NC State had the game in its hands, then let it slip away in the most brutal way possible.
The Wolfpack were a second from escaping Nashville with a 31-28 win after Jared Curtis was intercepted at the 2-yard line. All they needed was a clean finish.
Instead, C.J. Bailey fumbled away an intentional safety, and Vanderbilt turned the chaos into a 35-31 victory on a last-second touchdown.
The finish was as wild as it sounds. On fourth down, Dave Doeren chose not to risk a punt and opted to have Bailey take an intentional safety.
The idea was simple: roll out, avoid contact, get down, move on. But as Vanderbilt closed in, Bailey tried to stretch the moment instead of hitting the turf.
That opened the door for disaster. Miles Capers dove in, forced the fumble, and Cayden Daniels jumped on the loose ball in the end zone.
That gave NC State one final shot with one second left, but there was no miracle answer waiting.
Afterward, Doeren said the plan was never to invite that kind of ending.
"It was supposed to be a play where you roll out and not get hit," Doeren said, per 247Sports. "Plan was just to take a safety and protect the football. We made enough plays for 59:59 of this game."
He didn’t hide from how painful it was, either.
"That's a heartbreaking ending," Doeren said. "Should've never came down to that. It hurts when you lose a game like that when we did a bunch of good things in it."
The loss stings even more because NC State had built what looked like a comfortable cushion. The Wolfpack pushed the lead to 24-7 in the third quarter, then extended it to 17 points with 8:52 left in the third and to 10 points again with 9:35 remaining in the fourth.
But the clock management never matched the scoreboard. After the 24-7 advantage, NC State’s next three drives lasted 10 plays, nine plays and nine plays, yet only one of them produced points. The longest of those possessions took just 5:55, which wasn’t nearly enough to squeeze the life out of Vanderbilt’s comeback hopes.
And the Commodores didn’t waste time once they got rolling. They scored touchdowns on three straight possessions after the Wolfpack went up by three scores, and the longest of those drives lasted only 3:17. The other two were over in less than two minutes.
Curtis was kept in check in the first half, when NC State limited him to 72 passing yards, one interception and one fumble. But the second half flipped completely. Vanderbilt picked apart the Wolfpack for 202 passing yards and two touchdowns after halftime.
NC State did come up with a big interception late. It just led straight into the botched safety and the collapse that followed.
For Doeren, who badly needed a win after the blowout loss to Virginia in the opener, this was a missed chance at a statement road victory against an SEC opponent. Instead, NC State falls to 1-2, Vanderbilt moves to 3-0 with SEC play ahead, and the pressure in Raleigh only gets louder before Appalachian State comes to town.
In Other News...
Vanderbilt Just Got The Kind Of SEC Shoutout Fans Never Expected
The SEC Nation crew had plenty to discuss during Auburns primetime meeting with Florida at Jordan-Hare Stadium, especially with the Gators making their first trip there since 2011 and new coach Jon Sumrall getting his first SEC test. But the broadcast briefly took a turn Vanderbilt fans probably never expected, when former quarterback Chase Daniel brought the Commodores into the conversation while laying out a possible path for Florida.
Tim Tebow pushed back right away, and Daniel quickly clarified he meant Vanderbilts surprising 10-win season last year, not some low-end comparison. The exchange stayed light, with the panel laughing it off, but it was still the kind of offhand shoutout that says plenty about how far Vanderbilt has come and how noticeable that rise has become around the league. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Just Pulled Off A Finish College Football Rarely Sees
NC State had the game in hand, the ball and the lead with the clock bleeding down, and still walked out of Vanderbilt with a loss after a fumble recovery in the end zone with six seconds left. For the Commodores, it was the kind of finish college football almost never delivers, one that turned a tight game into an upset before the Wolfpack could even absorb what happened.
The rarity of it only sharpens the backdrop. In the last 20 years, it has happened just once before under similar circumstances, when Michigan fell to Michigan State in 2015. For NC State, the defeat left it at 1-2, while Vanderbilt got a win it will be talking about for a long time, even if the play itself will be replayed and argued over for even longer. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Enters Its Toughest Stretch With One Huge Question Tonight
Vanderbilt is about to find out a lot about itself. The Commodores open a 10-game run against power conference opponents with NC State, and the timing lines up with a major move at quarterback, as Clark Lea has turned the offense over to five-star freshman Jared Curtis, who is set for his first career start and will handle the position going forward.
The challenge does not stop there, either. Vanderbilt is also dealing with a growing injury list, with Aaron Bryant, Cole Spence, Jamison Curtis and Jaylin Lackey sidelined, while EDGE Brian Allen Jr. is expected to play. In a stretch this demanding, the quarterback shift is only part of the story, and tonight offers an early read on how much the Commodores can absorb before the schedule tightens even further. [Read more 🡒]