I hope everybody enjoyed the holidays. The holidays are always better for me when the Pack is in a bowl game and a bowl game win is the best so it was happy times in DFCF land. Best wishes to everybody in 2012. Before I move on here are my Belk Bowl thoughts and the final Pack the Caption of the 2011 season (photos by Ethan Hyman/N&O).
State improved to 14-11-1 all-time in bowl games (has won 5 of past 6) and won bowl games in consecutive seasons for only the 4th time in school history.
TOB now has a career 8-2 bowl record (2-1 at State).
David Amerson added 2 more INTs to his already impressive season to set the ACC single-season INT record (13) surpassing UNC’s Dre Bly’s record set back in 1996. Amerson’s INT return for TD was the play of the game and the deciding score.
Mike Glennon finished a pretty good season with 264 yards passing and 3 TDs earning himself Belk Bowl MVP honors.
It was a Special Teams nightmare for the Pack … a botched punt (led to Louisville TD), allowed Louisville to convert a fake punt (led to Louisville TD), and allowed Louisville to recover an onside kick (State defense nullified). And we continue to have one assistant coach that’s dedicated solely to handling Special Teams … unbelievable! Hard to win a game after getting dominated like this on Special Teams, but we found a way to get it done.
The key to the Pack’s season this year was the defense’s ability to force turnovers … 3 more in this game raised the season total to 39, good for 2nd best in the nation.
Hey Teddy ... it's the Boogeyman!!!
You complete me!
Interceptions: Easy as 1, 2, 3
Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake your booty
Guys, who pissed in the Gatorade cooler?
Also, ncsu01 does a great job of putting together highlight videos of NC State football games. Here’s his Belk Bowl highlight video:
So it’s almost a week later and I haven’t commented on the Maryland game yet. Sounds about right. I’m still in shock and disbelief that we actually pulled off the win. I was so pissed that I left the game at halftime to go back out and tailgate. We were watching it on the TV and once we started playing good I couldn’t go back in to watch it in fear that I would jinx us. Yep, that’s how my twisted mind works. A co-worker of mine couldn’t believe that so I told him, “I’d stay out in the parking lot every game if it meant we would win.” And that statement is 100% true.
There’s not much else I can say so I’ll let the photos (by Ethan Hyman/N&O) for this week’s Pack the Caption do the talking:
It's about to get ugly so you better hide in your turtle shell now...
Fear this German ... punks!
AHHHHHH!!! This roller coaster ride is amazing!!!
This next one … Wow! … could go so many ways. This is the definition of the sports cliche “giving you a softball.” Swing away.
Russell's got nothing on my white guy dancing skills!
Bonus Photo: This photo was actually from the Clemson game, but I just wanted to use this caption. (And, yes I’m being a little sarcastic.)
'Cause all I do is win, win, win, and if you goin’ in, put your hands in the air, make 'em stay there...
What a comeback for TOB & Co. Congrats fellas and I’ll see you at the bowl game!
TOB put it best in his postgame presser, “I really have no explanation for what just happened.” Yeah, him and everybody else that was in attendance at Carter-Finley on Saturday. The Pack’s 27 point avalanche in the second quarter was the perfect example of how crazy college football is. Absolutely everything was going right for us (offensively, defensively, and special teams) and there wasn’t anything Clemson could do to stop it.
A great win for the Pack that keeps our bowl hopes alive. Plus it’s always good to win on Homecoming and it’s even better to finally get a win in the Textile Bowl rivalry. Most of the photos from this game were celebratory, so I had to mix it up a little to give you some variety in this week’s Pack the Caption (photos by Ethan Hyman/N&O). Gimme some good ones:
Hey R.J., quit doing the hokey pokey and block this damn guy!
Thanks to these sick red helmets ... I'm really jacked for this game!
In typical TOB fashion, the Pack lost on the road against an inferior opponent just a week after a huge upset win in a rivalry game. TOB continues to struggle mightily against the ACC Atlantic Division with a 5-18 overall record that includes an atrocious 0-13 record on the road. The only thing more mind-boggling is that there are still State fans that think TOB is a good coach and the right one for our program. Barf!
The Pack defense was on it’s heels a little on the opening drive of the game letting BC march right down the field for a touchdown, but after that they put the clamps down. The Eagles only had the ball for 11:52 in the 2nd half and was bottled up to the tune of -2 total yards of offense. There’s not much more you can ask your defense to do. The defense was bad early in the season, but has improved dramatically as it’s allowed 14 points or less in 3 of the 4 games since the bye.
The Pack offense, on the other hand, struggled for the 4th game in a row. Over the 4 games we’ve averaged a very anemic 267 yards and 11 points (taking away the defensive touchdown at Virginia). The offense hasn’t been that good all year either as it’s currently 100th in the nation in yards per game (331.7) and 83rd in points per game (24.3). The offensive line is still mediocre at best, Glennon has hit a wall in the past few games, and the play calling has been overly predictable and conservative.
That’s my somber thoughts from the game. I just want to forget about it so this week’s Pack the Caption is an abbreviated version (photos by Stephan Savoia/AP):
As one of my Twitter followers very aptly put it the other day, “a win over the Tarholes makes everything 1,000 times better.” Five wins in a row and that feeling is even greater. Is this what heaven feels like?
All the engineers in my office are NC State alums so I don’t have to deal with the constant pompousness from Carolina fans that I know exists. Most of you out there are surrounded by Carolina fans and subjected to this stuff on a daily basis. I hope you are thoroughly enjoying this week!
Outside of work, it’s not a coincidence that I don’t have many friends that are Carolina fans. Of the few that I do reluctantly call friends, only 2 actually went to school there. I guess that’s how it works with the “flagship” school of the state (click here to hear Gary Hahn’s radio call). I don’t like hanging out with Carolina fans more than I have to, which always brings me back to this? No way in hell for this guy!
