As I mentioned this morning, I blame the NC State offense primarily for yesterday’s loss to Louisville.  I am by no means letting the Wolfpack defense completely off of the hook though.

Failing to Contain

Louisville Quarterback Lamar Jackson shredded the NC State defense for 121 yards on the ground.  Jackson isn’t much in terms of a Quarterback, completing 10 of his 27 pass attempts yesterday.  Mike Rose was right though.  Jackson is a great track runner that is more than capable of making opposing defenses look embarrassing.  Two of his 19 rushing attempts accounted for 92 of his 121 yards.  The first one was Jackson’s 68-yard touchdown run.  Pharoah McKever was at Defensive End on this play, and instead of carrying out his task of hitting the quarterback, he hit the running back that Linebacker Airius Moore was already hitting, and the Wolfpack lost contain, giving Jackson an open field to run down.  On the second one Darian Roseboro, another Wolfpack backup, lost contain just like McKever.  Jackson’s run put them in a perfect position to kick a field goal.

Are either of these plays excusable?  No.  Defensive Line Coach Nielsen likes to run a rotation on the line, and while that provides its benefits, it also can expose weaknesses at times.

Outside of these two runs, Jackson ran the ball 17 times for 29 yards, for an average of 1.7 yards.

Breaking Through The Line

Coming into yesterday’s game, 3 of NC State’s top tacklers were Defensive Linemen.  That pattern didn’t continue yesterday.  Only 1 member of the Wolfpack Defensive Line was in the Top 7 in tackles yesterday (B.J. Hill had 7 tackles).  It doesn’t surprise me that Hill did his part of not letting the ball get past him, because in my opinion, he has been NC State’s best defender thus far.  What this does reveal though, is that the the Cardinals were able make it through the Wolfpack 1st line of defense with ease yesterday.

Moving The Chains

Louisville didn’t unload an enormous amount of total yards on the Wolfpack defense, but they were really efficient at grinding the ball down the field.  They had 20 first downs, converted 44% of their 3rd down opportunities, and held the ball for 33:04 minutes.  NC State’s opponents averaged 10.5 first downs, converted 18% of their 3rd downs, and held the ball for an average of 20:45 heading into yesterday’s game.

Overall, The Defense Wasn’t Bad

Coach Doeren referred to the poor tackling by the Wolfpack defense in the first half.  Was the Defense sloppy at times?  Yes.  But I think they still gave NC State a chance to win, and the offense couldn’t capitalize.  The Cardinals had 306 yards of total offense, which is by no means an onslaught.  They averaged 4.2 yards per play, which is the exact number that the Wolfpack’s opponents had averaged in the first four games.  Louisville’s starting Running Back Brandon Radcliffe averaged 3.1 yards per carry.  They had 10 tackles for loss, which was a season-high.

The Wolfpack Defense could have played more disciplined ball, but I think they adjusted well and had a decent performance against their first ACC opponent.