FSU football vs. NC State Wolfpack preview and prediction
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football looks to get back on the winning side after suffering their first game against Wake Forest last week. The Noles enter the road game as +3 betting underdogs and 51.5 over/under points total.
Those odds imply a 27-24 win for the NC State Wolfpack. FSU played a tougher schedule through five games and comes into the game with more injuries on both sides of the ball.
However, they will have two players return on the defensive side of the ball (Jared Verse and Amari Gainer) and may have offensive tackle Robert Scott available.
The return of Verse is a huge boost for the defense, but if Scott is available that should significantly improve what the Noles can do offensively.
NC State Offense
I’ve been on record about this NC State offense, and I don’t think it’s anything special. I’ve often described it as death by 1,000 paper cuts because they like to dink and dunk and throw a lot of screen passes to their running backs. The Wolfpack averages 5.40 yards per play and averages 4.02 yards per rush. They will try to lull you to sleep and take a deep shot over the top every now and then. However, they try to stay ahead of the chains to stay in manageable downs and distance on third downs. It’s why they convert third downs 45 percent of the time. NC State tries to negate the pass rush by getting rid of the ball quickly and allowing eight sacks and 24 tackles for a loss.
NC State Defense
The NC State defense is the best part of their team, featuring a 3-3-5 defense that’s aggressive near the line of scrimmage. They’ve done well on preventing third down conversions at 28 percent, but the competition faced hasn’t been good aside from Clemson in their last matchup. The Tigers converted third downs nearly 50 percent of the time and scored 30 points.