The spotlight of a nationally televised Thursday night game wasn’t enough for the football team to carry a halftime lead into a victory over Florida State. Instead, the Wolfpack (2-5, 0-3 ACC) dropped its third straight home contest in a 26-17 loss and set itself in an improbable position to reach a bowl game with five conference games remaining.
“We feel down as individuals,” sophomore receiver Owen Spencer said. “But as a team we must keep our head up. That’s a big part of this team. We don’t want to stay down on ourselves.”
The Wolfpack fed off the sold-out Carter-Finley crowd in the first half, forcing a Florida State punt on the first possession and getting on the board first with a 24-yard field goal from redshirt sophomore Josh Czajkowski, set up by several big running plays from backs Andre Brown and Jamelle Eugene.
The Pack then took a 10-0 lead at the beginning of the second quarter with a 20-yard pass from redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Wilson to tight end Anthony Hill, a redshirt senior who missed most of this season with a chest injury. On both sides of the ball, players returning from injury contributed greatly to the Pack’s first half success.
On defense, Alan-Michael Cash returned and constantly hounded Noles quarterback Christian Ponder, and linebacker Nate Irving also returned, only re-aggravate his ankle in the second quarter and not return to play.
“Everybody was pretty confident when they knew we all were coming back,” Cash said. “We came into the game feeling real good about our chances of winning.”
Despite constant pressure on Seminole quarterback Christian Ponder in the first half, the Seminoles managed to overcome penalties and tack on two field goals in the second quarter, the second as the half expired, giving the Pack a 10-6 lead at halftime.
Florida State took the lead in the third quarter with a 27-yard touchdown run from Antone Smith. Smith’s run was the only score of the defensive third quarter.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Wilson hit Spencer for a 67-yard pass for a touchdown, putting State on top 17-13.
The Seminoles immediately answered on an 11-play drive, ending in a 17-yard touchdown pass from Ponder to receiver Bert Reed to give FSU a 20-17 lead with just under 10:40 remaining in the game. Ponder and the ‘Nole offense wer 10-for-17 on third down conversions, finding receivers even when penalties and State’s defense backed him up. With two more field goals from Graham Gano, the Noles (5-1, 2-1 ACC) held on for the win as fans filed out to beat State Fair traffic.
“It came down to third downs,” coach Tom O’Brien said. “We had to stay on the field and we couldn’t. I think it’s the third week in a row that we’re playing more defense than we are offense. We have to get back to the drawing board.”
