Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack football's 30-29 win at No. 24 Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon.
What They're Saying
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Column: That was a sweet win for NC State
It was the type of game that old-time NC State fans are used to seeing, the cardiac Pack version that knows how to make it thrilling.
What the game really was, though, was a quality performance against a quality team. Pittsburgh helped NC State along the way with costly penalties, but that was a stout Panthers defense and a potential pro quarterback slinging the football around against the Wolfpack.
Head coach Dave Doeren’s squad, facing a lot of detractors after an uncompetitive game at Virginia Tech one Saturday ago, delivered, in large part thanks to redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary potentially growing up before our eyes during the fourth quarter.
After victories, Doeren is known for letting loose in the locker room a shout of, “How ‘bout that Wolfpack!” Here’s betting that Doeren screamed that out at least a tad bit louder after that emotional win.
“A lot of people just wanted to throw us in the trash can after last week,” Doeren noted. "That's the world we're in right now. These kids just hung together. The coaches hung together."
“Emeka is definitely his biggest critic but the kid's a baller, he's got so much talent,” Leary said. “Being able to see him play today with so much joy and being able to get all the guys around him upbeat as well was very pleasing to see.”
The connection between Leary and Emezie didn’t happen overnight or even in the weeks leading up to the game against Pittsburgh. Following the win, Emezie talked about the bond he formed with the quarterback in the offseason following the Pack’s disappointing 4-8 campaign last fall.
Even a pandemic couldn’t stop the duo from getting in reps several months before the season began.
“Back in the summer, we couldn't come in for two weeks so we just ran routes with each other every single day,” Emezie said. “It was probably 100 degrees and I'd come out in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, he'd be out here with long sleeves. We just wanted to make it as challenging as possible.
“When you get in situations like that, practice every single day and go at it, we always like just trying to get everything perfect. It's always been there, we've always just worked so hard together.”
Following a disappointing 30-29 home loss to NC State Saturday, Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi credited the Wolfpack more than he blamed his own team for the upset.
There was both good and bad from the Panthers in their four consecutive home games, but Narduzzi viewed it as a competitive game in which both teams showed a lot of grit.
"That was a hell of a ballgame," Narduzzi said. "Our kids played their hearts out. Don't question their effort at all. Anytime we win, we win as a team, and we lose as a team. But just overall we just didn't make enough plays. Give North Carolina State credit. It's a good football team, a talented football team."
Devin Leary looked up at the clock with 1:44 remaining Saturday at No. 24 Pittsburgh.
N.C. State trailed the Panthers by five and had 80 yards to go. Making things more complicated, Pittsburgh entered the game with the top defense in the ACC. The task was a tall one, yet Leary didn’t panic. He couldn’t, not with 10 guys in the huddle all looking at him.
One thought went through Leary’s mind as he walked on the turf: Go 1-0 on every play.
Leary didn’t go 1-0 on every snap of that final drive, but he won more than he lost and hit senior wide receiver Emeka Emezie for a 13-yard touchdown with 23 seconds remaining, leading the Wolfpack (2-1, 2-1) to a come-from-behind win over the Panthers (3-1, 2-1), 30-29.
On the biggest drive of his young career, Leary made believers out of N.C. State fans (not that they weren’t before). Outsiders have been calling for Leary to start all week, and he did just that against Pittsburgh. His first touchdown toss to Emezie, and second of the day for Leary, put the Wolfpack up 17-7 early in the second quarter. Leary finished with a career-high 336 passing yards and four touchdowns. He hit 11 different receivers, including four on the last drive.
NC State, under head coach Dave Doeren, has not been known for outperforming expectations. The program has pretty much always been the same: Each season it beats the teams it should beat with a mind-boggling loss sprinkled in for good measure. But with Saturday’s 30-29 nail-biting win at No. 24 Pittsburgh, the Wolfpack reversed its fortunes.
Coming into the game, the Pack was licking its wounds after a 45-24 thrashing at Virginia Tech. A two-touchdown underdog, according to Vegas, NC State took a punch in the mouth early but responded with extremely efficient offensive play, which took advantage of a slew of mental mistakes by the Panthers.
Despite the offense falling flat for much of the second half, redshirt sophomore quarterback Devin Leary led his first game-winning drive during the final 1:44, capped off with a beautiful back-shoulder throw to senior receiver Emeka Emezie to give Doeren his third ranked win at NC State.
“It’s huge for their confidence,” Doeren said. “It’s one thing to say we can do it; it’s one thing to believe. It’s another to go do it. It’s just a tremendous thing to know, for your quarterback, to know it doesn’t matter what’s on the clock. He’ll drive us down and score and win.”
The drive might’ve been the most clutch performance the program has seen since Mike Glennon’s against Florida State in 2012. Seriously. As good as Ryan Finley was in red, he was never one to trust in the waning moments of a game.
• Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Daily-Gazette — Pitt's loss to NC State was an all-too familiar letdown
Pickett certainly couldn’t overcome Pitt’s defense, which was exposed as fraudulent against a North Carolina State offense that had 398 total yards. You tell me when the defense was worse. In the first half when it jumped off sides five times, committed three pass-interference penalties, had a face mask infraction and allowed consecutive scoring drives of 75, 60 and 69 yards? Or in the fourth quarter when it allowed North Carolina State to go 72 yards in seven plays for a touchdown that wiped out a 23-17 Pitt lead and then, after Pitt regained the lead at 29-24, an eight-play, 79-yard drive for the winning touchdown with 23 seconds left.
All of it was bad, right?
No again.
All of it was awful, including that allegedly rugged defense producing just two sacks and forcing no turnovers.
So much for Pitt’s cute little game of Turnover Basketball on the sideline after big plays.
“They made one more play,” Narduzzi said. “You don’t look at it and say we got blown off the field out there. It’s a good team, and they made one more play than we did. That’s what it comes down to. We left a lot of plays on the field. That’s the thing that hurts the most.”
Pitt’s live stats page makes note of both teams’ “chunk plays,” defined as a completion of 15 yards or more or a rush of 10-plus yards. Each week, we’ll see which team won the chunk play count — a good indicator of which offense did enough to win.
For the first time this season, Pitt lost the chunk play battle. But it wasn’t a huge gap, with N.C. State edging the Panthers, 11-10.
The Wolfpack tallied seven passing plays over 15 yards and four rushing plays of 10-plus yards. Three pass-catchers — 6-foot-4 target Devin Carter, 6-foot-3 wideout Emeka Emezie and 6-foot-7 tight end Cary Angeline — were the recipients of N.C. State’s downfield passes, using their size to full advantage.
Meanwhile, nine of Pitt’s 10 chunk plays came through the air. Turner caught five, while Mack and sixth-year senior Tre Tipton each had one. Pickett hit Shocky Jacques-Louis for a 45-yard gain and, of course, connected with true freshman Jordan Addison for a 75-yard touchdown on the game’s second snap.
• Jim Hammett, Panther-Lair, 5 takeaways from Pitt's 30-29 loss to NC State
The Pitt defense had been outstanding through the first three games, but on Saturday the unit struggled at times. NC State came out and punched Pitt in the mouth with a 17-yard scoring drive to open the game, and finished with a quick-strike scoring drive to win the game in the final minutes. The defense gathered itself and played well in the second and third quarters, but it dug itself an early hole and could not save the day at the end. Pitt only registered two sacks and did not force one turnover in the game.
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