NC State’s afternoon against Wake Forest started with hope and ended in a rout, a sharp turn that came in front of the home crowd at Carter-Finley. The Wolfpack led 14-7 early and carried a 14-10 advantage into halftime, but the Demon Deacons ripped off 31 unanswered points on five straight possessions to leave Raleigh with a 38-14 win and hand NC State its first home loss of the season.
The swing happened fast. NC State’s defense kept Wake Forest in check for much of the first half, limiting the Deacons to 10 points and 122 yards before the break.
But the second half belonged almost entirely to the visitors, who piled up 265 yards and 28 points over the final two quarters. Wake Forest finished with 387 total yards, and 303 of them came through the air.
Carlos Hernandez and Jack Foley were the big plays the Wolfpack never quite solved. The two Wake Forest receivers combined for 20 catches, 273 yards and two touchdowns, and both posted more receiving yards and catches than any pair of players had managed against NC State this season. It was also the first time since 2021, against UNC, that two Wake Forest receivers topped 100 yards in the same game.
NC State quarterback CJ Bailey finished 28 of 39 for 241 yards with a touchdown and a fumble. He opened hot, completing his first 16 passes for 173 yards, but the offense lost its rhythm after halftime. Even so, Bailey moved to 7,025 career passing yards and passed Devin Leary for sixth place on NC State’s all-time list.
The Wolfpack did find a few bright spots on offense. Keenan Jackson led the team with 61 receiving yards on five catches, and Miami transfer Chance Robinson followed with 53 yards on three receptions, including his first career touchdown.
Short-yardage specialist Will Wilson also added his second passing touchdown of the season on what looked like a quarterback keeper from the two-yard line. Later, a jump pass to Hunter Provience produced NC State’s final touchdown.
But the ground game never got going. With three starters on the offensive line and lead running back Duke Scott out injured, the Wolfpack managed just 0.6 yards per carry on 24 attempts.
Defensively, Popo Aguirre kept stacking production after earning ACC linebacker of the week honors. He led the team with 12 tackles and added a tackle for loss. True freshman Ziggy Moore was next with nine tackles despite having only two entering the game, and Elijah Satchell recorded NC State’s lone sack, his third of the season.
The game’s first turnover set the tone early. NC State got the opening kickoff, but a fumble on the third play gave Wake Forest the ball at the Wolfpack two-yard line. The Deacons punched it in a couple of plays later for the first score.
NC State answered with a 75-yard drive, capped by Robinson fighting through a defensive holding call to haul in a 24-yard touchdown, the longest catch of his career. After a Wake Forest punt pinned the Wolfpack at their own four-yard line, NC State put together a 13-play march and grabbed a 14-7 lead on Provience’s one-handed touchdown catch in the end zone from two yards out. The play came after Wilson slipped through the line of scrimmage on what appeared to be a signature keeper.
The defense then delivered a goal-line stand, stopping Wake Forest on three straight snaps from inside the ten and forcing a chip-shot field goal as time expired in the half. That made it 14-10 NC State at the break, the fifth time this season the Wolfpack had led at halftime. They are now 3-2 in those games.
From there, Wake Forest took control. Rain started to fall as the Deacons opened the second half with a six-yard touchdown pass to reclaim the lead. NC State then went three-and-out for the first time all day, and Wake Forest needed only four plays and 64 yards to score again, with 63 of those yards coming on a Foley catch.
NC State’s next chance ended on fourth-and-five at the Wake Forest 32, and the Deacons turned that stop into another touchdown, this one on a quarterback run on fourth-and-goal from the one. After another Wolfpack punt, Wake Forest closed it out with its fifth straight scoring drive and a 17-yard touchdown run that set the final margin at 38-14.
The result leaves the ACC’s longest continuous rivalry at 70-44-6 in favor of NC State. The Wolfpack’s next game is on the road against Stanford on Friday, October 23rd at 10:30 p.m., with ESPN carrying the broadcast.
In Other News...
NC State's Same Collapse Is Fueling A Bigger Frustration
NC State had the kind of first half that should have put it in position to control the afternoon, only to watch Wake Forest take over after halftime and turn the game into another frustrating collapse. The Wolfpack struggled to get much going on offense, especially on the ground, and once the second half started the pressure only grew as the game slipped away from the way it had begun.
The bigger concern is how familiar this looks for a defense that has been giving up too much through the air and too many easy gains for weeks now. When an opponent can keep stressing the secondary and the offense cannot answer, the margin for error disappears fast, and NC State is left searching for a fix to a problem that seems to be getting worse rather than better. [Read more 🡒]
NC State's Second Half Problem Just Got A Lot Harder To Ignore
NC State had enough going for it early Saturday to make the evening feel manageable, with quarterback CJ Bailey settling in and completing 16 straight passes in the first half. But as the game wore on, the rhythm disappeared, and Wake Forest began to take control behind Gio Lopez, who threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns in a performance that exposed how fragile the Wolfpacks offense can look when it starts to drift.
The result was a 38-14 loss at home, the kind that forces a hard look at what went wrong and why it keeps happening. Dave Doeren and players pointed to execution problems and injuries as part of the picture, and the concern now is less about one bad night than whether NC State can find a second-half answer before the season starts to pull away from it. [Read more 🡒]
ACC Heavyweights Already Look Like A Problem For NC State
The early ACC noise around the league already has a familiar feel for NC State, with the usual heavyweights showing the kind of depth and firepower that can make a conference race difficult in a hurry. UNC opened with an 88-70 win over USC in Greensboro, leaning on Jarin Stevensons 25 points and 10 rebounds, while Virginia rolled Richmond 96-53 with five players in double figures and Duke looked sharp in a scrimmage win over Belmont, 102-62, behind Dame Sarrs 19 points.
For the Wolfpack, the part worth watching is how quickly those contenders are already sorting themselves out before league play settles in. Michael Malone had reason to point to UNCs uneven backcourt performance, and USCs shorthanded lineup offered some context for the result, but the broader picture is clear: the teams NC State has to chase are bringing size, scoring and depth right from the start, and the gaps may not be easy to close once the ACC schedule gets rolling. [Read more 🡒]