Pack Offense Rolls in Win Over Campbell

The NC State cheerleaders got a major workout doing push-ups for points as the Wolfpack offense put up 56 in a dominating win over Campbell.

That's a lot of push-ups!

An early indicator of the offensive mentality came before the game even started. The Pack won the toss and elected to receive the opening kick-off, a rarity in football.

The offense responded with a five-play, 75-yard drive capped by Will Wilson's third rushing touchdown of the season.

The second series also covered 75 yards, but it required only 2 plays in 41 seconds. Hollywood Smothers was bottled up at the line of scrimmage, escaped to the left, shook a defender, then cut back to the right on his way to a 59-yard touchdown. It gave the Pack a 14-7 lead and the rout was on.

On a picture-perfect day for football, the starting offensive unit scored touchdowns on all eight of their drives - seven drives in the opening half and one to start the third quarter. With a 49-7 halftime lead, the coaching staff decided to keep the starters in for a series to start the second half.

"We wanted to come out and start fast in the third quarter," Dave Doeren explained. "To me, we haven't been a team that has finished people this year. We've built leads and given up leads. I wanted the starters in there on the first drive in the second half, both sides of the ball."

Quarterback CJ Bailey set a new career high with four touchdown passes to 4 different players. You would expect Justin Joly, Terrell Anderson and Hollywood Smothers to be among the touchdown catchers.

But joining the end zone club was transfer tight end, Cody Hardy. On a well-executed play, Joly ran a route that drew in the safety. Hardy ran wide open and Bailey found him for a 37-yard score. A guy known more for his bulldozer blocking scored his first touchdown with the Wolfpack and the second of his college career.

The Smothers train was on track with 123 yards on just four carries. That's an amazing 30.8 yards per carry!

"He takes a lot of pressure off our passing game when he can run so well," Bailey said. "It's been great to have a guy like Hollywood in our backfield to loosen up more passes for us."

Smothers wasn't the only back the Camels had to pay attention to. Duke Scott joined the fun with a career-high in carries (10), yards (89), and touchdowns in a game (2).

"Your run game and pass game are friends." Doeren said. "They've got to work well together. You can't be a dink-and-dunk offense with a good run game. When you have a good run game, it opens up down the field, play actions and shots, and you can't be afraid to call them. If you throw an incomplete pass, it's okay, but those are opportunities with the receivers we have that we've got to capitalize on."

The Pack's offense produced 14 explosive plays, eight in the passing game and six on the ground.

But the most important stat is the one that Bailey looks at when the game is over. "I just look at how many times we win games," he said.

A simple, short and to-the-point answer.

Chalk up win number four and it's what you would hope for in a match up like this; NC State over Campbell, 56-10.

Players Mentioned

Terrell Anderson

CJ Bailey

Cody Hardy

Justin Joly

Hollywood Smothers

Will Wilson

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