Two things can be true at the same time:
NC State lost the Vanderbilt game on the last play of the game.
NC State did not lose the Vanderbilt game on the last play of the game.
CJ Bailey had the worst play of his career in those final six seconds vs Vanderbilt.
CJ Bailey played his best game as a starting QB vs Vanderbilt.
Duke Scott did not have a good game vs Vanderbilt.
The NC State run game in aggregate did well.
App State comes into Raleigh being 3-0.
App State has beaten Maine, ECU, and Charlotte.
The Vanderbilt loss boils down to that last play, and fans have been using it as a microcosm of the whole Dave Doeren experience. But in reality, NC State opened the door wide open for Vanderbilt to even be in the position to contend for the win to begin with. If QB Jared Curtis hadn’t thrown up a YOLO ball on first down, we can all envision a scenario where the defense was done for the day on getting stops and Vandy would have scored with under a minute remaining. It really had that feeling. Had that happened, people would still be mad, but at least the anger would be localized to the NC State fan base, and not spread across every single national media outlet and trending across all of Twitter.
It was truly embarrassing the number of texts I got from people I don’t hear from that often saying things to the effect of, “ooof, sorry, that was brutal, are you okay?”
You know things have gone really wrong when soft acquaintances are reaching out to see how you’re doing. I could really do without all the wellness checks and would much rather just have NC State do the thing that 99.8% of all other teams have been able to do for the last 20 years of college football. The record of 1,046-2 for teams with the ball under 10 seconds to win the game is a stat I didn’t know before Saturday, and now wish I’d never learned about it. I don’t like that NC State will be on every highlight reel of bad plays from now until the end of time. This is up there with Chris Webber calling the timeout. It’s honestly shocking to me this HASN’T ever happened before?? With all the shaky teams CFB has had over the years, you’d think this was something that would have happened before. But NC State loves to defy all odds and logic, and almost never for the better.
What Now?
Coming out of Vanderbilt, NC State fans are left to ask the same thing they asked after the loss to UVA: What will be the team’s mindset? This has all the classic markings of a “quit watch.” We’ve seen these situations snowball into losing streak. If they come out with good energy and aggression, then we know the season is not all lost. If they come out just meh, then, well, hold on to your butts, as they say.
The same scenario happened in the Richmond game, where we are less concerned about the opponent and how NC State will approach the opponent, the response, and the atmosphere. It’s unclear what the energy in the stadium will be. If things aren’t good to start, one would hope the crowd doesn’t turn sour.
Doeren and co. need to give the crowd something to cheer about early just to settle the place down and ease tensions. He also needs to give CJ Bailey some opportunities to succeed and make an impact on the very first drive, just as a show of confidence in him. After that, who knows…just win, bro.
Now, on to the picks!
I have to give the AI slop’o’matic for improving. It’s still not perfect but to be honest it ain’t half bad:
