NC State’s defense returns to its ‘DNA’ in Northern Illinois win

NC State coach Dave Doeren stood in front of his 120-man roster earlier this week with a challenge for the entire team: Return to the Wolfpack’s team identity. 

Hard. Tough. Together. 

Those three words have been the pillars of the Pack’s program since Doeren took over in 2013. But through the first four games this season, Doeren wasn’t pleased with the inconsistency of seeing those traits displayed by his team on the field — especially on defense. 

So, the coach presented an opportunity for the Wolfpack to do it in practice. If it didn’t, than a starting spot would likely change. Everything needed to be earned in practice — and those traits were required of NC State’s defense. 

The hope was that it would translate to Saturday’s game against Northern Illinois, a bruising Mid-American Conference team that Doeren led for two seasons before being hired by NC State. 

“If you were going to send that film to the person you loved the most, what would they say?” Doeren recalled asking his team “Would they talk about your effort? Would they talk about your toughness?”

That provocation laid out by the head man appeared to take shape early in the week at practice. NC State had periods of starters against starters on Tuesday and Wednesday, which Doeren dubbed “Bloody Tuesday” and “Bloody Wednesday.”

Those two days of practice were physical. They set the tone for the week — and also appeared to energize NC State’s defense. That’s exactly what Doeren was looking for.

“That’s got to be what we’re about,” Doeren said. “We got to play harder than teams that are across the sidelines. We have to. That gives us an opportunity to be in the game every week. Not everybody’s wired that way. Football’s just not what it used to be when it comes to tough guys. At NC State, we have to be tough. … And we were.”

The Pack responded in a major way Saturday with a 24-17 win over the Huskies at Carter-Finley Stadium. 

And the NC State’s defense was the key reason why. 

NC State forced four turnovers, which led to 14 points for the Wolfpack, including a scoop and score from graduate safety DK Kaufman. It also limited Northern Illinois to just 3 points in the second half. And even though the offense struggled to find a consistent output, the defense was there to make plays and lift the team on its shoulders. 

As the Wolfpack looked back on the week of practice, Kaufman, who has scored two touchdowns this season, pointed to the 59-35 loss at Clemson last week as a motivating factor for the unit to improve. 

The Tigers scored 28 straight in the first quarter, which effectively sank the Wolfpack before the team could find its rhythm. Kaufman was dead set on avoiding that this week.

“Last week, it was embarrassing — there’s really no other way to put it,” Kaufman said. “It’s sad that it had to be that way for me and others to come out with that fire in us. You don’t want to get hit in the mouth and then fight back. … We knew what we had to do, we had to start fast.”

The Wolfpack defense conceded a touchdown on Northern Illinois’ second possession of the game, but it then forced the fumble and touchdown on the third with a pair of punts to follow that. NC State then made Northern Illinois give the ball up three more times in the second half, including back-to-back drives with interceptions to end the game. 

NC State’s ability to force turnovers, while also setting a season-best 12 tackles for a loss with four sacks and nine quarterback hurries against a team that hadn’t given up one sack all season, continued to prove this week’s practice energy was successful. 

“We started communicating on a higher level,” said redshirt junior linebacker Caden Fordham, who logged a career-best 14 total tackles in the win. “That started with me coming out. I had to do so. … [We were] more physical in practice and I believe it translated to the field today.”

In addition to Fordham’s standout day at MIKE linebacker, the Wolfpack also received stout efforts from redshirt junior WILL linebacker Sean Brown and senior defensive end Davin Vann.

Brown logged 12 total tackles with a sack, while Vann had 10 stop with 3.5 tackles for a loss and two forced fumbles.

But now that NC State was able to see the fruits of its labor from a tough week at practice, the Wolfpack does not want to be content with that. The page has turned. Now, it’s about answering Doeren’s challenge next weekend against Wake Forest. 

“The guys responded and that’s all I can ask for,” Doeren said. “I told them I wanted to win this game really bad, but I wanted to see that identity. So for one week, I got to see it. And now it’s about being consistent.”

How can NC State build that consistency on defense? Increasing the intensity by tenfold, according to Kaufman.

“We have to come back and do the same thing, but amplify it by 10 next week,” Kaufman said. “We’ve got a little momentum, but we gotta keep it. That can be hard sometimes. People like to relax, but we can’t relax. … This is not the time to relax. We’re not nowhere near done for what we’re trying to get.”

The Wolfpack’s goal is to win its final seven games left on the schedule. That would give NC State a glimmer of hope when it comes to making the ACC Championship Game, but a one-week-at-a-time mindset is likely to come for the Pack. 

NC State was able to assert itself on Northern Illinois with its pillars of the program. Doeren was pleased to see that. It finally was not all talk. His squad was able to back up what he set out for them to do. 

“It’s one thing to say hard, tough, together [but] when you don’t play that way, it doesn’t mean anything,” Doeren said. “And we did that today.”