Dave from Carter-Finley

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:

As the kids like to say these days … Saturday it gets real.  Fall camp is over and it’s time for the 2011 season to begin.  Last year was a banner year for the Pack.  It’s 9-4 record tied for the 2nd most wins in program history.  The Pack hopes to match or, better yet, exceed that this year.  For the Pack to do so here are my 3 keys to the season*:

#1 Offensive Line has to be good

The talk all offseason has been about Mike Glennon, and rightfully so, but for him to have a chance to succeed the offensive line has to be much better than last year.  For the offense to work with Glennon at the helm we have to establish a consistent running game.  Last year we averaged only 123.3 yards rushing per game (95th in the country).  If we can’t improve on that it will put more undo pressure on Glennon to do it all through the air.

Also, last year the offensive line allowed 40 total sacks (114th in the country).  We did have the 6th most passing attempts so that stat doesn’t tell the whole story, but Oklahoma and ECU were 1 and 2 in total passing attempts and allowed only 21 and 15 sacks respectively.  Glennon doesn’t have the scrambling ability of Russell Wilson so the offensive line must give him ample time in the pocket so that he can make plays down the field.

TOB is known for being an offensive line “guru” but we’ve yet to see evidence of that so far in Raleigh.  The offensive line has improved and we do have quality depth, but it’s time to start seeing results on the field.

#2 Special Teams can’t cost us any games

Former Pack head coach Chuck Amato put it best in this episode of the R&R Podcast, ”the kicking game is where routs occur and where upsets occur.”  Hidden yardage on special teams often times determines who wins and loses a game.  You can dominate a game offensively and defensively and still lose because of poor special teams … just ask the 2010 San Diego Chargers.

So special teams are very important and we have true freshmen starting at kicker, punter, and long snapper.  How did this happen?  It would be nerve-racking enough to have a true freshman at one of these positions, but at all 3 is just crazy.  All 3 guys were among the best at their position in high school last year, but until they prove that they can handle the duties in college this will remain a huge question mark.

Last year the special teams, minus a few sub 10 yard punts, were a huge positive surprise.  A repeat performance in this phase of the game is a must if the Pack wants to have a special year.

#3 Defensive Line has to help out the back 7

In 2009, State fans sat through a whole season of terrible play from a young, inexperienced back 7.  It was absolutely painful to watch, but now the back 7 is coming off a very good 2010 season where they made huge improvements.  This year’s back 7 could be among the best in NC State history, that is if the defensive line can do it’s job of clogging up the running lanes and getting enough pressure on the opposing QBs so they’re not sitting in the pocket all day.

Of course, our best defensive lineman J.R. Sweezy will miss the first month of the season with a broken foot.  This is a huge blow, but not as big as if it were later in the season.  Hopefully we can take advantage of our back loaded schedule and build some quality depth while Sweezy is on the mend.  Coach Willis has done a tremendous job of getting these guys to play hard, fast, and smart so if a couple young guys emerge this unit could surprise some people.

It’s not that I don’t have faith in the defensive line, it’s just the achilles heel of our defense.  If they are just league average our back 7 will be able to make plays and our defense will have a chance to match last year’s success.

*3 keys … other than Mike Glennon.  As much as TOB has hyped him I’m drinking the kool-aid that he’ll be good.  If TOB is wrong it’ll be a long season and all these points will be meaningless.

Sometimes I wonder why I waste whole weekends of my life and lots of my hard earned cash money to support a TOB coached team.  I guess I just have an unhealthy love for NC State football.  Yesterday’s game was an absolute embarrassment to me and State fans everywhere.  It’s always tough to lose games, especially to hated in-state rivals that have inferior teams, but it makes it even worse when you walk out of the stadium knowing that you cared more about the outcome of the game than your team did.  As I re-watched the game today it was pretty evident that the ECU players wanted this game more and they deserved to get the win.

I’ve been saying for weeks that we have a lot of holes and it was going to cost us if we didn’t fix ‘em soon.  Well yesterday that came to fruition.  Now it’s time to vent, and what better way than to discuss the 5 main things that are wrong with this team, so here goes:

• Redzone offense – Our offensive play calling is questionable in general, but when we get inside the 20 it becomes deplorable.   We’ve had 38 trips inside the redzone and only 19 TDs to show for it.  That’s a paltry 50% for those of you out there with limited math skills.  Compare that to our opponents scoring TDs 74% (14-19) of the time they get in the redzone.  To make it worse in those 38 redzone trips we’ve only scored 76% (29-38) of the time to our opponent’s 89% (17-19).

• Secondary – The secondary has looked decent at times, but that’s the direct result of a front seven that has consistently disrupted the opposing quarterback (21 sacks & 15 QB hurries).  The secondary has given up several big passing plays every game this year due to blown coverages and missed tackles.  Yesterday ECU followed the game plan that Duke used last year and had similar success.  And please save the “they are young” excuse, ECU freshman safety Damon Magazu who was starting in place of suspended safety Derek Blacknall made the decisive interception in overtime yesterday.  Just because our guys are young doesn’t mean they can’t make plays.

• Special Teams – Most areas of our special teams are struggling in a big way.   Out of 120 teams in the country we rank 116th in kickoff return average (18.27 yards) and 62nd in punt return average (7.77 yards).  We’ve allowed two kickoff returns for touchdown and rank 72nd in kickoff return average allowed (21.87 yards).  Our weak punting and punt coverage unit have combined for a net punting average of 34.5 yards (86th in the country).  And we’re only 12/15 on field goals.  The only special teams bright spot is our 3 blocked punts (2 for TDs).  All that adds up to special teams that just aren’t getting the job done.

