Notebook: Explosive plays fuel NC State football past Syracuse 41-17

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. 

A frustratingly slow start for the Wolfpack offense Saturday evening led to a scoreless tie at the end of the first quarter. 

NC State’s first three drives resulted in two punts and a turnover on downs. 

“In the first quarter, we wanted to start fast and didn’t,” Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren said. “So, that was disappointing.”

But after 15 minutes of play, the Pack was able to find lightning in a bottle, executing several explosive plays to score on five of its next six possessions.

The Wolfpack outscored Syracuse 28-7 in the second quarter and took care of business in the second half to claim a 41-17 victory. 

“We just started getting on a roll,” Doeren said. 

For the fifth conference game in a row, redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary threw for over 300 yards and at least two touchdowns. 

Leary accounted for over 75 percent of the Pack’s 399 total yards, but NC State was as balanced as it gets in terms of scoring distribution. 

On top of Leary’s two passing touchdowns, the Wolfpack found the endzone on the ground, on defense and on special teams. And four of the Pack’s five touchdowns came in the second quarter, including the pick-six by sophomore linebacker Drake Thomas and a touchdown return on a kickoff from sophomore running back Zonovan “Bam” Knight. 

“That’s what complementary football is,” Doeren said. “It’s setting up either side of the ball. It’s gaining momentum for either side of the ball, with a special teams play. We’ve talked so much about it, the guys have embraced it.

“That quarter was as good as it could be.”

Junior running back Ricky Person Jr. and Knight combined for 87 yards on 20 carries.

And each found the end zone. Person on a 15-yard bounce off to the left for the opening score of the game, and Knight on the 97-yard kickoff return in the second quarter to respond to the Orange’s only first-half score. 

What was most impressive about the Pack’s offensive performance Saturday was its explosiveness, particularly in the passing game, against one of the ACC’s better defensive units. 

Prior to Saturday, the Orange were allowing opponents to 193.9 passing yards per game, good for third-best in the conference. 

Not only did NC State light the Syracuse secondary up for its worst pass defense yardage total allowed in conference play, it was able to make every completion count. 

The Pack averaged 7.4 yards per play and 17.8 yards per pass completion, each marking season bests against ACC competition. 

Wolfpack defense bounces back

After giving up 44 points and over 400 yards to Wake Forest in last week’s loss to the Demon Deacons, the Wolfpack defense bounced back with a strong showing Saturday, shutting down Syracuse’s offense for the better part of four quarters. 

If there’s something nice to say about the Orange’s offensive showing in Raleigh, it was that Cuse was able to run for 170 yards against the best rushing defense in the ACC. 

But 119 of those came in the second quarter alone, in which Syracuse was only able to produce one touchdown compared to the Pack’s four. 

Both of the Orange’s touchdowns also came on big runs on formations Syracuse installed this week. One was a 55-yard run, the other a 48-yard score midway through the fourth quarter. 

With the exception of those two plays, the Pack held the Cuse offense to just 133 yards and three points. 

“There were a couple schemes that they put in this week and ran that we didn’t practice,” Doeren said. “They got outside on the edge on us a couple times, and one turned into a big play for them.

“But overall, we were trying to get them behind the chains to see if they could throw the ball down the field to win. We didn’t think they could, and that proved to be right.”

Other than some brief flashes in the pan in the run game, the Syracuse offense was flustered all night with the Wolfpack defensive front, which was consistently in the Orange’s backfield for four quarters. 

The Pack combined for five sacks and 14 tackles for loss. And four NC State defenders had multiple tackles for loss. 

Thomas and fifth-year senior defensive end Daniel Joseph each accounted for 2.5 tackles for loss, while redshirt junior linebacker Vi Jones and junior safety Tanner Ingle produced 1.5 apiece. 

“The guys did a good job of setting the line of scrimmage, shedding blocks and playing downhill,” Doeren said. “A lot of things we wanted to do tonight we were able to do.

“There were a lot of guys playing with some pain out there and playing a physical game, so proud of our guys for that.”

NC State football ACC Championship hopes still alive

An equally important result for NC State football Saturday: Clemson’s 48-27 win over Wake Forest. 

The Pack’s loss to Wake last weekend meant that the Wolfpack no longer controlled its own destiny to win the ACC Atlantic Division, but it didn’t eliminate State’s chances entirely. 

As of Friday, NC State needed four things to happen in order to find itself in Charlotte on the first Saturday in December competing for the program’s first conference football title in over four decades. 

Two of them happened Saturday, keeping the Pack’s chances alive entering the last week of the regular season. 

Following last weekend’s loss, NC State needed to win out and Wake needed to lose out for the Pack to win the division in a tiebreaker scenario. 

NC State will end its regular season on Friday with a home matchup against arch rival UNC on Senior Day.  Wake Forest will face Boston College but won’t play until Saturday at noon.

The Wolfpack knew the situation entering today’s game but continues to move forward with a stoic approach, focusing on what it can control and accepting whatever result comes of it. 

“I think our guys were watching that game,” Doeren said. “We were in pregame meal and I saw everybody looking at their phone. So that was right when their game was going on. Obviously, we didn’t see the second half because we were in warmups at that time. But our guys I think assumed that, I’m sure they knew. 

“I tried to keep more of our attention on the game we were playing than the one that was being played somewhere else. But I think our guys had a pretty good idea of what was going to be the outcome of that game after they saw the first half. 

“Again, we put ourselves in a position where we don’t control the finish, unfortunately, last week. But we do control what happens if we can get a win here at home next week on Senior Day against our rival, and that’s what we’ll focus on. Obviously, we’ll be Boston College fans this week, pulling for them too.”

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