.png)
Saturday at noon the Huskies of Northern Illinois come to Raleigh in a game the Wolfpack desperately needs to win to stop the bleeding from some pretty severe claw marks courtesy of Clemson last week. Dave Doeren would really like to come away with a win against his former employer. Before the season started, many people thought this would be a safe win for the Wolfpack, but not anymore. The Huskies made enough noise early to gain a top-25 ranking for a week. They come in at 2-1 after a 54-15 drubbing of Western Illinois, an unexpected 16-14 win over Notre Dame, and a puzzling loss to Buffalo last Saturday in overtime 23-20. They are going to be motivated to get back into the winners column against coach Doeren and the struggling Wolfpack. The Huskies were 7-6 last season where they beat Arkansas State in the Camellia Bowl and they are well on their way to a second winning season in a row under head coach Thomas Hammock. This game will set the tone for the rest of the season as NC State gets ready to dive into conference play. It's an opportunity to fix a lot of glaring problems or at least make them better.
Offensively, the Huskies return a lot of experience. They aren't scoring a ton of points, but they are solid, particularly on the ground. They return their leading rusher Antario Brown who rushed for 1300 yards a year ago and he had a huge game against Notre Dame 2 weeks ago, rushing for 99 yards against a very good Irish defense. He isn't the only ground threat however as they also have Gavin Williams who is an Iowa transfer. This isn't good news for an NC State defense that seemingly can't stop the run. They also return 5 of their top 7 pass catchers from last year for new starting Quarterback Ethan Hampton, who has played pretty well so far. The receiving corps is led by Trayvon Rudolph and deep threat Grayson Barnes. Rudolph is a very versatile player who they will get the ball to on the ground as well. Upfront, the Huskies offensive line is very good in pass protection as well as run blocking. This is going to be a really tough challenge for Tony Gibson’s defense which has a lot of work to do. Has he made enough changes to be able to stymie the Nortern Illinois offense?
Defensively, the Huskies are also experienced, with the weakest component being their linebackers. They are very solid on the defensive line. Last season they gave up 320 yards and 21 points per game. This season so far they are giving up 257 yards per game, and just about 17 points per game. Those are good defensive numbers for anyone. They were 7-1 last year when allowing fewer than 179 yards rushing, and 0-5 when giving up more. This isn't a particularly encouraging stat considering the anemic rushing attack of the Wolfpack thus far. One thing they don't do particularly well is put pressure on the Quarterback. They only had 23 sacks all last season. Factoring that into the equation, the secondary was really good last year and so far this season has been even better. This is going to be another difficult test for freshman CJ Bailey and the Wolfpack offense.
Northern Illinois does struggle on special teams, especially in the kicking game. They are only 5-8 on the season in field goal conversion with a long of 43, and their punter is only averaging 36 yards per kick. These two stats could have a big impact on the outcome of this game, especially in regard to field position.
Northern Illinois is a very disciplined team that doesn't hurt themselves. They were only penalized 58 times last season, and they only gave up 16 sacks. They should definitely be a favorite in the MAC this season. If NC State can find a way to win this game, it would be huge in terms of confidence moving forward. It's going to be interesting to see what changes the staff has made this week, and to see how effective they are.
Comments