NC State Wolfpack Defeats Wake Forest On the Road

Well, that was a tale of two halves, wasn’t it? For a moment there, it looked like Wake Forest was ready to put on a show and send the NC State Wolfpack packing. But then, the second half happened. And oh boy, did it happen. The Deacs went from hero to zero, letting a 14-point lead evaporate into a soul-crushing 34-24 loss. It was the kind of collapse that makes you question everything. How did the NC State Wolfpack get the job done?

How the Wolfpack Stole the Show

The game kicked off with a bang for Wake Forest. Washington State transfer Chris Barnes decided he’d had enough of waiting around and took the opening kickoff 98 yards to the house. Just like that, 7-0 Deacs. Not content with just one highlight-reel play, Barnes followed it up with a 70-yard catch-and-run that set up Demond Claiborne for an easy score. Fourteen to nothing. The home crowd was buzzing.

But this is ACC football, folks. No lead is safe. The NC State Wolfpack, looking a little dazed, decided to wake up. Quarterback CJ Bailey led a methodical drive, capping it off with a touchdown pass to Justin Joly. Then, in a moment that perfectly summed up Wake’s night, a Robby Ashford pick-six tied the game before the first quarter was even over. You could feel the air get sucked out of the stadium.

A Second Half To Forget

Whatever Head Coach Dave Doeren said to his NC State Wolfpack in that locker room at halftime should be bottled and sold. They came out looking like a completely different team. They bullied Wake Forest at the line of scrimmage, turning the game into their personal playground. Hollywood Smothers ran like a man possessed, racking up 163 yards and looking like he was five yards downfield before a Wake defender even thought about tackling him.

Meanwhile, the Wake Forest offense just… disappeared. Vanished. Poof. A measly 39 total yards in the entire second half. Let that sink in. Thirty-nine. NC State loaded the box, daring Ashford to beat them through the air, and it was a dare he and his receivers just couldn’t answer. It was four straight three-and-outs to start the half, and that was all she wrote. You can’t just take a half off and expect to win in this conference.

Final Thoughts

So, here we are. The big question about whether this Wake team was for real got a pretty brutal answer. They got manhandled by an NC State Wolfpack defense that, let’s be honest, hadn’t looked all that intimidating this season. Now, Wake has a long 16 days to think about what went wrong before facing Georgia Tech. They’d better spend every single one of those days figuring out how to find their offense again.