NC State football fell to Clemson 59-35 Saturday afternoon— a 24-point loss that only looks that close because of a 21-point fourth quarter that took place mostly between the two schools’ backups. The Tigers dominated the Pack in every phase of the game.

During the program’s first true road contest of the season, NC State turned the ball over 3 times and forced none, ran for 29 yards in the first half and gave up 14 total explosive plays while missing double-digit tackles for the second time this fall.

Going into its final non-conference game of the year against Northern Illinois, the program now stands 2-2. The Wolfpack lost both of its potential statement games early this season in decisive fashion.

After traveling to Death Valley to watch this setback for NC State, Ethan McDowell and Noah Fleischman sat down to record another episode of The Wolfpacker Show, discussing some troubling trends for this team.

In this episode of The Wolfpacker Show…

*** Noah and Ethan shared their initial thoughts on the loss, discussing a discouraging performance by the defense and CJ Bailey’s promising first start. Both hosts believe the freshman quarterback has shown enough to start the rest of the season if that’s what the coaches choose to do.

*** They talked about the program’s struggles on both sides of the football, focusing on a slow start that helped the Tigers jump out to an early 28 nothing lead in the first quarter. NC State failed to run the ball efficiently in the first half, and 2 early turnovers put the defense in a bad spot. At that point, the game was effectively over for NC State.

*** Then, they each handed out one game ball. This was not a pretty performance, but the hosts wanted to recognize a couple of solid individual showings. Sophomores Brandon Cisse and Kendrick Raphael played well in this contest.

*** To wrap up the show, Noah and Ethan asked a critical question. Where does NC State go from here? Statistically, the defense is performing the worst it has since the 2019 season. This week’s press conference carried a similar tone to the Duke loss last year— a contest that changed the course of that campaign. NC State will try to engineer another turnaround much earlier in the year this fall.

The Wolfpacker Show is available in audio and video on TheWolfpacker.com’s YouTube channel. You can also stream the show on any podcast platform.

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