>Well, shit. That sucked. I'm not going to say the McGuire honeymoon is over, but we're definitely packed up and headed to the airport. I'd venture to guess that 99.6% of our fans are still on board (including me), but there's now something on film for people to latch on to and criticize. It was going to happen eventually. I'm just glad it didn't start last week.
>I thought our defense played up to my expectations. And those are pretty high expectations right now. Go read the 3 Keys to the Game post from earlier this week. The defense showing up is the only key to the game that came through. We have a respectable Power 5 defense. They played like one tonight. They hit us on occasion in the run game. But the defense was put in terrible spots and they really came through. That's probably going to be NC State's worst game of the year from a total yards / yards per play perspective. I bet they have more production in a couple weeks at Clemson. Some of that is the short field position we gifted them, but most of that is because Texas Tech has a legitimate, respectable Power 5 defense. It's a really good thing that we have one and I hope Muddy Waters is okay.
>The muffed punt return was brutal. It blows my mind that our student enrollment is over 32,000 and the best (healthy) punt returner on campus is the athletic director's son. But since he's out there, we can assume that he's the best we got. Catching the football is something that needs to occur on every punt from here on out. It just has to happen.
>I'm officially concerned about the QB position. I like Donovan. He's got great physical tools. But he does not process things very quickly. A below-average offensive line highlights that weakness in a bad way. And I'm not sure it's that big of a weakness for him as a QB. It might just be a characteristic that is typical of someone with his age and experience. He's got a long ways to go. Even considering the time and score of the game, I think it's fair to say he was "benched" tonight. The same thing occurred in the Oklahoma State game last year. There is a reason Shough won the job in fall camp by such a wide margin that Kittley and McGuire didn't even discuss who would be the starting QB. There's a reason Cumbie elected last year to have Donovan run to the sideline before every play against Iowa State. There's a reason why Morton was given snaps tonight and against Oklahoma State last year when the game was, technically, still in the balance. It's because Donovan has a ways to go, and he needs to get a lot better if we're going to play meaningful football games in November.
>We need an outside receiver to take the next step and become a serious factor. Loic and Jerand have the tools to do it. It's also maybe expecting too much for it happen this quickly in their careers. But the team needs it. They combined for 4 catches and 42 yards tonight, and that's just not going to be enough to win a game on the road against a really good team.
> I'm really not sure how our OL played just yet and will need to make that determination on the rewatch. There were times when I thought Donovan had plenty of time to throw. But we also could not run the ball at all. Some of the first down run calls were frustrating considering how little success we had running the ball on that down. But I understand why you do it if you don't have a ton of faith in your QB or you don't think you can protect in obvious passing situations. Something tells me that Kittley ran the ball on first down tonight much more than he wanted to.
> NC State is probably pretty good. They have good players. They are old. They have a lot of continuity at the HC spot. And they have a favorable schedule playing in the ACC. They will probably finish the year as a top 10 team.
>We are 2-1. Right where most thought we'd be. A really tough game next week. Winning could more than erase any feelings about tonight's game. That part is exciting. It's going to take some really good QB play to win next Saturday because good QB play is the only way I can envision us scoring points against P5 football teams. We cannot run the ball traditionally -- 13 handoffs for 43 yards tonight. That part sucks because our RB room is solid but we can't really leverage their abilities.
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