NC State’s Defense Needs to Limit Explosive Plays After Week 1 Performance

ESPN’s David Hale tweeted out his Week 1 ACC Explosive Plays rankings yesterday, and NC State’s defense has a lot to clean up before taking the field against UVA on Saturday in Carter-Finley Stadium.

Hale defines an Explosive Play as a 12+ yard run, or a 16+ yard reception.

The Wolfpack’s defense allowed 10 explosive plays against ECU, which ranked 2nd-to-last in the ACC in Week 1.

On offense, NC State’s 8 explosive plays ranked in the middle of the pack, tied for 7th in the conference.

Here’s Hale’s tweet:

Explosive plays, ACC teams in week 1
Duke, 12
Lville, 11
Pitt, 11
BC, 10
GT, 10
Cal, 9
NCSU, 8
Cuse, 8
Clemson, 8
FSU, 8
Wake, 7
SMU, 7
UVA, 6
Stanford, 5
VT, 5
Miami, 4 (all in 1st half)

Explosive plays allowed
Lville, 3
BC, 3
Pitt, 3
UVA, 3
Wake, 6
Stanford, 6
Duke, 6
GT, 6
SMU, 6
Miami, 6
FSU, 6
Cal, 7
Clemson, 8
VT, 9
NCSU, 10
Cuse, 12

(X)

All 10 of the Pirate’s Explosive Plays were passing plays:

79
39
37
22
19
18
18
17
17
17

Five of Virginia’s 6 Explosive Plays this past Saturday against Coastal Carolina were passes.

The Wolfpack’s Run Defense was elite on Thursday, but the secondary has to tighten things before the Cavaliers come to town on Saturday.