NC State football picked up a thrilling, come-from-behind, overtime victory at UNC-Chapel Hill in its Rivalry Week game on Saturday.
After the game, players, coaches and fans were caught up in the excitement of the last-second win, and senior running back Reggie Gallaspy’s five-touchdown performance.
However, as the thrill of victory fades, should that feeling be replaced with some worry about needing a fourth-quarter comeback and overtime to beat a 2-8 (going into the game) Carolina outfit who’s only Power Five wins in the last two seasons came against Pittsburgh? Not necessarily.
NC State certainly did not play a perfect game against the Tar Heels. The offense could not get anything going during the first half (though most of that was due to cold, rainy conditions). In the second half, UNC freshman quarterback Cade Fortin carved up NC State’s secondary for long passes, including a 37-yard scoring strike in the third quarter, and a 51-yard pass in the fourth that help set up the Heels’ go-ahead touchdown.
NC State having a poor secondary is not new information, but it could have played better in a tight game.
That being said, NC State won. In a game that, as with all rivalry games, has a history that leads us to expect the unexpected, the Wolfpack came away with a victory. While it had been a dismal season for Carolina that has led to the firing of Head Coach Larry Fedora, it should have been expected UNC would want nothing more than to end with a Rivalry Week win.
The Wolfpack expected, and got, the best from the Tar Heels in that game.
“I’m really proud of our players,” head coach Dave Doeren said. “They have heart, they have grit, they love each other. Our coaches, guys just hung together. Carolina played their asses off. They did. They played hard. Our guys found a way to win. That’s really been the thing we talked about all week, that they were going to play for four quarters or more, and we had to do the same and find a way to put it away. We did that.”
Doeren should be proud of his players. In a game in which many previous Wolfpack teams (including this one in its earlier loss to Wake Forest) would have found a way to lose, this one found a way to win. While this was undoubtedly a bad UNC squad, the Tar Heels developed a penchant for playing teams tough this season. Six of UNC’s previous losses came by 10 points or less, and this was the second overtime game UNC-CH played. The first came against Syracuse, which finished second in the ACC Atlantic Division at 9-3.
And this series has always been known for close games, such as NC State’s narrow victory in 2016 that arguably saved Doeren’s job, the infamous “Gio punt” game in 2012, or T.A. McLendon being controversially ruled down at the 1 in 2004 before fumbling away a chance to win the game for the Wolfpack.
Rivalry games in general are crazy and unpredictable. Look to this season’s games for example, be it the wild game between Oklahoma and West Virginia Friday night, or the bonkers seven overtime affair between LSU and Texas A&M Saturday. Think Notre Dame, which is almost assuredly playoff bound at 12-0, is upset it needed a second-half comeback to beat an inferior USC team by one score?
The fact remains that, while Saturday’s win wasn’t won in convincing fashion for NC State, a win’s a win as cliché as that sounds. Anything can happen in a rivalry week game, and surviving this year’s edition should be a testament to this team’s mental fortitude, not that it should have won the game by more.
