NC State’s turnovers cost Wolfpack game in Syracuse loss due to ‘lack of focus’

Winning the turnover battle is at the top of NC State’s program identity. The Wolfpack talks about it on a daily basis, including practicing its ball security drills for its own offense every day on the practice fields a stone’s throw from Carter-Finley Stadium. 

But just because it is instilled in the Wolfpack’s minds each day it suits up in the red and white uniforms, that doesn’t mean it will be executed on Saturdays. And against Syracuse on Saturday night, a minus-three total in the turnover battle doomed NC State. 

The Wolfpack (3-4, 0-3 ACC) committed two fumbles and an interception, which the Orange was able to score 21 points off, cruising to a 24-17 win over the hosts in front of a sold-out crowd of 56,919 in Raleigh. 

“We talk about it every week and the guys know it,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said postgame. “We’ve got to do a better job believing it. The most important thing on the whole field is the ball. There’s a reason they named the game after it. We’re not coveting the ball enough on offense. … We gotta get back to protecting the ball. That’s how you win games.”

The issue with NC State’s turnovers against Syracuse were that they came in the most untimely situations. The Wolfpack gave the ball away as it had sustained drives going with its young offense, commanded by freshman quarterback CJ Bailey. 

The first came as the Pack had a four-play, 58-yard drive to get to the Orange’s 17-yard line before sophomore running back Kendrick Raphael coughed the ball up trying to extend a 15-yard carry. The second? That was a Bailey fumble as he was hit from behind just before he attempted to throw the ball at the Syracuse 27-yard line. 

Bailey threw an interception on the Pack’s next drive as the team had an eight-play, 40-yard series rolling at the Orange’s 28-yard line. That, in a way, appeared to make the Pack’s two-score deficit appear larger as the Pack failed to find a way to punch the ball in as the Orange did to make NC State pay. 

Those three turnovers were costly as Syracuse held the ball for 36:52 of game time, while the Orange ran nearly double the amount of plays the Wolfpack could (76 to 45). 

Bailey, who made just his third-career start in the loss, took the blame for his two turnovers, but admitted that the Wolfpack should be able to hold onto the ball on offense. 

“I gotta take care of the ball in the pocket,” said Bailey, who was 17-of-24 passing for 329 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. “We’ve got ball security drills and we still fumble the ball. Fumbling, that’s something that shouldn’t happen. Interceptions, that shouldn’t happen either. But the main thing is we have to take care of the ball.”

The turnovers derailed the Wolfpack’s offense’s progression, which seemed to take a step forward with 411 yards of total offense — the most with Bailey at the controls this season. 

For redshirt freshman wide receiver Noah Rogers, who had four receptions for 95 yards and a score, it comes down to keeping control of the game as an offense. 

“I know our offense knows what we’re doing,” Rogers said. “As you can see, we get down to the red zone and we turn the ball over. We’re doing good on pace, we just have to stay on schedule and keep executing and focus. That’s just lack of focus right there.”

Bailey agreed and called it a mental thing when it comes to taking care of the ball. He too thought the offense took a step forward, but it just couldn’t find ways to score on a consistent basis. 

Instead, the Orange did just that off the Pack’s miscues. 

“Obviously a game we lost because of three turnovers going in to score,” Doeren said. “All three different, but all three costly. You’d hope that you’d at least get 9 points on the three trips, but come up with zero on all three trips and lose by one score, that dictates the outcome of the game.”