Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack football's 45-24 loss at No. 20 Virginia Tech on Saturday evening in Blacksburg, Va.
What they're saying
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Column: A loss with a bad taste for NC State
It didn’t take long for the feel-good memories of week one to wash away. Losing 45-24 at Virginia Tech will do that.
Remember that column I wrote Friday about reasons to be optimistic about the defense? File that one away as the writer’s version of a miss. They were gashed with too much ease by a Virginia Tech team that piled up an eye-popping 314 yards rushing.
The evidence was clear by halftime. Giving up 336 yards in a game would have been nice. Allowing that in the first half is disastrous. Virginia Tech averaged 9.6 yards per carry.
More problematic at the break however was the obvious shortcomings of NC State’s passing game. Redshirt junior starter Bailey Hockman was 1-of-7 passing going into the last drive of the first half. He had thrown for a meager four yards and had, for the second week in a row, a costly interception.
It left many fans and observers wondering if it was time for redshirt sophomore Devin Leary.
Truthfully, the only positive, a truly minor consolation when trailing 31-10 at the break, was that we have more confirmation that the kicking specialists are as ridiculously good as advertised after junior Christopher Dunn ended the first half with a 54-yard field goal.
Both Brice and Hockman had COVID-related excuses, to the point where it’s not really either’s fault. Brice transferred in from Clemson and the disruption of the offseason left him no opportunity to get to know his new teammates. Hockman was a surprise starter in the opener against Wake Forest when Devin Leary spent too much time in quarantine to adequately prepare.
Hockman played well against the Deacons, especially at the start while the Wolfpack tried to find its footing, but struggled mightily from the start against a shorthanded Virginia Tech defense that’s clearly more talented than Wake Forest. The Hokies were missing 22 players and their defensive coordinator with COVID issues, not that anyone would have noticed if they hadn’t known. Hockman was consistently under siege and pressured into several bad throws.
Leary finally came into the game in the third quarter, ready or not, and completed four of his first five passes, including a 4th-down conversion, and a touchdown that pulled the Wolfpack within 20 on a night when very little was going right, even before safety Khalid Martin was taken to a hospital by ambulance after a head-to-head collision, with what the team described as a hip injury.
A week after opening the season by completing 12 consecutive passes, Hockman’s second throw was intercepted by Divine Deablo. Hockman completed only one pass to a teammate until the final minute of the first half.
In the meantime, the Hokies were piling up points.
After Brian Johnson’s 46-yard field goal, Khalil Herbert ran 37 yards for the first touchdown. Hockman was picked off, so Virginia Tech had its second touchdown just 79 seconds after the first one when Raheem Blackshear ran in from 8 yards out.
“We came out slow,” NC State linebacker Isaiah Moore said. “We’ve got to fix it (through film).”
The opening stretch had to be comforting for Braxton Burmeister, the transfer from Oregon who became the unexpected starting quarterback when Hooker was held out. Burmeister completed six of his first seven passes.
Last week all the talk was about N.C. State’s offense, and rightfully so. The team scored 45 points in the opener against Wake Forest, and there was plenty of reason to celebrate after the team failed to score 28 points against any ACC opponents a year ago.
What people were willing to turn the other cheek on, since they won, was the fact they surrendered 42 points.
In its last 10 ACC games, the Wolfpack has given up 30 or more points in nine of them.
Virginia Tech (1-0, 1-0), was the latest team feasting on the N.C. State (1-1, 1-1) defense in a 45-24 win Saturday night at Lane Stadium. The Hokies racked up 495 yards of total offense, most of their damage coming on the ground (314 yards rushing).
“They (Virginia Tech) were the most physical team tonight,” Doeren said. “They outplayed us, out coached us. We have a lot of work to do.”
• David, Teel, Richmond Times-Dispatch — Hokies channel their anger in rout of NC State
Ridiculed by some before they’d played a game, indeed ridiculed because they hadn’t played a game, Virginia Tech’s Hokies responded Saturday night with the most effective retort in sports: an emphatic victory.
Tech 45 North Carolina State 24.
Ignoring the randomness of a novel coronavirus that science knows little about, some folks make infections and subsequent contact tracing a referendum on character. So when those issues caused the postponement of the Hokies’ clash last week against Virginia, critics pounced, Tech’s lack of transparency regarding COVID-19 testing data furthering their ire.
They gloated further with Saturday’s pregame revelation that the Hokies would be without, for various reasons, 23 players and two assistant coaches. Among the unavailable were incumbent quarterback Hendon Hooker, starting cornerback Jermaine Waller, defensive coordinator Justin Hamilton and linebackers coach Tracy Claeys.
Rather than mope, Tech played with channeled anger.
“You hear all that stuff on Twitter,” center Brock Hoffman said, “and it just pisses [you] off, fuels the fire.”
• Aaron McFarling, Roanoke Times — Hokies undermanned, undeterred in pounding Pack
This night was going to be memorable, no matter what.
Virginia Tech made sure it was worth remembering.
In their latest season opener in 70 years, the Hokies got off to a dream start and wrecked N.C. State 45-24 on Saturday in front of a sparse Lane Stadium crowd limited to 1,000 by state government mandate.
Fans who couldn’t be here had plenty to enjoy on television. A Tech team missing 23 players and two full-time coaches — attrition due to COVID-19 positive tests, contact tracing and injuries — stepped on the Wolfpack from the start.
Maybe the Hokies should petition the ACC for 10 weeks of fall camp every year. Because despite all the adversity they endured during that seemingly endless stretch of practices, we’ve rarely seen them bolt out of the gates like this.
• Jaylan Harrington, Technician — NC State’s offense falls back to Earth in humiliating loss
NC State was outplayed, out-executed and out-toughed in a 45-24 loss to No. 20 Virginia Tech that should end the seesaw under center for NC State. Somebody once said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.” That guy was pretty smart. Case in point, the 2019 and 2020 NC State Wolfpack football teams.
After charting double-digit big plays last week, the Wolfpack charted just nine on Saturday, two of those coming in the passing game. Redshirt junior quarterback Bailey Hockman proved last week’s performance was fool’s gold with an atrocious stat line, which included going seven of 16 with two interceptions.
Hockman showed why he could never see the field at Florida State, continuing to make the same mistakes he showed last year. He stared down Porter Rooks on an out route, eventually throwing a ball that was promptly undercut and intercepted. On a levels concept, he eschewed his two main options — both of which were open — to throw back across the far side of the field for an interception that nearly went all the way to the house.
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