GREENVILLE — NC State wasn’t happy about how it played Saturday, but glad to still defeat East Carolina 21-20 in front of a record Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium crowd.
NC State had three big moments on special teams — blocking an ECU punt for a touchdown, having Pirates kicker Owen Daffer miss an extra point, and the biggest of all, Daffer missed a 41-yard field wide right in front of 51,711 fans.
Add it up and No. 13-ranked NC State hung on for a surprisingly tough victory against a much-improved and physical ECU squad. How physical?
NC State tried four straight running plays with sophomore Demie Sumo-Karngbaye to punch it in from the one-yard line in the fourth quarter, bypassing a field goal that ended up looming large in the end.
NC State coach Dave Doeren was blunt in his assessment following the game. He knows the squad has work to do starting with hosting Charleston Southern next Saturday. Doeren doesn’t think his veteran squad to get built back up again.
“We’ll get a lot better but one thing I can’t do is change our record tomorrow,” Doeren said. “We are 1-0. It doesn’t count any different if you win by 100.”
Doeren said the film study Sunday will be intense, and that goes to both sides of the ball. He felt the defense missed more tackles than usual in allowing 383 yards of offense. ECU veteran quarterback Holton Ahlers did throw two interceptions in the loss.
The two trips inside East Carolina’s two-yard line that didn’t result in points bothered Doeren.
“You have to give East Carolina a lot of credit,” Doeren said. “We were up 21-7 and the kids fought. They had two goal-line stands where we fumbled one [Jordan Houston] and then got stopped on the other. That was maybe the most disappointing part of the day was that.”
All Doeren could do was watch on the final possession. East Carolina was out of timeouts and rushed the field-goal unit on to the field. Doeren said he had to call timeout because NC State had some injuries and only had nine players for the scenario on the field. He was also hoping Daffer would be thinking about his missed extra point with 2:58 left in the game.
Daffer lined it up — he went 19 of 23 on field goals last year — and he missed it, much to the delight to the delight of the Wolfpack fans in attendance, and to the relief of the players.
“He just missed right, thank God,” Leary said. “Sometimes that is how football is. Luckily for us, it’s a win that we can learn from a lot. We aren’t walking out of here with a loss to learn from.
“A whole bunch to improve and get better at. We aren’t satisfied.”
NC State rushed 32 times for 133 yards and Sumo-Karngbaye got his first career touchdown with a 24-yard score with 1:09 left in the second quarter. Leary threw for 211 yards, one touchdown and interception, but the rhythm was off.
Sumo-Karngbaye finished with 79 yards on 14 carries and a touchdown, and was the bright spot of the offense.
“He is hard to tackle, runs through contact, is tough and took care of the ball,” Doeren said.
The defense had to overcome the loss of redshirt junior outside linebacker Payton Wilson due to an undisclosed upper body injury. Wilson got hurt in the second game last year and underwent shoulder surgery on both shoulders. Junior Jaylon Scott replaced him. NC State also got dinged up at times at cornerback.
“There are a lot of guys who expected to play better than today,” Doeren said. “The film is going to be very embarrassing for some of them and not because I am going to embarrass them. They missed a ton of tackles. Guys that we know normally tackle very well on the defense last year. It was a lot of the same players. We didn’t get it done.”
Hype ends, work begins
NC State had heard a drumbeat since about April on how this was going to be the season to reach all the main team goals.
That can still happen, but Saturday showed what areas need to improve and the offense will need to create more big plays, but also gain tough short runs when needed too.
Leary understands both sides of things — the hype and the improvement.
“A win is a win,” Leary said. “It wasn’t pretty or the way we expected it to be. It wasn’t what we were capable of doing. You have to cherish the wins.”
NC State has a long season ahead and might look back on the season opener differently when December comes around. It’s hard to tell.
The mood of the team was somewhat bittersweet following the victory.
“It’s a weird feeling in the locker room, honestly,” Leary said. “Guys were happy that we won. Guys were satisfied that we pulled it off. At the same time, guys were pissed and guys were mad. It was a reality check for us.”
NC State finds some answers
NC State rotated Houston and Sumo-Karngbaye, but the latter flashed some serious potential, especially on a 22-yard run to the ECU one-yard line in the fourth quarter.
Sumo-Karngbaye also got his “welcome to college football” moment with four straight runs and the Wolfpack couldn’t punch it in from the one-yard line. The New Jersey native still ended up being the likely long-term answer at the position and that’s a big positive from the game.
“I wasn’t happy because I felt like we could have won by more,” Sumo-Karngbaye said. “It is definitely a relief because we got the W.
“I gave my all, but it wasn’t enough [near the goal line]. The mood is pretty chill because we feel we should have won by more.”
Another positive was the play of sophomore cornerback Aydan White, who rotated in at times and then had to fill in when sophomore Shyheim Battle got dinged. White played with confidence and aggressiveness in finishing with four tackles, one tackle for loss and a team-high three passes for loss.
“This was my first time being here in this little rivalry,” White said. “It was rocking like Carter-Finley here. This was the first game of the season and there was first-game jitters.”
Redshirt freshman Sean Brown also played his role well on special teams. He scored the touchdown after redshirt junior Jasiah Provillon blocked the punt. He also had a huge hit en route to two tackles.
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