NC State’s third-down defense showed signs of growth in Virginia win, but has more work to do

NC State’s defense walked into Carter-Finley Stadium’s west end zone locker room at halftime with a lot to fix. Virginia led by 10 after its offense steamrolled through the Wolfpack defense, seemingly doing anything it wanted to in the opening 30 minutes.  The Cavaliers racked up 253 total yards — a balanced 131 through the air and 122 on the ground — with 14 first downs. But the most head-scratching statistic NC State found itself looking at was Virginia’s 10-for-13 efficiency on third down — five of which were converted with seven or more yards to go.  Not great.  As NC State made its way into its auxiliary locker room, the one more accessible for halftime than the Murphy Center’s, Wolfpack captains Caden Fordham and Sean Brown were not pleased with that third-down conversion rate. And, well, they let the rest of the unit know that.