NC State football suffers second half collapse at Notre Dame

For a half NC State football hung tough in Notre Dame Stadium — but football is a sixty minute game. The Wolfpack team that struggles to tackle and gives away turnovers emerged for the second half and the Pack suffered a 36-7 defeat to Notre Dame.

“We played a really tough first half,” said head coach Dave Doeren. “Third quarter changed the whole football game.”

Unlike previous games, NC State’s (4-3) defense started the game hot. The Pack made a pair of critical fourth down stops in the first half including a pick from redshirt freshman nickel Asaad Brown Jr. in the endzone. With the defense playing their best half of the season, NC State had the opportunity to jump on the Fighting Irish (4-2).

“I was proud of the defense,” Doeren said. “In the red zone forced two turnovers, had the goal line stop and they did some good things.”

Unfortunately for the Pack, NC State’s offense was non-existent all afternoon. The red-and-white scored once all game, a 45 yard touchdown catch by sophomore receiver Terrell Anderson in the second quarter. Unable to establish any consistency, the Pack turned in its least points in a game since a 24-3 loss at Duke in 2023.

“CJ was off a little today,” Doeren said. “There’s no other way to say it, and I told him that in the locker room. I’m not blaming him at any point, but he has huge expectations for himself and so do we.”

The quickest way to kill an upset bid is to lose the turnover battle — exactly what the Wolfpack did. Sophomore quarterback CJ Bailey tossed three interceptions, dooming the red-and-white’s already pedestrian offense. The normally-sharp quarterback was under duress from the Irish, taking 4 sacks and forcing passes to receivers that were covered.

“I’m a competitor, I’m not gonna just take a sack on a fourth down,” Bailey said. “I’m gonna try to make a play so that’s where the other two [turnovers] came from and I was trying to throw the ball away on the third one.”

Despite playing Notre Dame to a three point game in the first half, NC State was embarrassingly unprepared for the second half. The Fighting Irish crushed the Pack in the final 30 minutes, outscoring the visitors 29-0. Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr picked apart the Pack defense while racking up 342 yards for the afternoon. On the ground, running back Jeremiyah Love pounded the Pack for 86 yards, outdueling NC State’s own star running back, redshirt sophomore Hollywood Smothers.

“We just didn’t get it done,” said graduate linebacker Caden Fordham. “It’s simple, we gotta play complimentary football. We haven’t done that all year in my opinion.”

The Wolfpack has plenty of issues to clean up. Offensively the Pack needs to put Bailey in better positions to succeed. That starts with pass protection and establishing the run, also includes smarter throws by Bailey. Defensively the Wolfpack must play cleaner, disciplined football, while also finding ways to create turnovers. Having just one turnover forced won’t cut it, especially when the offense is handing out turnovers faster than Oprah Winfrey giving away cars.

“Still got a long season,” Bailey said. “Got a lot of stuff to fix, gotta play more complimentary football on offense and defense.”

Next up, NC State will enter a much-needed bye week to get healthy and regroup. Following the bye week, the Pack will hit the road to face the Pitt Panthers.