NFL
By: Brad Sherrod
If Week 0 was supposed to be the first real test of whether NC State could live up to its dark-horse hype, the Wolfpack left Charlottesville with far more questions than answers.
This game got ugly quickly — and it wasn’t just reflected on the scoreboard. Virginia controlled the game on both sides of the ball, while NC State struggled to find any sort of rhythm offensively or defensively.
For a Wolfpack team entering the season with legitimate expectations, it was about as rough of a start as you could imagine.
The Wolfpack Offense Couldn’t Get Anything Going
NC State’s offense simply could not get off the ground.
CJ Bailey entered the season as the guy under center for the Wolfpack, but his first game of the year was one he’ll probably want to forget. Playing on the road in Charlottesville, Bailey never found his rhythm and finished with just 84 passing yards, failing to even crack the 100-yard mark.
And it wasn’t just Bailey.
The Wolfpack offensive line was overwhelmed throughout the game, making it difficult for NC State to establish any consistency offensively. With Virginia consistently disrupting the Wolfpack up front, NC State never really had an opportunity to get comfortable.
The result was an offense that spent most of the afternoon searching for answers.
Virginia Couldn’t Be Stopped on the Ground
While NC State struggled to move the football, Virginia had seemingly no trouble doing exactly that.
The Cavaliers ran for 284 yards, consistently finding success on the ground against a Wolfpack defense that simply could not get the run game under control.
In fact, Virginia leaned on the run nearly all afternoon, running the ball 57 times on 68 offensive plays.
When the Cavaliers did throw, they found success there as well.
Beau Pribula looked completely comfortable in his first game in conference play, throwing for 155 yards on just nine attempts while adding 110 rushing yards of his own.
For Pribula, it was the type of performance that could have him licking his chops about what’s ahead in the ACC.
So, Was This Virginia Being That Good — Or NC State Being That Bad?
That’s probably the biggest question coming out of this game.
There’s no denying Virginia deserves credit. The Cavaliers dominated the line of scrimmage, ran the football at will, and made life extremely difficult for NC State on both sides of the ball.
But from the Wolfpack’s perspective, there simply wasn’t much to point to as a positive.
The offense was nearly nonexistent, Bailey couldn’t get going, the offensive line was overwhelmed, and the defense had no answer for Virginia’s rushing attack.
That combination makes it difficult to know whether we just witnessed a really good Virginia team — or an NC State team that simply didn’t show up ready to play.
The Verdict
NC State leaves Week 0 with a long list of questions that need to be answered quickly.
Can Bailey lead this offense? Can the offensive line hold up against better competition? And perhaps most importantly, can this defense actually stop the run?
Those questions matter because despite this ugly opening performance, I’m not ready to abandon my prediction that NC State can be a 10-win dark horse this season.
But the Wolfpack have given themselves very little margin for error.
If this was simply a bad night, NC State has plenty of time to fix it.
If this is a sign of bigger problems, however, that 10-win prediction could look very different by the time ACC play really gets rolling.
