NC State overcomes slow start to beat Louisville, 28-13

It’s a good thing that the players are tougher than we are, because many of us had suggested that the sky was falling based on a 10-7 deficit to Louisville.

NC State beat Louisville 28-13 on Saturday night, finally finding a rhythm when it was needed, putting aside the lack of energy that pervaded most of those first three quarters. Sometimes you end up with games like this and it’s weird, and disappointing right up until it isn’t, but that’s football.

NC State could manage only seven points over the first three quarters, then hit paydirt three times during the fourth. State was outplayed for a good portion up to that point, but Louisville also failed to capitalize on its opportunities, and as State stayed within striking distance, you could feel Louisville just kinda backpedaling to avoid a mistake.

Louisville’s defense is just not good enough to avoid this sort of thing forever, even on an off day for NC State.

I don’t think you can undersell how much that one play meant to this team. From there, this was a walk in the park. Louisville came back with a field goal drive but the State defense generally stood up, and State woke up and hit on another couple of touchdown plays

NC State deserves a lot of credit for how it responded to a difficult first half—because that was a really difficult first half. NC State could not run the ball for shit, and it felt like most of the time that Louisville dictated the entire terms of this game.

This could have turned out a lot differently, given that this was essentially a coin flip at halftime, but NC State showed that it is in fact better than this Louisville team. Louisville killed NC State’s running game, but NC State eventually decided that throwing the ball was a good idea, and the Wolfpack defense showed up big.

NC State is 6-2 and bowl eligible. Hell yeah.