NC State vs. Louisville by the numbers: Positives! We've got positives here!

Box Score

(Yds/carry stats are calculated after removing sacks from the equation.)

Since we have a losing streak goin' on right now, I think we've had about enough negativity for a while ... and by a while I mean for at least this one post. Here the sun is always shining. Leave your swears at home, folks, unless you are happy-swearing. In that case, swear away.

I'm going to scrounge up as many positives as I can from the box score and ignore everything else. EXTREME POSITIVITY COMING AT YA

To the things:

-- Coming into the weekend, Louisville hadn't allowed an opponent to eclipse 300 total yards of offense. The previous high in yardage allowed by the Cards was 292 to Murray State, but that was a 66-21 win for UL, so we're talking about a lot of reserves and garbage time involved there.

-- NC State is the only FBS team to crack 4.5 yards per play against Louisville--Miami had been the most successful offense against the Cards, averaging about 4.4 YPP in a Week 1 loss. The Cardinals held Clemson (which played without Deshaun Watson, I should note) well under four yards per play, and held Wake under two.

-- Eighteen points isn't output to be overly thrilled about, but Louisville is giving up just 15.5 points per game to ACC foes. That average falls to 15.0 if you remove State's performance from the calculation. No Louisville opponent has managed more than 23 points in a game.

-- NC State ran for 128 yards, which is more than any other Louisville opponent so far. State's 223 passing yards is second only to Murray State's 251, so again, it's the top total among the Cards' FBS foes.

-- Even though the Wolfpack played shorthanded, the defense managed one of its best efforts of the season, at least in terms of total yards allowed--coming in, USF was the only FBS team State had held under 400 yards. The defense also tied a season-high with eight tackles for loss.

-- The Wolfpack committed just two penalties for the second consecutive week, and that number isn't even a season-low: the Pack had only one penalty against Old Dominion. State is ninth nationally in penalties per game (4.1) and 10th in penalty yardage per game (35.8).

Not bad, huh.