We’re going bowling!
I can’t say my faith in a positive outcome was terribly high heading into the fourth quarter, but NC State’s offense came alive late for the second straight game, this time threading the needle to win a touch-and-go finish. To do that and send Mack Brown out with a loss in his final home game coaching UNC, well, that’s just extra nice.
Noah Rogers made the catch that defined the game, rescuing NC State from a 1st-and-20 situation to put the Wolfpack in the red zone with less than two minutes to go, the score 30-29 in UNC’s favor. Rogers erased a couple of first-half drops with that incredible catch in traffic, singlehandedly tilting the game back in State’s favor. Hollywood Smothers scored the game-winning touchdown shortly after that.
Rogers’ huge catch came with State reeling a bit; the Tar Heels had just re-taken the lead on a shrewd shovel-pass call to Omarion Hampton, and State had just backed itself up with a holding penalty. To that point in the second half, UNC had made the game-changing explosive plays. NC State got the last one, though.
Watching the second half between these two teams, you would not have imagined they’d farted their way around to a 7-6 first half, and those 30 minutes were indeed as rough to watch as the score would imply. State’s only points came on a short field after Davin Vann forced a fumble. UNC was pretty anemic but found a late rhythm, and also missed both a field goal and an extra point.
Appropriately, it was a missed extra point by State—an amusing ground ball into the offensive line—that helped create the late tension. And perhaps ended up sorting the game in just the right way for State by throwing off the usual football rhythm on the scoreboard. NC State held a 26-23 lead after the missed extra point, then a 29-23 lead after a field goal. Maybe if it’s a tie game on the last drive, rather than a 30-29 UNC lead, the urgency’s not there and this one ends up in overtime.
NC State fell behind on Hampton’s 75-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter and didn’t reclaim the lead until KC Concepcion hauled in a touchdown pass with eight minutes left, and in between there was no shortage of concerning moments. But State did eventually figure out how to get this thing home in Chapel Hill. Hollywood Smothers’ steady work running the ball was a big part of that, and Noah Rogers came through when it mattered most to save the day.
Maybe this one’s not exactly a classic, but it did have a damn fine finish.