What a ride its been, from winning five games, to losing five others. On Saturday afternoon, NC State lost its fifth of the season, a non-competitive matchup at Miami. The loss wasn’t surprising, but watching another utterly non-competitive effort was disappointing, and a stark reminder once again just how much talent it takes to be good at football, and how lacking NC State is here.
CJ Bailey finished 17-30 with two interceptions and averaged four yards per attempt as Miami shut down NC State’s ground game and forced Bailey to show them what he’s got. State’s one-dimensional efforts are typically poor, because its playmakers are average, so if opponents can remove the guessing game from the matter, the problems tend to get big real fast.
This was NC State’s issue early, and its issue in the middle of the game, and its issue late, as Miami went and poured on the points. This game was never competitive, never even looked competitive, and it wasn’t surprising. It would have been nice to see a decent effort out of this NC State team, but the opposite was not exactly a stunning development. They don’t travel, and they don’t particularly care.
Bailey is not good at overcoming adversity, and while we can’t knock a man for just not being capable of carrying an offense by himself—these are extremes no one is designed to handle—the poor returns from just a moderate bit of pushback remain disappointing.
We don’t really need to single out anyone in particular here, I suppose—they can have a pretty good day against terrible defenses, and they’re bad against the good ones. That’s why they’re 5-5.