The Upside- NC State | Syracusefan.com

The Upside- NC State

SWC75

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- Before the season, I felt that this game would be a shoot-out between the two best quarterbacks in the ACC, Ryan Finley and Eric Dungey. Dungey hit his mid-season slump and actually was benched last week and it seemed like the great shoot-out wasn’t going to happen. I had a feeling that Eric, being the competitive guy he is, would come back strong and he did. He didn’t look injured or tentative. Dino said in his presser that this offense can’t be run “as if you were Driving Miss Daisy. We need a race car driver, not a chauffeur”. Eric came out with the confidence and the competence we saw early in the season. he also made all the throw we’d seen tommy DeVito making and did it just as well. The Great Shoot-Out came to pass and we won it. Finley passed for 473 yards and 3 touchdowns but had the game’s one turnover, which resulted in the clinching score. he ran for a net zero yards in three ‘carries’, (on of which was a backpedal from the line of scrimmage in which he tried over one of his own men). Dungey passed for 411 yards and three TDs, but with no turnovers he also ran for 32 yards and a score. So who is the best quarterback in the ACC? He lives in “Our House”

- We had 561 yards total offense, 30 first downs and 51 points. We completed passes of 24, 82, 45, 48, 20 and 31 passes, two of them for TDs. This is what Dino Babers asked us to picture happening in the Carrier Dome when he was hired. Those years of watching our offense fail to get out of its own way are over.

- Sean Riley and Nykeim Johnson were at the player’s press conference with Dungey. He was asked what it was like throwing to 5-8 guys instead of 6-5 guys. He said they had big hearts. I thought of this: If no one is next to you, nobody can tell how tall you are. If they guys can beat they man, they are as tall as they need to be. Riley never scored but he had 10 catches for 164 yards and a bunch of those 30 first downs. Johnson caught that 82 yarder and finished with 7 catches for 136 yards and that score. While I’m at it, Antawn Cordy used every millimeter of his 5-8 body to tip a way a pass in the key fourth quarter possession that wound up with the interception. If you can play, you can play.

- Last season we were -12 in turnovers. We are presently +9. That makes an enormous difference. I watched this game and just knew that with all the players that were being run, there had to be a turnover at some point and that it would probably determine the winner. We got it on the 144th play from scrimmage of the game and we won.

- Four different SU receivers had at least 80 yards in receptions and three of them scored touchdowns. Also, we threw over the middle, with both Dungey and DeVito, more than I’ve seen in any game since Dino Babers became the coach here. Make them cover everyone and the whole field.

- Pressuring Finley was difficult as he has a strong line in front of him and he has a pro quarterback’s ability to get rid of the ball quickly. But we didn’t give up on it, even though we got only one sack. But we wore him down and finally Alton Robinson hit him as he was throwing and Andrew Armstrong’s strong arms gathered in the ball and we were going to win.

- Neither team ran the ball much or well but after inability to stop the run vs. Clemson and Pittsburgh, it was good to see NC State get only 68 yards at 2.3 yards per carry.

- In a game full of kick-offs, NC State had a total of 12 return yards: 15 on one kick-off and -3 on one punt return. The one kick-off return ended when the ball carrier reached Shy Cullen. Sterling Hofrichter kicked the ball 14 times and only two of them were returned. Our average starting point was our 27, State’s their own 22. We were a total of 72 yards closer to the goal when got the ball. That’s 72 yards of hidden offense. With Andre Szmyt again perfect, our special teams were back on top.

- We have played two teams that were 10-1 all-time against us. (Florida State and NC State) We beat ‘em both.

6-2 with 5 to go.

LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
 
I wonder if Dino had a talk with Dungey and told him that they were going to call his full offense including middle of the field and the intermediate passes and if Dungey couldn’t execute it then they had someone waiting who could. It’s amazing to have depth like DeVito .
 
We weren't far from having 3 WRs top 100 yards in a single game.

One interesting development - if the passing offense continues to fly, Custis, Riley and Johnson could all see themselves passing 1000 receiving yards.
 
One of the things I really wanted to see was an SU guy running with the ball and nobody catching him or tripping him at the last second. Last night was a pleasure to see to that happen.
 

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