After a two-game skid, No. 23 NC State football got back in the win column with a nail-biting 17-14 road victory over Boston College. While the game was not the prettiest win and was a mixed bag in a lot of areas, the Wolfpack got it done against a team that has been a thorn in its side for many years, especially in Chestnut Hill.
There’s plenty of good, bad and ugly to analyze from this one, so let’s get to it.
The good: Bradley Chubb- As his time with the Wolfpack draws closer to a close, the senior defensive lineman continues to make his mark on games. The likely top-five NFL draft pick is a one-man wrecking crew capable of taking over games on his own, and that’s exactly what he did against the Eagles.
Chubb was a force all day long, constantly disrupting the backfield and pressuring both of Boston College’s quarterbacks. It’s hard to get set and make comfortable throws when there’s a player like Chubb running you down, and that was on display Saturday.
Chubb finished the game with five tackles (four for loss), and 2.5 sacks. That puts him at first in school history with 26 career sacks, passing NC State great and 2006 NFL first-overall draft pick Mario Williams.
In a game where things aren’t going your way and you have to fight through adversity, you need your best players to be your best players to come away with a win. That’s exactly what Bradley Chubb was for NC State in the team’s seventh victory of the season.
The bad: Kicking- Look, we’ve known all year this was an issue for NC State. But yikes. The week after reclaiming his starting job from graduate Carson Wise, junior Kyle Bambard was… not good for the Wolfpack.
After a 48-yard make on his first attempt of the day was wiped out by a delay of game penalty, Bambard missed the resulting 54-yarder (an admittedly difficult mark for a college kicker). Bambard went on to miss three of four attempts on the day, only connecting on a 41-yarder at the end of the first half.
His other misses came from 36 and 37 yards. In a tight game, with points at a premium, you need someone who can make kicks and put valuable points on the board. The Wolfpack did not have that Saturday, has not had that all season and is extremely fortunate that its kicking woes did not cost the team the game against Boston College.
The Ugly: Play calling- Saturday was not a banner day for NC State offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz. Several of his play calls resulted in stalled drives and opportunities to score lost. While a few instances of running the ball up the gut for a loss when the team needed to try and move the ball down the field were a problem, the glaring issue here was Drinkwitz’s love of the trick play and getting cute in the red zone. At times this season, those plays have worked out for the Pack. In Saturday’s game, they didn’t.
A failed attempt at a flea flicker play in the first quarter on the drive that led to Bambard’s first miss lost five yards, when the Pack might have managed to move down the field with a more conventional play (the team had already driven into BC territory). By far the worst play call of the day, however, came late in the third quarter, when State dialed up a double-lateral play for senior all-purpose back Jaylen Samuels and redshirt junior quarterback Ryan Finley. The team snapped the ball directly to Samuels, who threw a backwards pass to Finley. The ball went behind Finley and hit the ground for a fumble, recovered by the Eagles at NC State’s 37-yard line.
The Eagles quickly cashed in off the turnover for a touchdown, taking a lead into the fourth quarter. There was no reason to call that play in Wolfpack territory when the team had had success moving the ball the conventional way, and it ended up costing the team dearly in the form of a cashed-in turnover. Drinkwitz is lucky the Pack came back to win and the miscue was not more costly. More cautious play calling over the season’s final two weeks would seem to be to NC State’s benefit.
