You can’t sugarcoat it.

NC State laid an egg against a team that ends its regular season playing the Egg Bowl against its archrival Ole Miss.

In a game circled since the 2021 schedule was known, NC State traveled to Starkville, Miss., against Mississippi State with high hopes of finally getting that notable win over a Power Five non-conference opponent.

By halftime many Pack fans were repeating the theme, “Same old Pack.” From the opening kickoff, which was returned 100 yards for a touchdown by the Bulldogs, NC State looked like a team that was not ready for the moment, unfortunately like some of its predecessors before them.

Remember how the 2012 Wolfpack squad was supposed to be the best for Tom O’Brien? They opened the year against a mediocre Tennessee team in Atlanta and got burned, mainly by receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, in a 35-21 defeat.

What happened in Starkville had a similar vibe to that Tennessee game. No one was arguing that the Bulldogs is an upper echelon SEC squad. It needed a school-record setting comeback just to beat Louisiana Tech in its season opener. That Vols team wasn't stellar either in 2012 went 5-7, although to be fair five of its seven defeats were to ranked SEC opponents.

But both games represented something, even if it was an opportunity for a moral win. Instead, they left a feeling of deflation and frustration.

Whether it’s losing on the road at Mississippi State or at West Virginia two years ago; or getting swept in a home-and-home series of season openers with South Carolina in 2008 and 2009; or falling to Tennessee and the Gamecocks on neutral fields (the latter in the 2017 season opener that has been recognized as Pack head coach Dave Doeren's best team); or not beating an SEC team other than Vanderbilt in a bowl game in over a quarter-century, the theme has indeed become tiresome for Wolfpack fans.

The big question is what now?

Next week’s opponent, Furman from the FCS level, will offer little-to-no telling answers. NC State will almost surely steamroll an inferior opponent ahead of its ACC opener against Clemson. The chance to make that game with the Tigers a marquee early-season affair worthy of national attention has gone away, but it’ll still be the next opportunity for NC State to prove it’s as good as it thinks it can be.

Between now and then, the status of redshirt sophomore linebacker Payton Wilson is a major question mark. The visual of Wilson on the sideline with his left arm in a sling and his shoulder wrapped in an ice was not a comforting site for the Wolfpack.

The NC State defense, however, while it bent quite a bit at times, probably did enough to win the game. Mississippi State had 316 yards of total offense and averaged 4.9 yards per play. Seven of its points did not come against the defense, but rather a kickoff return for a score.

The bigger questions reside on the offense, which tried to run seemingly exclusively to the left against a pretty good rush defense at Mississippi State, and attack the defensive backs with short passes to the perimeter. The strategy did not ultimately work, but it’s also important to note the missed opportunities.

An interception in the end zone, a missed field goal, failing to convert two deep throws to open receivers that would have possibly been touchdowns, a dropped pass on what would have been a third down conversion and a fumble on the Mississippi State side of the field all represented wasted chances to change the complexion of the game.

“It just wasn’t what I thought I was going to see offensively this game,” head coach Dave Doeren said after the game. “I thought we’d play much better than we did."

While the players need to make those plays, there were also individual decisions by the coaches that the staff will need to be honest with themselves about, like declining a holding penalty after a third and seven incompletion at the NC State 39-yard line. Rather than facing third and 17 at the 49, Mississippi State was left in no-man’s land and made the easy decision to go for it. A 13-yard pass would set up the Bulldogs’ first offensive touchdown of the game.

The interception in the end zone came on a predictable trick play to anyone who watched the Wake Forest-NC State game a year ago. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary left the backfield in motion to leave junior running back Ricky Person Jr. in a wildcat formation. Person then tried the fake the run/jump pass that was well-covered even if the passer and receiver were in-sync on the play, which they did not seem to be.

As Doeren noted after the game while accepting responsibility, it was a team loss.

Ultimately, it is only week two, which is the best you can come up with after a night like Saturday in Starkville. Things didn't look too rosy after a week two loss at Virginia Tech last season, and the season turned out fairly well.

Moving forward you hope to take away lessons about execution and game management that can be corrected going forward while competing against the less-than-frightening 2021 version of ACC football.

And also accept that you just wait for the next non-conference chance, whether it's a bowl game after the season or when they face Texas Tech at home in 2022.

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