NC State drops tight one vs. Virginia Tech, 23-21

By Noah Fleischman

Since the 2020 campaign, NC State has been among the nation’s leaders in playing in one-score games with 35 such appearances entering its Week 5 clash with Virginia Tech.

While the Wolfpack owned the most one-score victories during that stretch with 20 in the past five seasons, it was put to the test against the Hokies — a team that was 1-12 in such games under coach Brent Pry, who was fired two weeks ago.

And, well, this one didn’t go the Wolfpack’s way.

NC State lost to Virginia Tech 23-21 on Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium, the Wolfpack’s second straight defeat — and its first one-score loss (it was 2-0) — of the campaign.

Sophomore quarterback CJ Bailey was 26-for-34 passing for 240 yards with 2 touchdowns, while he was also sacked five times.

Redshirt sophomore running back Hollywood Smothers, meanwhile, compiled 67 yards on 16 attempts to pace the Wolfpack’s rushing attack. Senior tight end Justin Joly led the Pack’s pass catchers with 5 receptions for 58 yards.

NC State’s offensive line struggled early

Through the first four games, NC State’s pass protection was able to keep Bailey clean fairly consistently. He was only sacked four times in those games, including two at Duke last weekend. But when Virginia Tech arrived in Raleigh, boasting a fairly depleted defense due to its coaching change, the Wolfpack’s offensive line struggled. 

And it wasn’t a pretty second quarter. 

Virginia Tech posted 4 sacks in the period, including a pair on back-to-back plays as Bailey hectically ran around the backfield with several Hokies in hot pursuit on fairly often occasions. 

A couple of those sacks were on Bailey holding onto the ball too long, including an intentional grounding penalty, but the other two were byproducts of the signal-caller not having much time to throw before Virginia Tech found penetration. It wasn’t just one Hokies defender, either. Virginia Tech had four different players post 1 sack each in the opening 30 minutes. 

NC State’s inability to limit sacks led to a struggle to run the ball. Virginia Tech, which entered the night with the ACC’s second-worst rushing defense, limited NC State to just 16 yards on 18 attempts (0.9 yards per carry). Even with the sack-adjusted total, NC State still averaged just 3.3 yards per rush for 46 total yards. 

In all, NC State’s offense was outgained 230-121 in the first half. It had three punts, a turnover on downs and a touchdown drive in the opening 30 minutes to enter the half trailing 13-7 with 10 of the Hokies’ points coming in the second quarter.

Wolfpack run defense was porous

After redshirt senior punter Caden Noonkester pinned Virginia Tech at its own 11-yard line with a 66-yard punt late in the third quarter, it didn’t take long for the Hokies to negate that in a hurry. In fact, Virginia Tech just needed one play to end up in the red zone. 

Hokies running back Terion Stewart ripped off an 85-yard run right through the teeth of the Wolfpack’s defense. NC State appeared to miss at least three tackles on the play, including three defenders all converging into each other near the first-down marker, to allow the tailback the longest run of his six-season collegiate career. 

That, in a sense, was a picture of the Wolfpack’s rushing defense against the Hokies. Or in other words, it wasn’t great. 

Virginia Tech, which entered the meeting with the No. 9 rushing offense in the ACC (137.5), posted 229 yards on 31 attempts on the ground as NC State’s missed tackles were costly throughout the night. 

Stewart paced the Hokies with 174 rushing yards on 15 carries, while Marcellous Hawkins added 47 yards on four attempts. The former entered the game with 11 total carries for 65 yards through Virginia Tech’s first four games of the campaign.

The Wolfpack, meanwhile, wasn’t able to establish a dominant rushing attack like it had for the previous three weeks. The Wolfpack finished with 59 yards on the ground, led by Smothers’ 67 yards. He was the only Pack player to eclipse more than 8 rushing yards, though redshirt freshman Duke Scott did record his first touchdown of his career on a 1-yard fourth-quarter plunge.

Punting a bright spot, at least?

After NC State’s special teams seemed to make costly mistakes in each of its first four games, including an 11-point swing at Duke last week, the Wolfpack managed to avoid any major gaffes in that department against Virginia Tech.

Noonkester, the veteran punter, was the Wolfpack’s bright spot of special teams as he posted 5 punts for 259 yards, an average of 51.8 per attempt. The mulleted specialist posted three attempts inside the 20-yard line with two 50-plus yard boots, including a 66-yard effort.