"Oh, down 14-0 on the road in the first quarter," some of us might have thought. "Whatever, we did it last week."
If that gleeful optimism wasn't wiped away once you realized the 'Canes were playing a ranked opponent and not an ACC bottom dweller, Kansas State certainly reminded you of that fact through out the game.
It was the Hurricanes lowest scoring loss since they fell to Virginia Tech 31-7 in 2009, and the team's most lopsided loss since that infamous, "I'm sorry to even bring it up," 48-0 loss to Virginia in our last game ever in the Orange Bowl in 2007.
So, here's the "good":
- Duke Johnson still showed flashes of brilliance, despite reminding us he's a freshman playing in his second college football game ever. He dropped some passes, but redeemed himself with a 77 yard kickoff return that set up a late (and our only) touchdown near the end of the 4th (let's not, uh, read too much into the fact K-State pretty much had packed it in and assumed the win by that point).
- That Denzel Perryman certainly is something, ain't he? Unfortunately he appears to be the only something the defense has to offer.
- That Jake Wieclaw, real Dan Carpenter Jr., huh? Fist pump!
- Stephen Morris didn't throw an interception!!!! I can't believe this is something I actually celebrate, but given recent history it's certainly something to note!!!! He gave up a fumble though ...
- Actually Morris threw for more yards this week than last (214 vs 207) despite 20 less attempts. That's an 8.6 yard average this week vs 4.6 last week. No imagine if the rest of the offense allowed him to throw off more attempts.
- The pass defense wasn't the worst thing on defense this week. Not that it was good, and probably is credited to the fact that K-State has a more versatile offense than BC.
And the BAD, so very, very much bad.
- As keeping with tradition, the Hurricanes defense really have no idea how to deal with a dual-threat quarterback. They gave up 499 yards (210 passing, 289 rushing), and apparently that passing offense isn't their only weakness.
- The Hurricanes had a chance to tie early in the fourth, only to lose the ball on a fumble! The first of three given up in the game. Let hope it's not interceptions that will get us in the Golden era, but, fumbles.
- I'm trying to find a better joke than the "O-Line looked like swiss cheese." The O-Line had more holes than the plot of Lost? The O-Line was easier to penetrate than a Miami Gardens stripper? The O-Line was less effective than Romney's acceptance speech? Choose you own adventure.
- The 'Canes had 43 rushing yards on 29 attempts today. I'll just put that stat there.
- So, basically this team is a non-crappy, but non-amazing QB, a possibly ripening sensation in Duke Johnson, one decent D player, and a promising batch of running backs and receivers.
- I think everyone is kind of patiently waiting the first big Top 25 upset of the season. Unfortunately we didn't pull it off. Let's see what Texas A&M does to Florida later.
- I spent most of today inside watching this game, and now its getting cloudy! Fantastic!
So let's put things in perspective. This wasn't a "must-win" game, as no one really thought we were in the hunt for a national championships anyway. Yet, that loss had to be demoralizing, and it doesn't exactly predict good things for when we play other ranked opponents like Virginia Tech and, ugh, FSU later in the season. Basically, it washed away whatever short-term optimism we had after that BC win and then some.
The 'Canes finally come home next week to take on [Insert whatever FCS Opponent we chose this year]. Hopefully they'll be able to use that to build up more confidence and experience before heading off to Georgia Tech.
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