What they're saying about NC State's loss to Miami
Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack football's 44-41 loss to No. 11 Miami on Friday evening.
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Column: Wolfpack falls just shot of a satisfying win
It’s amazing what the outcome of a single game can do the perception of a win-loss record.
After junior kicker Christopher Dunn made a 53-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter to put NC State up 41-31, the visions of a potential 5-2 record looked very realistic.
Almost 15 minutes of game action later, the reality of a 4-3 mark instead is a bit less appealing.
The 5-2 record, especially fresh off a win over the No. 11-ranked team in the country, would have left a lot of excitement about the prospects down the stretch, with four very winnable games in which the Wolfpack could very well be favored in each ahead of them.
Instead, the 4-3 mark will probably leave a sour case of what-ifs, especially in the manner of which it unraveled in the fourth quarter.
King completed 31 of 41 passes for 430 yards without any turnovers and scored all five of the Hurricanes’ touchdowns. He also ran for 105 of Miami’s 189 rushing yards on 15 carries including a long run of 42 yards.
“We wanted to force him to have to throw the football to beat us,” Doeren said. “He struggled with his deep balls throughout the season. Obviously, he got better at it during the bye week because he was on the money tonight. You got to give King credit, he played a hell of a football game for them.”
The Pack was able to consistently put pressure on King, mustering two sacks and five tackles for loss, but the Miami signal caller was still able to put together a career night.
“It's pretty tough when the quarterback can run and throw, he had a good game,” NC State junior nickel Tyler Baker-Williams said. “We came out with a game plan for him and we just fell short tonight. We played hard and with lots of focus on the back end of the defense, but it happens. Tough loss tonight.”
The bye week helped several players get rested during a 13-day break from game action, but the Wolfpack was still without two of its most crucial defenders. Team captain and junior safety Tanner Ingle and sophomore linebacker Drake Thomas were both unavailable Friday night.
“Playing again without Tanner Ingle, Tyler Baker-Williams slides over and plays free safety the whole game and hasn't done that all season,” Doeren said. “We had a true freshman at nickel that struggled for us at times. It's part of the deal when you have as many DBs out as we do.”
• Justin H. Williams, TheWolfpacker.com — Manny Diaz says NC State gave Miami all it could handle
Miami head coach Manny Diaz, a former assistant at NC State from 2000-2005, admitted the Pack pushed his team to the brink in the first meeting between the two schools since 2016.
"What a game," Diaz said. "Credit to NC State, they gave us all that we could handle. I thought some of their execution, the way they called it, and the way they outfought us on the backend at times really presented us with a lot of problems.
"At halftime, we were on the ropes and the leadership of this team came into the locker room at halftime and calmed everybody down. We weren’t ourselves. With the penalties, we were just not giving ourselves the chance to win the game.
"Guys were starting to press in the second quarter. You could see the strain on their faces. We came into halftime. We regrouped. We knew it still wouldn’t be easy in the second half."
In a season when nothing has gone as expected in the ACC and nobody really knows anything, at least there’s a heartbreaking N.C. State loss under the lights to set your calendar by. That much, at least, is familiar at a time when little else is.
The Wolfpack had Miami all but put away, still in the fight for a spot in the ACC championship game, even held the Hurricanes to a give-up field goal in the fourth quarter when it looked — at the time, anyway — like Miami needed a touchdown there to stay in it. N.C. State had taken everything Miami had and thrown it right back.
Then it all fell apart in the space of a few minutes, the final few minutes.
Two plays less than a minute apart turned a win into a loss: Joshua Pierre-Louis missed a tackle on a short pass that turned into Miami’s 54-yard go-ahead touchdown, and Bailey Hockman’s slightly overthrown pass bounced off Emeka Emezie’s hands and right to a Miami defender to seal a 44-41 loss.
Close but no cigar has become an all-too familiar phrase around the N.C. State football program.
Of all the heartbreaks the Wolfpack has traditionally suffered, Friday night’s 44-41 loss to No. 11 Miami ranks up there with the best of them.
N.C. State (4-3, 4-3 ACC) did plenty to win the game. The Wolfpack scored 41 points, took care of the football (for the most part) and even got big plays from its special teams. But the defense couldn’t slow down D’Eriq King and surrendered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter — the kind of breakdown that separate good teams from great ones.
