North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Wolfpack and Tigers Keep it Close
10/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 12, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Reacting to a string of close games that his team had managed to pull out early in his first season as NC State's head coach, Chuck Amato suggested that nitroglycerin tablets be issued to fans entering Carter-Finley Stadium. Well, six years later, Amato's idea still has some merit. And when the Pack hosts Clemson Thursday night at 7:45, fans in attendance might want to consider doubling their dose of `nitro.' Forget the fact that seven of the last eight games in the NC State - Clemson series have been decided by seven points or less. This year, both teams have been straddling the line between heartbreak and euphoria on a regular basis.
By now, every nail has been chewed to the quick in Death Valley. It's not much different in Raleigh, where local drug stores report a shortage of the Grecian hair formula that combats gray hairs.
Four of Clemson's five games have literally come down to the last snap, including a pair of overtime losses to Miami and Boston College. Before losing three in a row, the Tigers opened the season with down-to-the-wire wins over Texas A&M and Maryland.
In its last outing, Clemson dropped a 31-27 decision at Wake Forest, but only after it failed to score from the Deacons three-yard line at the end of the game. Yes, the Tigers have a losing record at this point, but the team that coach Tommy Bowden evaluates on film every week is hardly a team that appears to need a major overhaul.
"We've got to make one more play," Bowden responded when asked if he would be making any changes to right the ship. "Are our games close? Yes they're close. So why would I be interested in changing a whole bunch. That would be crazy."
There's an old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." With a team that has only three turnovers in five games and just 17 penalties - a figure that's second best in the nation - Bowden doesn't see a lot of things that need fixing.
"I think you have to look at why we're 2-and-3," Bowden said. "Is it penalties? No. Is it turnovers? No. Are they quitting? No. Well then what is it? Well, we've got to make one more play. I've got to take the positives in what we're doing right now and say what are we not doing?"
What he has discovered is that Clemson is not doing a good job on the possession downs on either side of the ball. While its defense is allowing opponents to convert 41 percent of their third down opportunities, its offense is converting at a 31 percent clip, a number that ranks next to last in the ACC. The Tigers would, in fact, be dead last if it wasn't for NC State, which has converted only 29.4 percent on third down.
As a result, the NC State offense hasn't been on the field enough over the last two games, leaving its defense more vulnerable to fatigue in the second half. Against both North Carolina and Georgia Tech, the Wolfpack lost the `time of possession' battle by a rather large margin.
"We've been scoring fast in the last few games but not often enough and we're not converting on third downs," said Pack offensive coordinator Marc Trestman. "We've got to make the first downs when we are third and under five, and we can't put ourselves into position where we are third and long."
Execution is critical on third and short, as evidenced by a key third and one play that the Pack couldn't pick up near the end of the Georgia Tech game. A strong side sweep to Toney Baker would have been setup perfectly had one of the pulling offensive lineman not tripped and stumbled coming out of his stance.
A first down there would have prevented the frantic finish that saw Georgia Tech drive to the three before Garland Heath preserved a Pack win by making an interception off of a carom in the end zone.
But maybe it was destined to be that way. Just maybe, NC State and Clemson are two of those teams in the middle of the ACC that will not be able to escape the frantic finishes this year. It might be nerve-wracking for the fans in the stands who have no control over the outcome, but players seem to enjoy the drama.
"It's very fun," said Wolfpack safety J.J. Jones. "I never feel any nervousness or anxiety. My thing is to execute what the coaches taught me and what I know."
Like Clemson, NC State could make the case that its record could or should be better. The Pack had second half leads against both Virginia Tech and North Carolina before coming up short. But unlike Clemson, the Wolfpack has burned itself with a steady diet of self-inflicted wounds. While the Tigers have the fewest penalties in the league, NC State has the most (40 for 358 yards).
On Thursday night, Amato expects yet another heart-stopping finish, and why shouldn't he? Twenty four of the 43 ACC games in which NC State has been involved since Amato became its head coach have been decided by seven points or less.
"I think it's been that way in just about all the games we've been in since I've been here," said Amato. "We couldn't get Jay Davis in the game when Philip [Rivers] was here because we couldn't pull away from them. One of these years we're going to learn how to kill a fly with an axe."
In the meantime, he'll just have to rely on the nitroglycerin tablets.