• Offensive Line – TOB is supposed to be an offensive line guru, right?  Well this unit has been largely inconsistent all year.  They’ve not done terrible, but with the talent we have on the two deep they should be doing better.  They’ve allowed the second most sacks (17) of any team in the ACC and almost twice as many QB hurries (29) as our defense has generated (15).  I don’t know if this is a product of bad coaching, questionable play calling, poor execution, or a combination of all three.  We constantly rotate guys on the O-line too so it’s tough to get any continuity and thus develop good chemistry.

• Russell Wilson – Russell is a great QB, but he sure hasn’t played like it recently.  He didn’t have any picks in the first 3 games, but over the past 4 games he’s thrown 9.  It’s one thing to have passes intercepted because they were tipped or the receiver’s didn’t catch the ball, but that hasn’t been the case for Russell.  He’s made a lot of bad throws and, even worse, terrible decisions that have led to all his picks.  This would be understandable for a freshman QB, but Russell is a RS Junior so this is unacceptable.

Women's Basketball Coach Kellie Harper was Grand Marshal of the Homecoming Parade.

What do Terminate the Terps, Operation T.O.B. (Take Out Boston College), Crush the Cavs, Send the Jackets PACKIN, Dismiss Southern Miss, DevaSTATE Wake, and Beat the Buzz have in common?  If you answered corny NC State Homecoming slogans then you’re our winner.  Come on down and get your prize.  There’s really no prize so just enjoy yesterday’s win.

Maryland is not a very good football team, but we took care of business.  The much-maligned Pack defense played really well holding the Maryland offense to only 270 yards, 14 first downs, and 17 points.  Maybe we can build a little confidence from that and play better these last three games.  The Pack offense continued its hot play piling up 482 yards, 31 first downs, and 38 points.  From these stats you can see how this game should have been a blowout, but it was a nail biter that wasn’t decided until the last play of the game.  No time to be picky for us Pack fans, though.  A win is a win and it feels so good to be back in the W column keeping our slim bowl hopes alive.

It’s going to be tough to become bowl eligible needing to win all our remaining games (Clemson, @Virginia Tech, and North Carolina), but until we are officially eliminated I’m going to hold out hope.  We pulled it off last year so why not do it again.  Stranger things have happened.  Any team can win on any given Saturday.  Oh I’m such a douche for using cliches like that, but I believe.  In order to do it, though, we have to shore up the special teams and Russell has to be smarter with the football.

Our special teams has struggled all year and yesterday was no different.  We did kick a 48 yard field goal and block a Maryland field goal attempt, but those don’t come close to making up for botching a punt and giving up a kickoff return touchdown.  With C.J. Spiller coming to town next week it could get worse too.  Defensive coordinator Mike Archer has been getting a lot of heat for how the defense has played, but what about special teams coach Jerry Petercuskie?  The special teams has been even worse than the defense, believe it or not, so they must get better and fast.

We all knew that Russell Wilson’s record setting interception free streak was going to end sooner or later.  It was an impressive streak that was made possible by a lot of skill, good decisions, and a little luck.  When it finally did come to an end in the Wake Forest game we all expected Russell to start another streak.  Well he has started another streak, but not the kind of streak we had in mind.  He’s now thrown nine interceptions over the last five games with at least one in each game.  Game by game his interceptions have been 2, 1, 1, 2, and 3.  I understand that we are throwing the ball more and interceptions are going to happen, but the majority of Russell’s nine interceptions have been caused by terrible decisions and forced throws.  Going forward he has to be a lot smarter and protect the football better to give us a chance.

View of Toney Baker's game winning TD from my seats

I’m still pumped from last night.  Spent all morning re-watching the game, reading newspaper articles, and watching post-game interviews.  This winning stuff sure feels good.

Of course, TOB didn’t want to let the fans or the team celebrate this win too much with his post-game comments.  I don’t think he really believes that “we’re just not a very good football team right now.”  He’s just trying to make sure our guys stay focused and keep getting better.  Yeah we made a lot of mistakes yesterday, but that doesn’t change the fact that we dominated most aspects of the game.

The few areas where we did struggle were with penalties and on special teams.  The penalties stuff will be corrected.  I’m not really worried about that one.  The one that does have me worried is the special teams.  Let’s face it, right now our special teams just ain’t very special.

Looking back at our 4 games so far, I can only remember one kickoff that was caught inside the 10 yard line.  I mean c’mon, even Chad Ochocinco can do that.  Our soccer team is currently ranked #16 in the country.  Just a thought.  Anyway, combine that with a kickoff coverage team that has more holes than my bonus room walls at the end of Wolfpack basketball season and it’s not good news for the Pack.  We cannot continue to give our opponents an average starting field position of the 40 yard line.

I don’t even want to go into detail about our punt team.  My only request is to scrap the spread punting formation.  I know it’s a long ways off, but Virginia Tech will be licking their chops when they watch game film and see that.

With all the mistakes and missed chances the Pack still fought hard and made the plays at the end to pull out the win.  As Willie Young so poignantly put it when asked about playing Pitt, “you have to get your grown man on.”  Well we got our grown man on Saturday night and it was a lot of fun to watch.