This season, better than expected by some accounts, has had its highs. The Wolfpack went on the road and beat a ranked opponent (Pittsburgh) and strung together three straight wins. Their three losses, all to ranked teams, though, show there is still some separation. In their four wins, big plays were made — goal-line stands, forced turnovers, blocked kicks; these were game-changing moments. In their losses, especially the latest heartbreak to Miami, there were too many plays left on the field.
A rare Friday night under the lights at Carter-Finley Stadium produced some big plays and memorable performances for the N.C. State Wolfpack.
There was a 100-yard kickoff return and a shoeless touchdown run by Zonovan Knight, Christopher Dunn's 53-yard field goal and a stellar effort by quarterback Bailey Hockman, who passed for 248 yards and two touchdowns.
The only thing really missing for the Wolfpack was a victory.
No. 11-ranked Miami rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final 14 minutes to spoil an upset bid by N.C. State in a 44-41 Atlantic Coast Conference triumph. Quarterback D'Eriq King sealed the Wolfpack's fate by hooking up with senior receiver Mike Harley on a 54-yard touchdown pass with 2:43 to play.
The throw capped a brilliant night for King, a graduate transfer from Houston, who completed 31 of 41 passes for 430 yards and five touchdowns, while also rushing 15 times for 105 yards against the Wolfpack.
• Joe Giglio, WRALSportsFan — D'Eriq King leads No. 11 Miami to comeback win at NC State
Coach Dave Doeren called NC State’s primetime game with No. 11 Miami on Friday an opportunity for Bailey Hockman.
The Wolfpack quarterback made the most of it but he was upstaged by Miami’s D’Eriq King.
King threw for 430 yards and five touchdowns and ran for 105 yards in a 44-41 road win for the mistake-prone Hurricanes over the Wolfpack.
King connected with receiver Mike Harley for a 54-yard touchdown with 2:43 left to give Miami a late lead. An interception by cornerback D.J. Ivey, after a tipped passed, sealed the game for the Canes (6-1, 5-1 ACC), who kept their ACC championship game hopes alive.
Doeren said the plan was to make King, an excellent runner, throw downfield to win the game. Doeren said King had been struggling with that portion of his game.
"Obviously he got better at it," Doeren said of the Miami quarterback during the open date on the schedule.
• Jaylan Harrington, Technician —Three drives doom upset-minded NC State
You don’t win a game you have no business winning by playing it safe. NC State (4-3, 4-3 ACC) had an opportunity to pull off a huge upset over No. 11 Miami in front of a home Carter-Finley crowd, and it should have, but missed opportunities and poor coaching decisions may haunt the team moving forward.
Three drives in particular may have meant the difference between victory and defeat. The first of these drives came just before halftime, with NC State having the ball at its own 23-yard line with just under two minutes remaining.
Despite that being enough time to work the ball downfield, in a game in which drives more commonly ended in touchdowns than punts, the coaching staff elected to play it safe with five rushes called to just one pass. It passed up a scoring opportunity to go into the half up just three points, a lead nowhere near safe in a game that smashed the over.
Through three quarters, NC State was up 38-31, and statistically, both teams were pretty similar in terms of total yards, yards per play, time of possession — even the penalty numbers were comparable. It was the fourth quarter that separated the Hurricanes from the Wolfpack.
That isn’t Miami these days. Not yet. Won’t be until they can beat the Clemsons. By which I mean Clemson.
But good college teams trying to get to great — they simply consistently take care of business in those under-radar games. You pile up wins against the teams you should beat.
The Hurricanes did that Friday night.
Look, this game wasn’t close to making the marquee of this college football weekend. Not when No. 1 Clemson is playing at No. 4 Notre Dame on Saturday. And No. 8 Florida is playing No. 5 Georgia. And the Pac-12 finally is beginning its season.
To Miami Hurricanes fans, though, it felt big. Because of the hopes always so high. Because of the hopes made so high by five national championships and the unfulfilled promise of more.
Around here, every result alters the context.
This win doesn’t mean the Canes are “back.”
Just means they’ve inched a little closer.
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