NC State\u2019s ACC opener wasn\u2019t the prettiest performance from the Wolfpack, but the red and white held on to beat Virginia 24-21 via a walk-off 33-yard field goal from Brayden Narveson as time expired on Friday night at Scott Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are what those who covered the game are saying about the Pack\u2019s third win of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cShortly after NC State graduate quarterback Brennan Armstrong<\/strong><\/a> sat down at a table in the inner workings of Scott Stadium late Friday night, he had an honest take on his team\u2019s gritty 24-21 win over Virginia.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m bad at taking wins when the offense doesn\u2019t do their job,\u201d Armstrong said.\u00a0<\/p>\n NC State\u2019s offense, when given two opportunities to close the door on UVA in the fourth quarter, couldn\u2019t finish the job. Its defense played with its back against the wall multiple times in the period, and made the plays it needed to, but the Wolfpack offense handed the ball right back to the Cavaliers both times.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNC State finished strong \u2014 a theme that developed from the second quarter on. The Pack scored on its final drive before the end of each of the final three quarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt says a lot about the grit of the team,\u201d head coach Dave Doeren<\/strong><\/a> said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd we\u2019ve always been resilient. It\u2019s just good to see those guys be able to play well in clutch situations like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Converting on those momentum-shifting, game-defining drives helps decide contests like the Pack\u2019s 24-21 win. NC State won 4 games by 3 points or less last year. To do that again this year, the program needs to make the plays in the most critical moments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere was one overarching message from the N.C. State football program (3-1, 1-0 ACC) on Friday night: it\u2019s happy for the 24-21 win over Virginia (0-4, 0-1 ACC), but it\u2019s not happy about the way it happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n The team left points on the board and gave up too many explosive plays. It struggled on third down and long in the red zone. Things shouldn\u2019t have come down to a couple of UVA penalties and a second-chance field goal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd on this night, Colandrea had every reason to be excited. In that instance, he provided the Hoos a path to potentially earn their first win of the year and a chance to beat their former signal-caller Brennan Armstrong, who was on the other side playing the role of a red-helmet-wearing enemy.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t last, though.<\/p>\n Colandrea admittedly committed another first-year error as the score-evening, 2-point play finished.<\/p>\n \u201cI ended up falling back,\u201d Colandrea said, \u201cand my chinstrap was up, and I pushed my helmet up. I can\u2019t do that and it was a young mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n Lack of discipline crushed UVa at the end<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cVirginia had only been penalized four times for 24 yards going into the final minute of play Friday night. And then, it appeared to lose its poise, committing three 15-yard violations that helped hand North Carolina State a chance to pull out a win<\/p>\n First, guard Ty Furnish was flagged for retaliating during a skirmish with a Wolfpack defender, backing UVa up to the 18-yard line for its game-tying 2-point conversion. Still, Colandrea got it done, thanks to a great jumping catch in traffic in the end zone by Malachi Fields.<\/p>\n After that play, Colandrea drew a 15-yard penalty for taking his helmet off. On the play, Colandrea\u2019s chinstrap came loose and helmet began to flop off. He knocked it the rest of the way off, then flexed in celebration. The penalty was enforced on the kickoff and that, combined with lousy coverage, helped give State great field position at the Virginia 48.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCharlottesville \u2014 For all his accomplishments as Virginia\u2019s quarterback, Brennan Armstrong endured some ghoulish finishes at Scott Stadium. There was the last-ditch drive against Virginia Tech in 2021, doomed by a baffling call from offensive coordinator Robert Anae. There were the hapless overtimes versus Miami a year ago.<\/p>\n In his wild UVa homecoming Friday night, wearing an N.C. State uniform for his last college season, Armstrong walked off a 24-21 winner after Brayden Narveson\u2019s 33-yard field goal as time expired.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect, the emotions,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cFelt like I handled it fine. It was surreal, pretty weird coming back and playing on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n The post What they\u2019re saying after NC State\u2019s victory over UVA<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NC State\u2019s ACC opener wasn\u2019t the prettiest performance from the Wolfpack, but the red and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ethan McDowell, The Wolfpacker \u2014 Cooler heads prevail: NC State makes critical plays, leaves UVA with win<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Jadyn Watson-Fisher, The News & Observer \u2014 Why NC State football\u2019s win over Virginia left the Wolfpack with mixed feelings<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Greg Madia, The Daily Progress \u2014 Late penalties prove costly in Virginia football team\u2019s loss to N.C. State<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Mike Barber, Richmond Times-Dispatch \u2014 What we learned from Virginia\u2019s 24-21 loss to North Carolina State<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
David Teel, Richmond-Times Dispatch \u2014 Teel: Brennan Armstrong, N.C. State walk-off winners at Virginia<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n