After a week off, these Wolves are hungry for an upset. Nobody knows better than our N.C. State counterpart, James, who publishes a Pack-worthy blog with a name too long to repeat. Here's how he answered our five questions about Chuck Amato's alma mater.
N.C. State is third in the ACC in Total Defense and Total Offense. Why hasn't that translated to more wins?
"I think it’s important to note that while we may be third in “total defense,” we’re #10 in “scoring defense.” We just can’t keep anyone out of the endzone. That’s a rather large discrepancy in the rankings between the yardage surrendered and the points given up…if I had to guess why, I’d say that we’ve done a poor job winning the field position battle. We tend to give up a ton of kickoff and punt return yardage, shortening the field for the opponent initially. We’ve also committed a lot of stupid penalties on both sides of the ball. Again, more “hidden” yardage. And we also shut down two FCS opponents to an embarrassing degree, which has somewhat falsely improved our defensive yardage stats. Add it all up and it paints a much more grim picture defensively. That’s why the scoring defense numbers “feel” more accurate."
Like FSU, N.C. State has had its highs and lows. What's the deal with the Pack's inconsistent play?"Injuries seem to be at the root of most of it. Our back seven was thin and inexperienced coming into the season…losing Nate Irving—the heart of the defense—before the year began and some key contributors in the secondary as the year has progressed has really taken the fire out of this defensive unit. They’re not playing well together, as a group, and I think they’ve lost faith in themselves and the defensive scheme to put them in a place to succeed. The soft zone looks Mike Archer employs leave little room for error in order to be successful, and right now the players are making way too many errors. They’re thinking instead of playing, making them a step slower and less aggressive. It’s a bad combination."
Will the Pack's D-Coordinator have some new wrinkles to put more pressure on Ponder?
"Lord would I love to say yes! The problem is I don’t think Archer trusts his secondary enough to protect against the pass without the linebackers dropped into coverage. So I don’t expect there to be many blitzes if it’s a tight game. Archer has shown to be fairly conservative when the game is in doubt, so I imagine it will be a lot of 3- and 4-man rushes. Man I hope I’m wrong and that Archer brings the house from all directions all day long, but I just don’t see it from him."
How do you think Russell Wilson and the offense will attack FSU's less than stellar D?
"I think they’ll continue to do what they’ve done all year long, which is try and pick teams apart through the air. Our offense has been extremely biased toward the pass this year (over 60% passes versus rushes), almost to a fault. State’s running game with Toney Baker has shown signs of life, but OC Dana Bible is seemingly reluctant to rely on it as the primary method of attack even when it’s working. Being behind most games hasn’t helped our offensive balance, either, but I would like to see Bible turn to the running game more, especially watching how effective Carolina was in attacking the perimeter on the ground during the game Thursday night."
Both teams are really struggling defensively, so the point total in this one could set some really high marks (or low marks, depending on your perspective of what makes for entertaining football).
Do you sense a rested, re-focused and fired up Wolfpack after the week off?
"That has been State’s M.O. the first two seasons under O’Brien. I’m not so sure I feel as confident we’ll see that in year three. There’s only so many times that can work for you, and as O’Brien said earlier this week, the first year it was a result of the team finally buying into the system and learning where they need to be. We’re well past that point now. I think the week off will do the team some good, but I don’t expect the team to run the table like it did last year to become bowl eligible. I hope I’m wrong, of course!"
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