NC State’s pass game ‘a work in progress’ as season nears midway point

NC State entered this past offseason with the goal of retooling its wide receiver rooms. The Wolfpack did just that through the transfer portal and high school recruiting with seven new scholarship wideouts joining the program for the 2024 campaign. 

The Pack added Ohio State transfer Noah Rogers, a former five-star recruit, as well as Wake Forest transfer Wesley Grimes to its outside receiver room. It also complemented that duo with true freshman Terrell Anderson, who was courted by Georgia at the end of his recruitment, but he stuck with NC State on signing day, and former North Carolina commit Keenan Jackson. 

Even though the Wolfpack surrounded its offense with elite playmakers on the outside — and it returned ACC Rookie of the Year Kevin “KC” Concepcion in the slot — NC State’s pass game has left much to be desired five games into the season.

Concepcion is the team’s leading receiver with 31 receptions, 243 yards and four touchdowns. The next closest wide receiver? Rogers and his 10 catches for 148 yards. Grimes is behind the former Buckeye with eight receptions for 95 yards and redshirt junior wideout Dacari Collins has logged eight grabs for 91 yards. 

So for NC State coach Dave Doeren, who had high expectations for the Wolfpack’s ability to air the ball downfield in the preseason, it hasn’t been quite what he was looking for. 

“It’s pretty hard to evaluate our pass game,” Doeren said Monday. “It hasn’t been what I was hoping for. I think part of that is what’s transpired having a freshman quarterback. Not blaming CJ at all, I think CJ’s getting better, but you can’t put the entire system on a freshman either. You are a little more restricted … in what you’re going to ask from him.”

While freshman quarterback CJ Bailey has started the last two games for the Wolfpack, NC State did not stretch the field much with graduate signal-caller Grayson McCall at the controls earlier this season. The two quarterbacks are a combined 4-of-15 passing on throws further than 20 yards down field this fall, according to Pro Football Focus. 

NC State’s offense ranks 14th in the ACC through the air with 199.6 yards per game (only ahead of Stanford, Virginia Tech and Boston College), despite being tied for seventh in the league with 96 completed passes this season.

And the Pack’s wide receiver target share reflects that as well.

Concepcion accounts for nearly 35% of the Wolfpack’s targets this season with 48, while junior tight end Justin Joly has 23. 

Then the numbers take a nosedive when it comes to the outside receivers. 

Rogers has been targeted 15 times, while Collins has been thrown at 11 times. Grimes and Anderson both have 10 targets each, while Jackson — a star perimeter blocker — has three. 

Rogers, the former Rolesville High standout, posted a career-best 48 receiving yards in the team’s 24-17 win over Northern Illinois this past weekend, but it was one just two receptions — both on the first drive of the game. Rogers as a whole has not logged more than three receptions in a single game this season. Grimes, meanwhile, has only been targeted twice in the last two games, and Collins has just one target in the past two weeks. 

Doeren admitted that the Wolfpack needs to find more ways to get the ball to its playmakers, specifically the outside receivers, as the schedule flips to the back half of the season. That includes giving Bailey more time to throw, on some occasions, he noted.

“I think it’s a work in progress right now,” Doeren said. “It needs to get better, we need to find more ways to spread the ball around and let those kids make plays for us. … That’s an area of our team in general, and it’s not the kids’ fault, we just need to play better collectively so we can get those guys the ball more.”

Holding penalties hurt Wolfpack offense

While the passing attack has been focused on short and intermediate passes, the Wolfpack offense has not helped itself to have short-yardage situations. NC State’s offense was flagged for three holding penalties in the team’s win over Northern Illinois. 

And Doeren was not happy with it on Monday.

“They’re calling more holding now than I’ve ever seen,” Doeren said. “We’ve gotta be able to play within that and how they’re calling it. We had three holding penalties that were drive killers, especially when they’re positive plays.”

Doeren did note that some holding calls appeared to be clean pancakes, but if the officiating crews are going to tighten the penalty calls up, then the coach said the Pack needs to respond accordingly. 

NC State’s trio of holding penalties against the Huskies were costly — and they derailed drives that appeared to have momentum going. 

The first was on left guard Anthony Carter Jr. after Bailey rushed for 11 yards near midfield. That set the Pack into a 3rd-and-17 it did not convert, resulting in a three-and-out.

And the next series the issue only compounded itself. Graduate running back Jordan Waters had a seven-yard rush taken back on first down due to a Jackson hold, while sophomore back Kendrick Raphael had a four-yard carry on 2nd-and-6 nullified by a right tackle Jacarrius Peak holding penalty. 

That drive — four plays for eight yards in 2:51 — ended with back-to-back Bailey incompletions with 16 yards to go in order to move the chains.

NC State, in all, only had one drive last longer than five plays and span more than 36 yards — its first of the game was eight plays for 64 yards that resulted in a touchdown. The holding penalties halted a pair of other promising series before they could get off the ground. As a consequence of that, NC State’s offense was 1-for-11 on third down, which Doeren called “atrocious.”

Doeren wants to see those penalties be eliminated from NC State’s execution of the offense this weekend against Wake Forest. He said it starts with blocking fundamentals and hand placement. If the Pack can correct that consistently, then the offense could have an easier time generating steam down the field. 

“[A] bigger problem is beating ourselves with penalties,” Doeren said. “Drive-killing penalties, they’re real for us right now. We’ve gotta get out of our own way that way.”