The NC State football team fell on the road to No. 23 Wake Forest Saturday afternoon at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem for its second straight ACC loss, 44-10.
The Wolfpack (4-4, 1-3 ACC) found itself in a rough spot from the get-go, facing the Demon Deacons (7-1, 3-1 ACC) and their seventh-ranked passing offense in the nation without junior cornerback Chris Ingram or senior cornerback Nick McCloud. In their place, the team started two underclassmen, sophomore De’Von Graves and redshirt freshman Malik Dunlap.
Wake Forest quarterback Jamie Newman took advantage of the Pack’s depleted secondary, posting a stellar line of 287 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, 30 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns with no interceptions.
“We just have to get better,” said head coach Dave Doeren. “I can’t even look at the score right now. I just have to get better. We got 10 penalties, we got three turnovers; there’s a lot to fix. For us, it’s the guys we can play with, because we had some more injured today. It doesn’t matter who we play. It’s just us getting better, and if you do that with a young football team, who knows what can happen.”
Also out for the Pack were redshirt junior tight end Dylan Parham and sophomore running back Ricky Person Jr. Freshman running back Zonovan Knight left the game in the first quarter to get X-rayed for an undisclosed injury, leaving freshman Jordan Houston as the main back.
“I think it’s tough when you can’t have all your guys playing, if guys are injured and you’re not 100 percent with everyone,” said redshirt freshman Devin Leary. “But like I said, we’re 100 percent confident with the guys who are on the field, and whoever is on the field has got to get the job done.”
Leary earned his first-ever start for the Wolfpack this week and played an up-and-down game, finishing with 149 passing yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He completed an extremely inefficient 17 of 45 passes, good for 37.7% completion, but the game was not entirely on his shoulders.
The play-calling hurt NC State a number of times, such as an attempted over-the-top drop-off screen on third-and-13 on the Pack’s first drive of the game. Another instance of play-calling hurting Leary was a deep ball attempt when the Pack was facing a 14-0 deficit, throwing into tight coverage for Emeka Emezie, which led to Leary’s first interception.
“He made some good throws,” Doeren said. “He was in a difficult situation being down 21-0; they’re able to play a lot more defend coverages at that point. He did some bad things too. This is a great game to learn from, tough way to learn, but Devin just keeps fighting. A lot of that in this game; a lot of our guys didn’t quit. I liked the way we responded in the second quarter. We didn’t do enough, obviously, to get back in it, but there were some good things in there.”
As for the aforementioned Houston, the freshman back looked solid in extended playing time, finishing with 48 rushing yards on 11 attempts, including an impressive 22-yard burst that saw him crash through multiple defenders.
“I thought Jordan Houston played really well today,” Doeren said. “It was probably the best I have seen him run, and [redshirt freshman] Trent [Pennix] did some good things. Hopefully he will be okay, but yeah, there are a lot of guys out right now.”
NC State’s inability to cover the Deacs’ tight ends doomed the Pack from the start, as Wake Forest tight end Jack Freudenthal, who finished with three touchdowns on just four targets, caught two touchdowns in the first half. As a whole, Wake Forest’s offense was able to put up 295 yards in the air compared to the Pack’s measly 149. The Demon Deacons’ 295 passing yards alone eclipsed NC State’s total yardage by 30 yards.
Even though the Deacs’ offense had a great showing, the Wolfpack beat itself as much as Wake Forest did, finishing with 10 penalties for 87 yards and three turnovers, the most costly of which came when freshman kick returner Keyon Lesane fumbled the ball on the three-yard line and it was recovered by defensive back Kenny Dicks III. Two plays later, Newman completed a five-yard touchdown to Freudenthal, and Wake Forest never looked back.
After Wake Forest dashed the Wolfpack’s New Year’s Six bowl hopes in Carter-Finley last season, NC State had a chance to enact revenge at BB&T Field. But the Wolfpack fell flat immediately upon arrival, and NC State has now dropped three in a row to Wake Forest.
“We just have to prepare more,” Leary said. “We have to prepare better.”
NC State will return to action Saturday, Nov. 9 in a primetime game against Clemson at 7:30 p.m. in Carter-Finley Stadium.
Junior linebacker Louis Acceus and sophmore safety Tanner Ingle miss a tackle against freshman Wake Forest running back Kenneth Walker III on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019 at BB&T field. The Wolfpack lost 44-10.
