Ladies and Gentlemen, The ONH welcomes a new poster to its disgruntled blogging community, the esteemed Mike Sturdivant. He's a former collegiate football player, an avid Wolfpack backer, a small college aficionado, and an overall angry young man. You all have been warned...
N.C. State v. Florida State, October 31, 2009, 12:00 Tallahassee, Fl
Mike Sturdivant: The last three Wolfpack football games would have to be considered the low point of the past decade of N.C. State football. A last minute gut wrenching loss at Wake Forest, where the secondary got absolutely shredded as Riley Skinner set a school passing record, a humiliating home loss to Duke in which the unstoppable machine Thad Lewis made Peyton Manning look like a chump who can't move an offense up and down the field, and finally giving up a school record 264 rushing yards and five touchdowns to Boston College's Montel Harris in the rain in Chesnutt Hill. Whoa. The Pack followed those three games up with a bye week in which it managed to lose starting WR/ kick returner/ punt returner T.J. Graham, starting MLB Ray Michel (arguably the most important defensive player not already hurt) and backup RB/ kick returner/ punt returner James Washington to injury. Things are not going well at the Murphy Center.
The Pack has a lot of problems, but the most glaring is this: the defense cannot stop anybody. The defensive issues boil down to a simple lack of quality personnel at linebacker and in the secondary. The Pack will be starting its 7th different combination in the secondary this week in Tallahassee, that’s the 7th in 8 games. The LB's have some talent, but they are still too young across the board and are clearly reacting late due to a lack of recognition of whats coming at them. Throw in the worst tackling back seven in Division 1 football, and they're totally exposed anytime an offense can slip past the front four.
State's offense clearly has a lot of weapons and knows how to score (see 38 points scored in win over 7-1 Pitt). However, the last two games the Pack has moved the ball very efficiently in the first half, but appears to have gone into panic mode in the second half watching their hapless defense get rolled over while realizing they essentially need to score a touchdown on every possession to have a chance. That, combined with Dana Bible's tendency to take Toney Baker out of the game by throwing the ball on first down 70% of the time, and thereby getting into constant 2nd and 10 situations, has this talented bunch bogged down after intermission.
The Pack has completely turned its season around after the bye week the last two years, but don't expect that to continue. In each of the last two years, the Pack has welcomed back a number of injured starters, as well as made major schematic changes after the bye. This year that Pack is coming back with the same guys, and by all accounts will be using the same schemes.
The recipe for fixing this defense is not losing its starting MLB and a road trip to face Christian Ponder and the most explosive offense in the ACC (outside of Air Lewis in Durham of course). Maybe the Pack offense will be disciplined enough to stay with the game plan and be consistent late in the game, but there is no way they can keep up with Chief Osceola's touchdown highway all afternoon. Tom O'Brien has only won one game as head coach of N.C. State outside of the State of North Carolina, and although the first one was in Florida, he won't get his second one tomorrow.
Game Score:
FSU 37
NCSU 23
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