Wake Forest vs. NC State by the numbers

Box Score

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

If you guessed that NC State's defensive effort was its best in an ACC game under Dave Doeren, you would be correct. In terms of yards allowed per play, it was actually State's best defensive effort of the entire year--yes, even USF and Presbyterian put up better per-play averages than Wake. (Though not by much in either case.)

On the bright side for the Deacs' offense, they came into the weekend averaging one yard per carry (this is still amazing), so they doubled their typical per-rush output against the Pack. I'd say that's worth a half-hearted golf clap. For the season they now have 341 rushing yards on 317 carries. Sacks excluded, NC State ran for 368 yards this weekend ... on 44 carries.

I thought Wake's offensive line did a decent job in pass protection under the circumstances; the Deacs came in giving up four sacks per game but only allowed one against the Wolfpack, though there were several near-misses.

Back over on the State side of things, it's not often that you will see this team average almost twice as many yards per rush as it did per pass. Whatever works, man.