Well enough of me ranting on and on about how much I hate Carolina. I’m gonna go back to celebrating. I know everybody can come up with good captions for this week, so let me hear ‘em (photos by Ethan Hyman, Chuck Liddy, & Robert Willett – N&O).
Hey Everett, losers that way.
1, 2, 3, 4 ..... 5!
You invited Tom? I thought Tom gave you the creeps?
Jazz hands!!!
Bonus Photo: Come up with your best/funniest MasterCard Priceless parody.
Wow! What a crazy trip to Tallahassee. The game sure did suck, but we hung out with some nice FSU coeds and even a few cool dudes. I know you have to be wondering how I pulled that off? What can I say … I have mad game [insert Mrs. DFCF laughing hysterically here]. No really, it was a friend of a friend’s daughter type of thing that we had never met before, but after being there for 30 minutes it felt like we had all been longtime friends. I have way too many stories to tell so they’ll have to wait for now. Let’s get to this week’s Pack the Caption (photos by Phil Sears/AP & Mike Olivella/Seminoles.com):
Give it back or I'll tell my mommy!
This ain't flag football? Shit!
E.J. practicing a new dance move to use later at Yianni's.
The Pack got a much needed win at UVA on Saturday to get back above .500 and give our fading bowl chances a glimmer of hope. The defense played its best game of the season holding the UVA rushing attack to just 124 yards, their lowest total of the season and 69 yards under their season average coming into the game. That was helped by questionable play calling by the Wahoos as they abandoned their power running game way too early, but the defense made the stops when they had to. The UVA quarterbacks have struggled all season and that continued here as they threw for only 125 yards and 3 INTs. All-in-all a very solid effort by the Pack defense
The Pack offense, on the other hand, struggled for most of the game. We had 12 non-scoring drives of 6 plays or less, there were way too many dropped passes, we turned the ball over twice, and we only got one first down the whole third quarter. All of those things kept the Wahoos in the game longer than they probably should have been. In the end, though, we made enough plays to prevail.
With the win TOB improves to a very strong 10-4 (6-1 away) against teams from the Coastal Division. On the contrary, TOB has struggled mightily with a 5-16 (0-11 away) record against teams from our division, the Atlantic. Stuff like that just makes me scratch my head and think WTF? Of course when TOB was asked about this in his weekly press conference yesterday he said he had “no clue” about that and was “just trying to win them all.” Well Coach, try harder because you ain’t getting the job done.
So that’s a brief rundown of my thoughts from the game. We’ll have to play a lot better this week to get a win at Florida State, but we can talk more about that later this week. Let’s go ahead and get to this week’s Pack the Caption (photos by Ethan Hyman/N&O):
Creecy & Washington audition for Riverdance mid-game
You sure you're not related to Steve Urkel?
It's a bird ... It's a plane ... It's the national interceptions leader
It’s the bye week so I’ve taken a few days off. I’ve actually tried to work on some posts, but just got nowhere. My mind has been in bye week mode, just wanting to take it easy and think about NC State football for a week. So that’s about it.
I’m not going to give my thoughts about Central Michigan other than we probably played our best half of football in the second half, but we still didn’t dominate the Chippewas like we should have. Hopefully the coaches have had plenty of time this week to look at tape, diagnose our biggest problems, and figure out how to correct them.
So, here are the photos (by Ethan Hyman/N&O) for this … er last … week’s Pack the Caption. Give me some good ones.
Is the football pink too? Oh shit, missed it!
I may not look good in red, but I can rock some pink.
Hey girl, when you want some of the real Mr. Wolff you let me know!
Another game against an FBS opponent and another blowout loss. We were down only 21-14 heading into the 4th quarter, but in the span of 2:22 Georgia Tech finished a 13 play drive with a short touchdown run, returned a Glennon interception for touchdown, and threw a long touchdown pass after we turned the ball over on downs at our own 38 yard line. We scored two touchdowns in the last 0:34 to make it look close, but Georgia Tech thoroughly dominated this game.
Of course TOB is still blaming everything on the injuries and lack of depth. We do have injuries, but that’s part of football. Every team has to deal with injuries to some degree or other. The good teams overcome injuries with depth built through good recruiting, however, we have been in the bottom third of the ACC recruiting rankings almost every year under TOB.
Enough downer talker for now, here are the photos (by Ethan Hyman/N&O) for this week’s Pack the Caption. Be creative and give me some good captions.
Who does #2 work for?!
NC State wins engineering battle with levitating cheerleader
Right here ... Bingo!
If I close my eyes long enough will this season go away?
Jenn Brown calling the Cincinnati coach “Bitch” Jones on live TV was nowhere near the worst thing of the night last Thursday. That distinction would go to the abomination that was the NC State football team. Losing is never a good thing, but a 44-14 ass whooping on national TV makes it that much harder to take.
This team still has a lot of problems and we haven’t improved any from game one. Hopefully the extra days in between games this week will allow the players to forget about this game and give the coaches time to correct some of our problems. I’m a realistic fan so although I pull hard for us to win every game, I don’t expect to win them all. I do, however, expect our coaches to put a competitive team on the field every game. Last Thursday night was an embarrassment to all State fans (especially those of us in attendance) and is unacceptable.
It’s year 5 of TOB’s tenure so this is squarely on his shoulders now. Can’t place the blame on the previous coaching staff anymore. It’s time to come through on that whole “champions on the football field” thing we keep hearing about from the football program.
Ok, it’s time for you to vent too so I’ve picked some photos (all taken by Ethan Hyman/N&O) for this week’s Pack the Caption that give you that opportunity. Let her rip!
