devils if it wanted any shot at winning in Durham, but their fears were validated in primetime. 

“We knew going into that game we would not win if we weren’t disciplined,” Doeren said. “And we weren’t. We played a team that doesn’t beat itself and that was step one. We had to go out there and just play a clean game, and we didn’t do that. We helped them way too much.”

NC State’s second and third drives of the night were both six plays, and both ended on Duke’s side of the 50-yard line, but they ended in a pair of punts. That allowed the Blue Devils to score 10 points on drives that were 90 and 61 yards, respectively. 

Duke landed what seemed to be the deflating punch after Morris’ interception, as the Blue Devils needed one play to find the end zone on an 8-yard touchdown pass from redshirt freshman quarterback Henry Belin IV to wideout Jeremiah Hasley. 

Belin, who made his first-career start, did not do anything special against the Pack — 4-for-12 for 112 yards with two touchdowns and an interception — but NC State’s stumbling offense could not keep up. 

Duke was able to run clock when it had the ball — even though its final touchdown took just one play to go 83 yards, which put the hammer in the Wolfpack’s coffin.

“Playing catch up was very challenging,” Doeren said. “We’re down two scores coming out of the half. I thought ‘let’s score here on the first drive, we’ll make it a one-possession game.’ And we don’t, and they score on the first play. That creates a three-score differential right there.”

From there, the Wolfpack held the ball for three more possessions — all ending in turnover on downs, though NC State had its two longest drives of the night on its final series. The Pack its only two 10-plus play drives at the end of the game, totaling more than 10 minutes, but neither ended in points. 

That was the story of NC State’s night. It could only do so much before it stopped itself. That created an inefficient offense. 

“It’s just an efficiency thing,” Doeren said. “It’s hard as a play caller to be in second-and-15. There’s a lot we need to fix.”

While the penalties were the story of NC State’s issues, drops by wide receivers and sacks plagued the Wolfpack. The online statistics credited the Pack with just two drops, but there were plenty more than that. And the sacks? Those were abundant with four, including three in the second half. 

While four does not seem like that many, Morris was flushed from the pocket several times against the Blue Devils. He ran for his life, and took the yards he could as protection continuously broke down in front of him. 

“If it’s a pass play, we’ve got to give MJ a chance protection wise to help him with time, and we need to catch the football,” Doeren said. “We had a couple guys that had opportunities down the field that didn’t connect. … Those are the kind of plays that if you want to win games, you’ve got to make. We didn’t make our layups.”

While Doeren was critical afterwards, Morris owned the poorly thrown interception, what he called a “dumb interception.” 

But while he took responsibility for it, the signal-caller took an optimistic approach to NC State’s struggles — it is a learning moment.

“There’s a lot of stuff to fix that we’re going to fix tomorrow,” Morris said. “We’re going to try to get better, watch the film and just put this in the past.”

NC State has two weeks until its next game, home against Clemson, and the Wolfpack will need to diagnose and solve its issues before the Tigers visit Carter-Finley Stadium.