NC State is dead on arrival in Winston-Salem, falls to Wake Forest, 44-10

NC State losing to Wake Forest on Saturday was a likely outcome, but a little bit of encouragement along the way would have been nice. Instead, the Wolfpack was down 14-0 in a blink, never appeared much interested in competing, and got blown out by the Deacs as a result.

Devin Leary’s first start could have come under better circumstances, but he was absolutely brutal, throwing a pair of interceptions while averaging less than four yards per attempt. If you want to try and explain away a performance like that against one of the ACC’s worst pass defenses, be my guest.

But this is the sort of game, especially at this point in the season, where you’re going to find whatever it is you want to find. A lot of folks have their minds made up by now, be it about the quarterbacks, Dave Doeren, the play calling, whatever.

Today everything compounded the mountain of injuries that have steadily lowered NC State’s ceiling: poor quarterback play, poor effort, bad execution, bad turnovers. All of the signs of a bad football team are here, and there are no indicators to suggest these guys are going to pull out of this dive. If they haven’t done it by now, they aren’t going to.

I don’t have the energy anymore to even get a little mad. And I’m not sure which are the proper steps forward. When there’s nothing constructive happening on the field, everything feels like a lost cause. It’s not that bad. Probably.

I don’t know what I want from the rest of this season or what’s worthwhile to expect. Let’s just get through it without clubbing each other to death online? Let’s shoot for one more takeaway by the defense this year? We can start there, right at the very bottom of the barrel—whatever is the bottom of your specific barrel. Take your pick. Doing more would be unnecessarily applying a tax to your emotions.