With their seventh loss and still three games left, the Cardinals have a great chance of having a worse record than that of last year in which they finished 3-9. In between their Week-3 two point win over Syracuse and their Week-9 three point loss to Wake Forest, Stanford was losing by an average of 30.5 points a game over a four game stretch. Well, that three point loss in Week-9 completely messed up that stout losing average by five points over the course of those games and we just can’t have that! So, in order to get things back on track they decided to just take it on the chin against the Wolfpack. What’s that old saying, “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades?” Maybe they meant to say consistency. Scoring exactly seven points in each quarter got them further and further behind in this one. Down 14-7 after the 1st Qtr, 31-14 at the half, 52-21 after three, and 59-28 at the finish. NC State was clicking on all cylinders in this one and although they didn’t need any help the Cardinals gave it to them anyway.
NC State had possession first and had no problem scoring on their drive after a nice 45 yard punt return to get them started near mid-field. Three plays after converting a 4th and 2 at the Stanford 35 yard line the Wolfpack was up 7-0 on a two yard TD run by Freshman RB Hollywood Smothers. Stanford fumbled the ball on their own side of the field when they got their turn and four plays later Senior RB Jordan Waters ran it in from thirteen yards out to make it 14-0. Stanford would get their seven points in the 1st Qtr on a 67 yard TD run by their Junior QB Ashton Daniels to keep the game close at 14-7 and then after a 23 yard field goal by NC State would get even closer on a 3 yard TD run by their other Junior QB Justin Lamson to be down just 17-14 early in the 2nd Qtr. But NC State would score on back-to-back TD’s while holding the Cardinal to a three-and-out in between to go up 31-14 at the break.
Stanford would start the 3rd Qtr off with another big Ashton Daniels TD run—this one for 48 yards to cut the deficit back down to 10 points at 31-21. But after allowing a 45 yard punt return to start the game the Cardinal special teams defense would allow a 91 yard kickoff return for TD by Senior Safety DK Kaufman to put them further back at 38-21. After forcing Stanford to turn the ball back over on downs things just got progressively even worse. On the second play of the Wolfpack’s next possession the porous Stanford run defense let Hollywood Smothers slip through again—this time for a 52 yard TD run to go up 45-21. After an interception on Stanford’s next possession, NC State’s Jordan Waters would take the ball 1st and 10 at their own 6 yard line on a 94 yard run to the house to go up 52-21. And it wasn’t over. After holding the Cardinal to another three-and-out the Wolfpack’s Freshman QB CJ Bailey would connect with Sophomore WR Kevin Concepcion on a 5 yard TD pass to make it 59-21. NC State would finally make a mistake on their next possession—an interception leading to Stanford’s seven points in the fourth quarter, a Justin Lamson 14 yard TD pass to Sophomore WR Elic Ayomanor to make it 59-28 where it stayed.
The tag team Junior QB’s for Stanford would collectively complete just 9-of-16 passes for 1 TD and 1 interception but would also rush 23 times for 154 yards and three TD’s. Adding Freshman RB Cole Tabb’s numbers, all toll the Cardinals rushed 39 times for 225 yards and the three TD’s by their QB’s. Ayomanor was their leading receiver with 108 of the team’s 173 yards and the only TD reception.
The numbers for NC State were huge and as their head coach Dave Doeren said after the game; “Today things clicked and that’s what efficiency looks like . . . to stack plays and not beat yourself when you have good players. If you can stay on the field . . . good things happen. I always say explosive plays lead to big scores, and we were able to have some huge explosive plays.” Their Freshman QB CJ Bailey connected on a staggering 90% of his passes for 234 yards and 3 TD’s to three different receivers. On the ground they just tore it up, rushing it 40 times for 281 yards and five TD’s with Jordan Waters and Hollywood Smothers racking up the majority of it as well as two TD’s each. As the AP noted in their Recap for ESPN, “The Cardinal defense struggled mightily, forcing only one punt late in the fourth quarter while yielding 527 total yards.” As head coach Troy Taylor said afterwards; “We just weren’t able to really slow them down. There were a number of issues, but they were good in all areas. If you’re them, you come away thinking you played as good as you can offensively. We’ve got to do something to pressure the quarterback and stop the run. Just the fundamental things that you’ve got to do to be a good team.” I like that, last week he couldn’t seem to think of anything to do to get better. But, “pressure and quarterback and stop the run,” are at least specific areas they could work on this week in preparation for their upcoming loss to Louisville at home.