NC State 34, Wake Forest 24: The advanced box score

NC State ended up running 19 more plays from scrimmage than Wake Forest and outgained the Deacs by almost 100 yards. The Deacs were held to their lowest total yardage output of the season. It sure didn’t start out looking it was going to be a good day for NC State’s defense, but then the second half happened.

Without explosive plays to lean on in the second half, it was a struggle for Wake just to get a first down, and their success rate was really bad even including the first 30 minutes.

State’s offense wasn’t at its best but had an enormous advantage on passing plays by the time it was said and done. The ground game was pretty boom or bust: 20 rushes went for two yards or fewer, 19 went for four yards or more. But NC State also had almost 89 “highlight yards” rushing—yardage attributed to the back and not the offensive line—thanks to Hollywood Smothers’ efforts, while Wake Forest had eight. That highlight yardage total was higher than Wake’s output on the ground as a team.

While State’s defense stuffed only three runs at the line of scrimmage, it limited 10 of 21 rush attempts to two yards or fewer, and that works too. Wake Forest had only six runs gain four yards or more, which is some excellent work against Demond Claiborne.

CJ Bailey’s success rate throwing the ball was over 50%, compared to Robby Ashford’s 33%. Bailey’s success rate was 50% or better on both early downs and late downs—a very consistent effort. Part of Wake’s problem was throwing the ball on early downs, where it had a success rate of just 30%.

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