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NC State senior edge rusher Cian Slone with smart coverage instincts in win over Virginia

Jacey Zembalby: Jacey Zembal4 hours agoJaceyZembal
Cian Slone
NC State senior edge rusher Cian Slone, right, celebrates with senior defensive end Sabastian Harsh during Saturday's win over Virginia in Raleigh, N.C. (USA Today Sports photos)

The end of the game seemed fitting that NC State senior edge rusher Cian Slone made the play of the game against Virginia senior running back J’Mari Taylor.

Virginia drove the down the field in the hurry-up offense, trailing 35-31 with 1:08 left. Slone was playing as an outside linebacker type and picked up Taylor immediately coming out of the backfield. Slone played textbook coverage on Taylor and got the interception in the end zone to preserve the victory.

“Another great, crazy finish and you got to make a play,” NCSU coach Dave Doeren said. “Sometimes you don’t know who it’s going to be. It’s awesome when it’s a senior [in Slone]. I told the guys in the locker room, I was really proud of Cian for making that.”

Taylor played at Charlotte (N.C.) West Mecklenburg High and went to North Carolina Central for four years. The 5-foot-9, 204-pounder tallied 196 carries for 1,146 yards and 15 touchdowns last year for the Eagles.

Taylor proved to hurt the Wolfpack twice on big running plays. With UVa facing fourth down and one at the NCSU 39-yard line in the first quarter, he took the inside handoff, and slipped through the tackling attempt of senior linebacker Sean Brown and then had senior strong safety Jeremiah Johnson bounce off him and he sprinted for the games first touchdown.

Taylor wasn’t done though. Virginia had third and one and he slipped by sophomore cornerback Brian Nelson and Jeremiah Johnson got sucked and Taylor was off for the races for a 66-yard touchdown and 31-28 lead 5:11 left in the third quarter.

Taylor finished with 17 carries for 150 yards and three touchdowns, but he couldn’t get that fourth score due to the heads up actions of Slone.

The rangy 6-4, 252-pound Slone wouldn’t have been asked to cover backs downfield in old defensive coordinator Tony Gibson’s 3-3-5 defense, but Slone was brought in specifically fill the new void in new defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot’s 4-2-5 scheme.

Slone played two years American River Junior College in California and two years at Utah State, but the junior college ruling gave him one extra year of eligibility and he came to NC State. Slone thought he got an interception in junior college, but his last might be his junior year at Rocklin (Calif.) High.

Slone finished with four tackles in the win.

“Iff we’re doing our job and we’re doing our job inside the scheme, like the plays are going to happen,” Slone said. “We just kind of had to not panic and not feel like we had to make a Superman play when if we’re all doing our job. We got a great scheme in. It was just we kind of found that trust. 

“I feel like we all kind of took a deep breath in the second half.”

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