Much of the attention following NC State’s 36-29 win over Syracuse from the Orange perspective centered around the chaotic ending that began with SU senior quarterback Rex Culpepper being sacked by Wolfpack redshirt sophomore linebacker Payton Wilson on third and goal.
The 11-yard loss on the play back to the NC State 18-yard line was not near as devastating as the fact that Syracuse head coach Dino Babers had no timeouts to stop the clock. The time remaining continued to tick under 10 and then five seconds as Culpepper and his teammates hustled to line up. Apparently lost in the chaos to Culpepper was that it was now fourth down.
With his mind squarely on clocking it, Culpepper spiked the ball with one second left. The result was a turnover on downs.
“Everyone wants to talk about the last play, but the last time I checked there was like 70 plays on offense, 70 plays on defense,” Babers said in his postgame comments. “There were 140 snaps in that game, and all of them were important.”
What particularly stood out to Babers was Syracuse’s inability to run the football on offense or stop NC State on third downs defensively.
The Orange finished Saturday with a season-low total of thee yards rushing, and freshman running back Sean Tucker, who had averaged 80.7 yards per game over his last six contests, was held to just 18 yards on 16 carries against the Wolfpack.
As Babers described it, “You look at the run game, there’s absolutely nothing.”
“Those guys played in a heavy run front in the entire game,” Babers added. “They just did not want our tailbacks to have any success. It was: they were forcing us to beat them with the throw.
“We’re going to be consistent, we’re going to be patient, but then there just comes a point where you’re not getting enough dividends off what you’re doing.”
What also hurt Syracuse, Babers felt, was the Wolfpack going 8 of 13 on third downs against Syracuse. That helped the Pack pile up a decisive time of possession advantage of 34:03 to 25:57. The Orange started six freshmen on defense on Saturday, and Babers sees that youth showing up.
The coach pointed out, without the benefit of seeing the tape, that he thought his redshirt freshman corner Garrett Williams was in perfect position on a 31-yard touchdown pass to redshirt junior receiver Thayer Thomas, but that at the precise moment Thomas made a push to help make the scoring grab and prevent an interception.
“The ref no-called it, which he is allowed to do,” Babers said. “I’m not going to go crazy over that, but it’s that knowledge. … You give them that knowledge, and you bring them back.
“And then they know next year they may get a little push here, but they’ll be ready for it.”
Babers added that there were times where the pass rush was a step away from getting to the quarterback, too.
“I think our defense is going to be really good,” Babers said. “I really do. I am cautiously excited about what this is going to turn into, especially with the youth that’s on that side of the ball.”
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