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It’s been two weeks of close games for NC State, but it’s also been two wins. For a team that hadn’t celebrated a victory since Sept. 28 of last year, that’s progress. Still, there’s no question the Wolfpack have work to do still, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.  In the first two weeks of the season, NC State faced Georgia Southern and Old Dominion -- hardly teams that will be confused for Texas A&M or Oregon -- but the defensive numbers were not pretty.
Georgia Southern racked up 438 yards of offense, including 246 on the ground, and led the game in the final two minutes. Old Dominion topped those numbers, totaling 504 yards of offense (196 on the ground) and also took a lead into the second half. The early struggles aren’t entirely a surprise for the Wolfpack, who have plenty of youth on the roster, but that doesn’t mean the two wins will overshadow the bad mistakes. “A win’s a win. But now we’ve got to get those mistakes off the film,” said senior defensive tackle T.Y. McGill. Indeed, the mistakes are easy to spot. After two weeks, the Wolfpack have allowed the second-most rushing yards after contact in the nation (345). No Power 5-conference team has surrendered more yards after contact per rush than NC State (4.11). Overall, 78 percent of the rushing yards it has surrendered came after contact. “You can’t be at a D-I program and have all those missed tackles,” McGill said. That’s particularly discouraging since the defensive line, which features seniors McGill, Art Norman and Thomas Teal, along with fourth-year junior Mike Rose, is one of the Wolfpack’s rare groups stocked with veterans. Still, the best part of mistakes on film, McGill said, is that the problems are obvious. The job now is to correct them. Unlike last season, however, the Wolfpack have the luxury of an offense that appears poised to make up for a few missed tackles and missed assignments. Jacoby Brissett has the NC State offense rolling to the tune of 959 yards and 70 points. Brissett leads the ACC in passer rating, while no receiver in the conference has hauled in a higher rate of targets than freshman Bo Hines. A road trip to South Florida this week should be a bit bigger test for the NC State offense, however, which means it’s incumbent upon that defense to take a big step forward in Week 3, too. “It’s great having an offense that can drive the ball down the field,” McGill said, “but the defense has got to step up.”
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