NC State survives wild 4th quarter with last-second field goal to beat UVA, 24-21

Well holy hot goddamn, that was a journey of an experience that I neither asked for nor needed. To recap that frenzy of madness to end things:

NC State punted deep from within its own territory with about five minutes left, this after picking off Anthony Colandrea for the second time in the quarter. Virginia responded with a touchdown drive on the short field, but was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty on the late touchdown, forcing the Cavaliers to attempt the game-tying two-pointer from beyond the 20.

Of course, Virginia converted this anyway with a jump ball that was really poorly contested. Anyway! Yet another UVA unsportsmanlike call forced the Cavaliers to kick off from their own 20, and Julian Gray took full advantage, setting the Wolfpack up just past midfield with another excellent return.

There are 27 seconds left at this point, and a few Brennan Armstrong runs later, State is setting up a 48-yard field goal try to win ... which is blocked, but UVA blocked said kick with an illegal leaping maneuver (how many times do we remind the kids never to do an illegal leaping maneuver with the game on the line!), which allowed State to re-try the kick from much closer, and Brayden Narveson nailed it. Whew. That was a lot of stuff that happened there. Whole lotta stuff. College football. Mercy.

Before total chaos erupted, the story of the night was Kevin Concepcion, who had a breakout performance to the tune of 116 yards receiving and two touchdowns. He had a 30-yard grab on State’s other touchdown drive.

His second touchdown was a 48-yard catch-and-run from the seam to the right pylon, taking advantage of some soft coverage over the middle. That pushed NC State ahead 21-13 in the third quarter, and was a critical answer after the Cavs put together a couple of field goal drives in the period.

It looked like NC State might survive without too much trouble when Aydan White snagged an exceptionally ill-advised toss by Colandrea toward the end zone with 5:39 to play, which wiped away a drive well into Wolfpack territory. But rarely are things so simple, and from there, well, see above.

Everybody still breathing?