NC State holds off ECU, 24-17

NC State led wire-to-wire on Thursday night and held a two-score advantage for over half of the game, and yet … still we end up with a result that’s hard to define without lingering on the frustrating aspects of it. East Carolina scored 10 in the fourth quarter and State missed two field goals to give the Pirates a shot potentially to steal this game.

Thankfully, the defense stood up in the final minute, the ball inside the NC State 10, and sealed the matter with a 4th down stop. It never should have come down to that, and NC State is fortunate that it didn’t get burned by allowing ECU to linger.

After State went up 17-0 on a 48-yard hookup between CJ Bailey and Wesley Grimes, it had a chance to bury the Pirates and just couldn’t do it. Naturally, a trademark series of unfortunate events near the end of the half resulted in a long touchdown play for ECU that gave the Pirates life heading into the break.

Hollywood Smothers restored the three-score lead late in the third quarter but again the Pack opted against just, you know, winning comfortably. Would have been nice if they could have done that. It was a rough fourth quarter for Nick Koniecznski, who missed from 40 and from 46 to help leave the door open.

There is a lot that needs to be better from this team in Week 2, but hey, they did enough to win, and we got our revenge on the Pirates. The defense deserves a lot of credit for bottling up ECU’s offense in the first half and shutting down its ground game throughout—ECU finished with 30 rushing yards on 29 carries, which is some outstanding work by the Pack. And a hell of a contrast from the Military Bowl.

Plenty to build on there, and certainly there was plenty to like offensively even if that second half was frustrating. (Teddy Hoffman, hello, sir!) Wesley Grimes was excellent, Hollywood Smothers did the Hollywood Smothers stuff, and the Pack only went three-and-out twice in 11 possessions. Just gotta improve the execution (and playcalling) on the plus side of the field.