NC State rallies back to win a tough game against Virginia Tech, 22-21

The game Thursday night was a weird one, even by normal college football standards. If you had just seen the final score, you’d never have guessed this was a 3-0 game at halftime.

You’d certainly never have guessed that NC State rallied from a 21-3 deficit to beat Virginia Tech by a point, 22-21, but that’s exactly what happened. I watched a good solid portion of this game and I still don’t know exactly how to explain or process it.

NC State had all the opportunity in the world during the first half to score points and not let Virginia Tech to hang around, but as we’ve seen a lot lately. mistakes were made, and those points were left on the field. The Pack was lucky to get a field goal in before the break.

The defense was outstanding, though. Virginia Tech couldn’t manage 50 yards in that time.

Which is what made the third quarter such a shock; Virginia Tech took to heart its general disinterest in trying things, and then decided to try things. That worked a lot.

Virginia Tech hit chunk play after chunk play in the third quarter and took a 21-3 lead. It was a pretty bleak moment. Team looked dead. Game was over.

At least, if you’d polled anyone in the stands, the game was over. Fortunately, none of them play football for NC State.

State stuck with MJ Morris in the second half and the game suddenly began to pivot right around him. Morris accounted for the first touchdown in the post-Devin-Leary era, and it’s like everyone on that offense exhaled at the same time.

Morris provided the start, and State put together touchdowns twice in the fourth quarter to rally back and beat a bad Virginia Tech team. I don’t have a good summary for what all of that was; but I do know it was encouraging; and I did see that we won. Go Pack.