NC State has been Fire on 3rd Down Through 4 Games

NC State’s offense has been really impressive through their first 4 games in 2018, and their success on 3rd down is a big reason why.

They have converted 59.3% of their 3rd down opportunities, which is tops in the ACC, and third in the FBS.

As the game goes on, the Wolfpack gets even better on third down. NC State has converted 7 of their 11 (72.7%) third down opportunities in the 4th quarter.

A big reason for the Wolfpack’s 3rd Down dominance is because of the ice that runs through Ryan Finley’s veins.

He is completing 68% of his passes on 3rd down, going 30 of 44 for 421 yards and 3 touchdowns.

27 of his 30 third down completions have resulted in a first down. That’s 87.5 percent!

Here are the reasons head coach Dave Doeren gave for the Wolfpack’s success on third down:

There’s a lot of things that go into it.

Coach McDonald and coach Drink sit down and look at our route concepts versus the coverages we expect to see.  We come up with the best plan for that game.

Our offensive line, coach Kitchings and coach Ledford sit down to look at our protections… that will be a huge challenge in this one.  They go through it and some of it sticks and some doesn’t.

Ryan looks at it, knows what is coming and throws on time. The nice thing is we don’t have a single receiver you can just go and cover because we have multiple guys.