NC State expected a physical game with the potential to be low scoring against Northern Illinois on Saturday.
The Wolfpack’s defense rose to the occasion with two big sacks that caused forced fumbles, which NC State recovered deep in Northern Illinois territory. That proved to be the difference in NC State’s 24-17 win over Northern Illinois (2-2) in front of 56,919 fans at Carter-Finley Stadium to improve to 3-2.
The first big defensive play came when senior safety Donovan Kaufman did a crafty blitz and sacked redshirt junior quarterback Ethan Hampton from the blindside for a loss of 14 yards, and Kaufman scooped it up for the touchdown and 14-7 lead with 14:15 left in the second quarter.
Three plays later, and freshman quarterback Cedrick “C.J.” Bailey threw a three-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Kevin Concepcion. That gave NC State a 24-14 lead with 11:47 left in the third quarter.
NC State senior defensive end Davin Vann has made it a gift to create turnovers on his sacks this season. Similar to what he did in turning around the Louisiana Tech game, he got a big sack and forced fumble against Hampton at the one-yard line line.
Vann and Kaufman were two of the defensive heroes in the Louisiana Tech game, where Vann’s big pass rush led to Kaufman getting a pick-six 33-yard touchdown. Now the two helped turn things around against Northern Illinois. Kaufman said it started in practice this past week.
“Last week it was embarrassing [losing 59-35 at Clemson],” Kaufman said. “There's really no other way to put it and it's sad that it had to be that way for me and others to come out, with that fire in us.”
Doeren promised changes and he had senior safety Kerry Martin start and spit time with senior Bishop Fitzgerald. Redshirt freshman defensive end Isaiah Shirley got his first career start, and redshirt freshman nickel Tamarcus Cooley got the start and ended the contest with an interception in the end zone on the Huskies’ “Hail Mary” pass. Reserve junior cornerback Devon Marshall snagged the other interception.
Doeren said the Wolfpack have to be tougher than the teams they faced, and called practices this week "Bloody Tuesday" and "Bloody Wednesday." Competing in the trenches and limiting Northern Illinois senior star running back Antario Brown to 28 carries for 114 yards and zero touchdowns was key.
“We played dominant defense against a really good football team,” Doeren said. “You have to give Northern Illinois credit. I mean, that is a really tough, good football program that we just beat.
“When you get four takeaways on defense, you don't turn the ball over on offense and you punt the ball the way we did, you're going to win a lot of games.”
The defense was aided by the stellar job of redshirt junior punter Caden Noonkester, who averaged 49.8 yards on eight punts, and had seven pinned inside the 20-yard line. His punting led to setting up two big sacks by Vann and Kaufman deep in NIU territory.
“I mean, it's huge,” NC State redshirt junior middle linebacker Caden Fordham said. “Anytime you can flip the field like that, coming out as a defense, having a longer field for the offense, it's always huge for us to have that advantage.”
NC State’s offense proved to be a work in progress, with Bailey throwing for 108 yards and the Wolfpack rushing 27 times for 63 yards and Bailey getting a one-yard touchdown run to start the scoring to build a 7-0 lead.
The defense kept Bailey and the offense energized during the difficult times.
“It gave me a lot of energy with those turnovers and those fumbles and those plays I was making,” Bailey said. “They turned the whole Carter-Finley up and that was really big and with them making plays and everything, it translated to our offense having success as well.
“Our defense needed us and we wasn't putting up any points even. We wasn't even getting in the red zone. I’ll say I need to do better.”
Doeren said the game was personal to him, for a few reasons. He wanted to see the team show heart and toughness following the 59-35 loss at Clemson. He also wanted to beat the program that gave him his head coaching start. His two years at Northern Illinois from 2011-12 changed the trajectory of his life.
“That was a very personal win for me,” Doeren said. “I have really fond memories of coaching there. A lot of players that I stay in touch with from there and set records as a coach there, and have done the same here.
“Losing to the place that you used to coach at isn't something you want to carry around. All wins are precious, but that one meant a lot to me as an individual. I thank the players and the staff for that because that one meant a lot.”
NC State hosts Wake Forest at 12 p.m. next Saturday on the CW Network.
“We just can't relax,” Kaufman said. “We got to do the same thing next week in practice. Start on really Tuesday, but really tomorrow, we're going to put this to bed, watch that, then get ready for our next opponent in practice.”
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