NC State enters its bye week with a 4-1 record after surviving a scare from Louisiana Tech to prevail 34-27 Saturday evening at Carter-Finley Stadium.

The Wolfpack has concluded its non-conference slate and faces nothing but league action the rest of the way. NC State and Wake Forest are the only Atlantic Division teams without an ACC loss, with the Demon Deacons having already played three conference games and NC State just the one win over Clemson Sept. 25.

It will not be an easy path for the Pack returning from the bye. NC State has to play four of its next five games on the road.

The bye will be a nice mental reset, more than anything, for head coach Dave Doeren’s program, which had to rebound from its headline-grabbing win over the Tigers to face the Bulldogs Saturday.

“We need a bye right now,” Doeren confirmed. “We are definitely ready for one, physically and mentally. It was a lot getting back up from the win the previous week.”

“It’s good to go into the bye on a winning streak,” redshirt junior linebacker Isaiah Moore, who had a team-high 10 tackles, including one for a loss, added. “We’ve played five really hard games, so far.

“Getting guys healed up, getting some rest — we know we’ve got conference play coming up. So, it’s definitely a good time for it."

The good news is that Doeren’s team appears to be “somewhat healthy,” as the coach described it, going into the off week.

“We got bruises and things like that,” Doeren said. “Guys are definitely going to take advantage of the rest I am going to give them, but we have things to work on, too, and need to get better.”

Entering Saturday, through the first four weeks of the season, Louisiana Tech was giving up an average of 488.8 yards per game. Only four teams at the FBS level had allowed more per contest.

Louisiana Tech was surrendering 148.0 yards per game on the ground, and the 4.45 yards per carry allowed was 94th nationally. The Bulldogs ranked 128th in passing yards surrendered at 348.5, and its 146.16 QB rating given up was 102nd.

Saturday's game was expected to offer an opportunity for NC State’s offense to have a prolific afternoon. Yet at halftime, NC State had only 181 total yards, 57 of which came on a final, frantic drive to set up a late first-half field goal. The Pack had just 37 yards rushing.

That turned around in the second half with 130 yards on the ground. The running back duo of junior Ricky Person Jr. (15 carries for 90 yards and a touchdown) and sophomore Zonovan Knight (13 carries for 85 yards and a score) ended up with productive evenings after a sluggish first half.

Doeren thought the offensive line picked up its effort after halftime, too.

“We were falling off blocks, we weren’t finishing, we weren’t sustaining our blocks in the first half,” Doeren explained. “We weren’t giving the running backs a chance.

“Schematically, we didn’t do a whole lot different. We got into our snugs and bunches, and were able to run some things with our toss play out of that and our counter back the other way.”

The defense stepped up big on the final play of the game when sophomore safety Jakeen Harris intercepted Louisiana Tech redshirt senior quarterback Austin Kendall in the end zone.

But Moore regrets being in that position.

“We rep moments like that in practice every week,” Moore said. “We do two-minute drills at least once or twice a week to prepare for moments like that.

“Honestly, we probably shouldn’t have been in that moment. We didn’t play well on the defensive side of the ball in the second half. We’ve got to get that fixed.”

Doeren agreed. He noted the defense “did enough to have a lead at halftime,” but he did not think the unit played well after the break.

“We didn’t tackle,” Doeren stated. “Our corners didn’t play technique football, didn’t make plays on the ball.”

One area that particularly hurt NC State was Kendall scrambling for positive yards. He finished with a team-high 71 yards on 15 carries, but those numbers improve to 88 yards when you remove three sacks from his carries.

“We saw on tape all week that he was getting the ball out fast,” Moore noted. “We took away his first read, and he was just taking off. We’ve got to get that fixed and be sound in our rush lanes moving forward.

“We put that on tape, so in the next couple of weeks we need to take that off tape.”

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