Ah, vicious sports cruelty, how I have not missed you. A wild fourth quarter that saw NC State and Georgia Tech combine for 36 points ended, sadly, with the exclamation point in the Jackets’ favor, as Aaron Philo scrambled home in the waning seconds to give Tech the win.
NC State had one final shot, a 58-yard field goal attempt, to snatch it back as time expired, but that kick missed left.
State did an admirable job fighting back in the final quarter, as it did not lead in the game until Hollywood Smothers’ long touchdown run and the subsequent two-pointer put it ahead 29-23 with 90 seconds to go. Had the Wolfpack managed to hang onto that margin, this would have gone down as an impressively resilient victory. As it was, Smothers just set the stage for pain.
CJ Bailey did admirable work on the ground but threw three interceptions, the last of which appeared to have State dead to rights, as Tech used it to go ahead 23-14 with under seven minutes to play. But NC State answered with a quick touchdown drive, got a three-and-out, and then Smothers put the Pack in front. It was one hell of a turnaround, but the defense just could not get that final stop.
It’s not an easy game to categorize, what with State scoring all of seven points prior to the fourth-quarter outburst, and the defense doing a solid job, generally, in the second half before the unfortunate final possession.
In the end, NC State racked up over 250 yards rushing, more than doubling up Tech in that category, and if you’d told me that would happen, I’d have expected a positive end result to match.
There’s been a good amount of woulda-coulda to State’s losses in league play, and there’s more to kick around here as well. I don’t have the energy for that tonight.