North Carolina State University Athletics
HAYNES: View from the Booth
10/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Isn't the season whizzing by? On Saturday, NC State (3-2, 0-1) reaches the halfway mark with a 4 p.m. meeting against Duke (2-3, 0-1) at Carter-Finley Stadium.
This will mark only the third time the Wolfpack and Blue Devils have met since 2003 and it will be Duke's first visit to revamped Carter-Finley since 2002. No Blue Devil has ever played in the Pack's home venue and last year's 27-17 NC State victory in Durham was the only time the players making up the current rosters have participated in this series.
"You feel the disappointment in the Duke and North Carolina State people that we don't play each other every year," said second-year Blue Devils coach David Cutcliffe. "It kind of makes this one a little bigger when the two years roll around that we play each other. I'm certainly excited about this game and we saw the North Carolina State people came in big numbers to Wallace Wade last year. I know it's going to be an intimidating atmosphere over at Carter-Finley."
Cutcliffe, who coached both of the Manning brothers in college, is known as a passing game guru. So far at Duke, he's living up to that description. With Thaddues Lewis pulling the trigger, the Blue Devils are leading the ACC in pass offense with an average of 285.6 yards per game.
Those numbers have gotten the attention of NC State head coach Tom O'Brien, whose defense surrendered 361 passing yards and three touchdowns to Riley Skinner in last week's tough 30-24 loss at Wake Forest. Although Skinner was officially 31-of-45, it's also important to remember that the Deacons actually called 55 pass plays in the game. The 10 extra pass plays ended in Skinner either being sacked or scrambling.
Given the fact that Duke is dead last in the ACC in rushing (91 yards per game) and the Wolfpack ranks No. 1 in rushing defense (66.8 ypg), guess what the Blue Devils will likely try to do on offense?
"We know Duke is the leading the conference in pass offense right now," O'Brien said. "They're throwing it 40-something times a game. We're probably going to have to defend 50-some passes again this week."
In hopes of shoring up his pass defense, O'Brien will turn to more experience in his secondary on Saturday, replacing freshmen Brandan Bishop and Earl Wolff with seniors Clem Johnson and Bobby Floyd at the safety spots. Former safety Justin Byers gets the start at boundary corner.
Now my view from the booth as I examine what we'll be looking for during Saturday's Wolfpack Sports Network broadcast....
Pass defense: As noted, NC State expects Duke to air it out on Saturday. Remarkably, Skinner was never flustered at any point last week, although he was sacked six times and took numerous other hits after throwing the football. Nonetheless, the best pass defense still starts with pressure on the quarterback, and if Duke is indeed going to throw as many as 50 times, Willie Young and crew will get a chance to pad their league-leading sack numbers even more on Saturday.
As a team, NC State has 16 sacks. Young, the senior defensive end has collected seven on the year and 19.5 for his career, a figure that leaves him only six shy of Mario Williams' all-time school record.
"When I first got here, I wanted to be like Mario Williams," said Young, who was redshirted in Williams' junior and final year at NC State. "I told him, 'I want to be just like you.' He was like, 'don't be like me, try to be better than me.' That's what I've been striving toward. I guess opportunity is knocking at the door for me to capitalize and take his advice. I guess I'll have to take it and run with it."
If indeed Duke eschews the running game in favor of a no-huddle, throw it on every down approach, it will be incumbent upon NC State to get pressure on the quarterback as it did last week. And if that happens, it remains to be seen if Lewis will hold up in the pocket as well as Skinner did.
For his part, Cutcliffe coyly believes the Blue Devils won't be successful if they have to scrap the running game completely.
"We like to have balance," Cutcliffe said. "I have numbers in my mind of what we'd like to run the ball for depending upon the game plan. We don't want to lose the ability to run against NC State. Wake Forest made some terrific plays and was probably fortunate to win. If you get these guys geared up to where they can rush the passer, they're going to rush the passer."
Lewis has been getting rid of the ball quickly and his offensive line has done a representative job of protecting him, allowing just 10 sacks in 206 attempts.
That battle, with the Duke o-line trying to keep the Pack's deep defensive line and linebackers off of Lewis, will be a game within the game on Saturday.
Field Position: That hidden yardage resulting from the kicking game hasn't been so hidden for NC State this season. In games against Division-1 opponents South Carolina, Pitt and Wake Forest, the Wolfpack has simply gotten whipped in the kicking game and has subsequently lost the battle of field position.
Yes, the Wolfpack did beat Pitt, but managed to do so with a field position deficit. NC State's average start against the Panthers was its own 24-yard line, while the Panthers' average starting point on their last 12 possessions was their own 40.
A week ago, Wake's red hot offense opened drives, on average, at its own 45. The Wolfpack's average starting point was the 27.
These numbers are particularly significant for passing teams. A team that throws a lot will, naturally, feel more comfortable taking more chances and opening up their playbooks a little more when they're starting drives in the middle of the football field. Back them up and they'll tend to be more conservative for fear of making a big mistake in minus territory.
Kickoffs and kickoff coverage has been an issue for NC State the last two weeks, as such, O'Brien will be getting his better football players more involved in kick coverage this week.
"We have to be much better in our coverage teams," O'Brien said. "We're looking at personnel and schemes and hopefully we'll be much better at it on Saturday. We covered with more of our starters in the South Carolina game, but weaned them off the cover teams to give them more of a break so they wouldn't have to be on the field for so many plays. We had 81 plays on defense last week, so they're going to expect a load."
There have been no such problems for Duke. The Blue Devils are second in the ACC and sixth in the nation in covering kickoffs, yielding only 16.6 yards per return.
Duke's special teams units actually outplayed those of Virginia Tech last week, an impressive feat given Tech's reputation in that area.
