Report card: Grading the Wolfpack’s performance in a 56-10 win over Campbell

By Noah Fleischman

For the first time this season, NC State wasn’t stressed at the end of a game. Instead of playing a nailbiter, the Wolfpack was able to pull its starters in the third quarter as it coasted to a 56-10 win over Campbell on Saturday afternoon at Carter-Finley Stadium.

Let’s take a look at each phase of the Pack’s game and how it did in the win. Here are the week’s grades for NC State’s offense, defense and special teams.

NC State offense grade

Grade – A

Eight drives. Eight touchdowns. You can’t ask for much more from NC State’s starting offense, regardless of who the team is on the other sideline, even if it is an FCS foe that has struggled for most of the season. Oh, and don’t forget about the 607 yards of total offense in the victory.

Sophomore quarterback CJ Bailey looked the most confident he has this season, and it showed in his play. He was 20-of-23 passing for 337 yards and 4 touchdowns. He logged a new career-best 87 percent completion rate, which was aided by completing each of his last 11 passes before being pulled for the backups in the blowout. 

While Bailey was able to post his third 300-yard passing game of the season, that aspect of NC State’s offense was opened up by a standout rushing attack headlined by redshirt sophomore running back Hollywood Smothers. The former Oklahoma transfer posted just 4 carries, but logged 123 yards with a touchdown (a career-long 59-yard scamper), while also adding 2 receptions for 30 yards and another score. 

In addition to Smothers’ stellar performance, redshirt freshman running back Duke Scott posted 10 carries for a career-best 89 yards and 2 touchdowns to aid NC State’s rushing attack that compiled 236 yards.

The receiving department, meanwhile, was a balanced attack. NC State had 13 different players record at least one reception, led by senior tight end Justin Joly’s 4 catches for 43 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt sophomore Noah Rogers paced the team in yards with 3 catches for 62, while sophomore Terrell Anderson was closely behind with 2 receptions for 50 yards and a score.

In all, NC State’s offense clicked on all cylinders. Yes, it was against a lower-division team, but the players still had to execute. The Wolfpack did just that, and its confidence on offense couldn’t be higher moving into a gauntlet that features four ranked opponents in its last six games. 

Defense grade

Grade – B+

It was a clean game for NC State’s defense, for the most part. The Wolfpack limited the Camels to just 10 points — all of which came off turnovers (a muffed punt lost inside the own 20-yard line and a Will Wilson interception). Any time Campbell got the ball back via a punt or kickoff, it struggled to get inside the NC State 40-yard line. To be exact, the Camels moved the ball past midfield on its own: ending at the 46, 43 and 41 yard-lines, respectively. 

In all, Campbell logged 188 total yards — 121 passing, 67 rushing — against NC State’s defense. Camels running back JJ Cowan logged 48 rushing yards on 12 carries, while the rest of the team combined for 21 carries for 19 yards. 

NC State, in all, logged 2 sacks and 7 tackles for a loss. Graduate defensive end Sabastian Harsh paced the unit with 1.5 sacks, while senior linebacker Tra Thomas accounted for the other 0.5 sacks.

Redshirt junior linebacker Kenny Soares Jr., who started with Sean Brown out due to injury, posted a season-best 9 tackles, and redshirt freshman safety Ronnie Royal III logged 8 tackles with 0.5 for a loss.

There were just two downsides to the defense’s performance: it didn’t force a turnover and it committed three penalties. The penalties are fixable, while the lack of turnovers didn’t hurt with the offense humming as it scored touchdowns at will.

Overall, the defense did what it needed to do in the victory over the Camels.

Special teams grade

Grade – D+

It’s been an aspect of NC State’s team that has been the most inconsistent, and the special teams unit fell into a first-half blunder yet again. After playing a clean game in this department last week against Virginia Tech, NC State had four separate errors to bite back in the win over Campbell. 

Freshman wide receiver Teddy Hoffmann muffed two punts — the first of which led to the Camels’ only touchdown, while he recovered the second later in the game. NC State kickoff specialist Charlie Birtwistle had an attempt go out of bounds to give Campbell prime field position later in the period, though it didn’t hurt the Wolfpack. 

NC State’s final special teams error was a big one. On Anderson’s first punt return attempt in place of Hoffmann, it appeared that he was able to knife his way through the coverage unit for a touchdown. But once he looked back after crossing the goal line, he knew it wasn’t going to stand with a penalty marker on the field. Freshman linebacker LaCorian Hodge was called for holding to negate the score. 

While the penalty hurt, it did open the Wolfpack’s eyes to what Anderson can do as a return man. It appears that he will own that role moving forward. Although the special teams errors frustrated Dave Doeren, he was happy that the Pack was able to figure out that the former four-star recruit out of Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley is the answer at punt returner.