NC State Game Film Notebook: Powered By WePlayed

What does the gamefilm say about the Wolfpack?

Boston College faces off with NC State this Saturday at noon. There has been a lot of change on both sides of the ball since the last game BC played against the Pack early last season. Ryan Finley, Jakobi Meyers and Kelvin Harmon are all gone, and in their place are playmakers like Bailey Hockman, Zonovan Knight and the Wolfpack defense. But what do we see looking at the gamefilm and what does the film say about BC's chances against this team. Using WePlayed, I watched 3/4 of the FSU and Syracuse game and made some notes about what I saw. Below are my notes, and you can see my game film notes on WePlayed

*NC State's offense jumped to a whole new level when lefty Bailey Hockman took over for Matthew McKay after the first couple of drives against FSU. Hockman is much more accurate, has a good precision vertical ball and forces defense to honor the pass, which opened up the run. When McKay was in there, defenses could just play single coverage and stack the box against the run. 

* Devin Leary played some quarterback as well against Syracuse. Watching I have no idea what Dave Doeren was doing. Hockman was running the offense well, and Leary would be thrown in. He certainly didn't do much, on one play holding the ball far too long and almost causing a fumble because he didn't get rid of the ball . 

* Zonovan Knight looks like the type of running back that could be a huge problem for the Eagles. Good physical runner with good speed. Reminds me of the types of backs that BC has struggled against. 

* NC State doesn't have the superstar wideouts this year, but they have a QB that can get  them the ball. 

* Overall the offense didn't show me anything that "wowed" me, but they certainly had elements that could prove problematic for a BC team that has struggled all year on defense. 

* NC State's defense is as good as advertised. Now warning ahead of time, FSU and Syracuse both have really poor offensive lines, but that can't discount how relentless the pass rush was in both of these games. In the Syracuse game the defensive ends were flying off blocks and it seemed like Tommy Devito was getting hit, or throwing it away on every play.  FSU scored 31 on this defense, but for most of the first half Alex Hornibrook was getting pressured and hit on almost every drop back. 

* NC State power up front was what impressed me most against the run. Consistently they pushed offensive linemen back which made running impossible. They also had good speed to get to the edges. Again this was against bad offensive lines, so it will be something to watch against a really good Boston College offensive line. 

* FSU found some luck against this defense by finding single coverage due to the heavy pressure. Hornibrook hit WRs like Tamorrion Terry who consistently was in single coverage without safety help. Once he beat his coverage he was able to get huge yard after catch.