Nick Faulkner
Junior tight end Jaylen Samuels goes up for the catch on third and long, nearly in the red zone, only to have the ball be forced from his hands as the score stood at 24-20 in favor of Florida State. Samuels had 29 yards on the ground with another 31 through the air in the loss to Florida State on Saturday in Carter-Finley Stadium.
Looking to halt a three-game losing skid, the NC State football team fell just short of the upset against Florida State, 24-20, in Carter-Finley Stadium Saturday.
The Wolfpack (4-5, 1-4 ACC) did a good job of stopping the run, as it held the Seminoles (6-3, 3-3 ACC) to just 63 total rushing yards. However, redshirt freshman Deondre Francois lit up the secondary with 330 passing yards and a late touchdown to seal the win.
“For some reason, we’re not finding the one play it takes to break open a game like that,” said head coach Dave Doeren. “But if they stay together, we will find that play. We got a lot better in one week. They’re hurting right now.”
NC State moved the ball well on the first drive, only to have redshirt sophomore Ryan Finley throw a pick on the 7-yard line to give the ball to FSU as both offenses sputtered to start the game.
Later, the Pack drove 71 yards in eight plays capped off by a 28-yard catch-and-run touchdown by senior Bra’Lon Cherry to give the Wolfpack a 7-0 lead with 1:52 left in the first quarter. Florida State responded with a big drive of its own, but NC State’s red-zone defense prevailed, holding the Noles to a 32-yard field goal to make it a 7-3 game.
With the help of sophomore Nyheim Hines, the Pack put together another promising drive, only to have sophomore Kyle Bambard miss a 31-yard field goal, his fifth miss of the season on just 10 attempts. This led to a kicking change, as graduate Connor Haskins converted a 20-yard field goal on the next drive to give NC State a 10-3 lead with 4:01 left in the half.
The Seminoles fired back with a big drive at the end of the half, going 75 yards in seven plays. A 38-yard pass from Francois to sophomore Auden Tate and a pass interference penalty in the end zone set up a 2-yard touchdown by sophomore Jacques Patrick to tie the game at 10 with 1:15 left in the first half.
Out of nowhere, the Wolfpack came alive at the end of the half, moving the ball with incredible efficiency through the air on a 10-play, 64-yard drive that Haskins capped off with a 39-yard field goal to give the Pack a 13-10 lead going into the break.
With the exception of the last drive of the half, the NC State defense was phenomenal, holding junior Heisman candidate Dalvin Cook to just 29 yards on 11 carries and merely 145 yards of total offense. Meanwhile, the Wolfpack offense totaled 285 yards in the first half as Hines led the way with 77 receiving yards.
The Pack’s momentum carried into the second half, as junior Airius Moore forced and recovered a fumble at the 46-yard line for FSU’s first turnover of the game. While NC State failed to capitalize off the turnover, it temporarily gave the team a leg up in the field position battle.
With both offenses struggling, the Wolfpack was pinned back at its own 5-yard line. Against the odds, it drove all the way down the field as Hines eclipsed 100 yards receiving for the first time in his career and junior Jaylen Samuels scored on a 23-yard reverse to extend the lead, 20-10, with 3:05 left in the third quarter.
However, this is when FSU mounted a comeback. Cook, who had just 32 yards coming into the drive, ran for 33 yards on that series alone, including the 10-yard touchdown run that cut the gap, 20-17, as the third quarter ended.
Once again, the action didn’t come until the bottom half of the quarter. Florida State went on a five-play, 83-yard drive in just 1:28 as Francois picked apart the Wolfpack secondary, eventually scoring on a 19-yard touchdown pass to junior Travis Rudolph to take a 24-20 lead with 3:09 remaining in the game.
NC State went out fighting, getting all the way to FSU’s 26-yard line, but nothing came of it as it turned the ball over on downs, all but ending the game.
“We are right there but we are not finishing,” Hines said. “When we start finishing, we will close these games out.”
In the end, it was the porous pass defense that cost the Wolfpack the game. Sophomore Nyqwan Murray, who had just 142 yards on the season coming into the game, tallied nine catches for 153 yards. The missed field goal by Bambard didn’t help either, as the Pack was forced to go for a touchdown on the final drive rather than a field goal.
Hines ended the game with a career-high 11 catches for 124 yards, but the loss put a hamper on his big day.
“Ryan just finds the open man and it seems like tonight I was the open man,” Hines said. “All that is nice and 100 yards but we didn’t come out with the win and that’s all I really care about.”
The Wolfpack looks to end its four-game losing streak on the road against a beatable Syracuse team Nov. 12.