The final score was closer than I hoped, but the game went pretty much like I expected. State chalked up two TDs n the final minute to erase a win for anyone who gave State 11.5 points early in the week. My friend at the game did, and he was livid. We had a 21 point lead a minute into the 2nd quarter and went to sleep offensively until the 4th quarter, then handed them those 14 points at the end.
See my early morning analysis after the jump:
Coming into the game I thought State needed to protect Glennon and, for the most part they did. It helped that the Pack found a running game that kept our D honest. Their Washington is a better runner than our Washington.On the other side of the ball, we did not execute as well today on offense. Far too often there seemed to be a lot of guys defending the sweep, so we were not knocking enough guys off their feet. And the dive play was never really open, although I see on ESPN that Sims had 73 yards, Not bad. Tevin with 16 carries is too many for him. That is, too many if the offense is really working. I am looking forward to CPJs comments this week.
Let's be honest with ourselves for a moment. No team can average 630 yards a game for the season in the ACC. I think the Jones TD that was called back took a little life out our guys and gave some to State. They came out in the second half with the spark I expected us to have. Tevin was off a bit in this game. He had Hill wide open on a deep slant and missed badly. Roddy Jones was open down the middle and just missed a diving catch. Both would have been TDs if the ball was correctly thrown.
On the defensive side, I am still not happy with our pass defense. We had to help our D backs with too many LBs and could not get a good rush on the passer. We caught Glennon a few times, but he was otherwise pretty comfortable in the pocket. Thanks God Russell Wilson was not in Raleigh for the game.
Lastly, we won and did not play particularly well. Miami no longer looks scary, so I can see us at 8-0. I am not sure what that means, as the ACC lower half looks like the Southern Conference.
Your thoughts?