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Column: Louisville was just what the doctor ordered for NC State

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Senior running back Reggie Gallaspy Jr. (25) scored three touchdowns against the Cardinals.
Senior running back Reggie Gallaspy Jr. (25) scored three touchdowns against the Cardinals. (Jamie Rhodes/USA Today Sports Images)
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Perhaps it was the constant rain that lasted all week in the Raleigh area, but it sure seemed like the gloomy feelings from a deflating home loss to Wake Forest lingered around the Wolfpack program.

On Friday the rain finally cleared away, and on Saturday NC State got just what the doctor ordered, an afternoon game against struggling Louisville.

That’s said in all due respect to the Cardinals and its players. They have undergone a lot this year, including the firing of their head coach Bobby Petrino last week. As CardinalSports.com publisher Howie Lindsey described in our podcast earlier this week, just about nothing outside its special teams has gone well for Louisville this year.

And against NC State, Louisville kicker Blanton Creque, a reliable redshirt junior who had made 9 of 10 field goals this season with his lone miss being beyond 50 yards, was wide left on a 35-yarder.

The kick was the culmination of a possession that sums up this year’s version of the Cardinals pretty well. NC State was leading 10-3 in the second quarter when Louisville drove 64 yards on four plays to reach the NC State 13. A false start penalty, an incomplete pass, another false start and a one-yard run made it third-and-19 at the 22. Then redshirt freshman quarterback Malik Cunningham, an electrifying runner, seemed to have scampered 22 yards for a score.

But there was a flag for holding against Louisville. The ball was placed at the 33, and a screen pass netted 15 yards to set up what would be the missed field goal.

That whole sequence explained everything you needed to know about Louisville.

The third quarter ended up being a virtual practice for the Wolfpack, especially NC State’s offense. State scored three touchdowns in the frame and added two more in the fourth. The offensive attack, notably the running game, started a bit slowly, but by the end of the contest it had 518 total yards, including a much-improved 164 yards on the ground (173 if you remove a sack on a busted trick play).

This came a week after a dismal ground effort against Wake Forest during which the Pack had just 47 yards against one of the worst rush defenses in the country. Also rather pathetic last week was the red zone offense that had to kick four field goals in five trips inside the 20.

Like the running game, the early returns were not necessarily promising in the red zone after freshman kicker Christopher Dunn strolled out for a second-quarter field goal when NC State could not convert from first-and-goal at the 6-yard line. However, NC State scored touchdowns inside the 20 after that and finished 7 of 7 in the red zone, including six touchdowns.

The passing attack featured 316 yards from sixth-year senior quarterback Ryan Finley and a 100-yard receiving effort from junior wideout Kelvin Harmon (seven receptions for 100 yards).

Finley threw for a career-high four touchdowns. Senior running back Reggie Gallaspy Jr., who would have rushed for 100 yards on a normal workload but settled for 11 carries for 73 yards (6.6 yards a rush), reached the end zone three times (twice on the ground and once through the air).

The Wolfpack defense entered Saturday ranked dead last out of 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision in passing yards allowed per game at 305.3, but Louisville finished with just 157 yards, a new season low allowed for the Wolfpack and just the second time an opponent finished with less than 200 passing yards.

Turns out that a lot of what ailed NC State in recent weeks, and in some cases throughout the year, had a cure in the form of the Louisville Cardinals.

Saturday was the ultimate get-right opponent for NC State. So perfect that redshirt freshman quarterback Matt McKay was able to come in and lead a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, completing 5 of 6 passes for 38 yards and rushing three times for 22 yards.

Now the question is where does NC State go from here. Two rivalry games loom against a pair of rivals with their own coaching question marks — North Carolina and East Carolina. The former is on the road, and it’s no guarantee that Chapel Hill head coach Larry Fedora keeps his job if he has a third straight loss to the Wolfpack.

ECU travels to Raleigh Dec. 1. The Pirates were 2-7 entering the weekend in its third year under Scottie Montgomery, and East Carolina chancellor Cecil Staton felt compelled amidst all the speculation of Montgomery’s job status to release a statement last week assuring fans that a final assessment of the program would be made at the end of the season.

Presuming both squads will want to play for their coaches, NC State will face spirited efforts from two teams that even if it did not care for their respective leaders would still likely be amped to play a foe they dislike.

NC State needed to get the bad taste of what happened against Wake Forest out of its mouth quickly before facing its rivals. Thankfully, playing Louisville was a good way to do that.

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