No. 14 NC State blows chances at a New Year's Six bowl with loss to Wake Forest
North Carolina State’s dream of a big bowl game is pretty much over.
The No. 14 Wolfpack gave up 14-straight points in the fourth quarter in a stunning 27-23 home loss to Wake Forest on Thursday night. The loss drops NC State to 6-3 and potentially out of the top 20 in the next College Football Playoff rankings.
Wake got the winning touchdown with 30 seconds left. NC State blitzed and quarterback Jamie Newman found an open Jack Freudenthal across the middle. The free safety sprinted up to tackle Freudenthal — the man he was responsible for in the man coverage — and got taken out by a Wake Forest wide receiver just after the pass was complete. That allowed Freudenthal to turn upfield and run into the end zone with no one around him.
NC State had three timeouts remaining but a dropped kickoff and penalty on the return blunted the chances of a comeback. Ryan Finley’s Hail Mary pass was intercepted as time expired.
In addition to giving up 14-straight points to end the game, NC State kicked three red-zone field goals and ran for just 47 yards.
NC State had a legit shot at 10-2
While NC State entered the game without any title hopes, the CFP rankings were significant for bowl purposes. With a winnable schedule over the last three games of the season, the Wolfpack looked a good bet to finish 10-2 and get a spot in a prestigious New Year’s Six bowl game a year after losing players like Bradley Chubb and Nyheim Hines to the NFL.
That’s probably not going to happen with three losses now. NC State will probably drop below three-loss teams Florida and maybe even Texas, Penn State, and Iowa next week. It’s unlikely, barring chaos, that NC State will be able to make that ground back up.
An 9-3 record is still easily achievable with games remaining against Louisville, North Carolina and East Carolina. But none of those moribund teams will provide a schedule boost to push NC State back up in the rankings.
At 10-2, NC State could have moved past a two-loss Ohio State and a two-loss team from the Big 12 by the end of the season and been in position for a trip to the Peach Bowl or Fiesta Bowl. That’s all out the window now in a loss to a team quarterbacked by a player making his first career start. Newman started in place of the injured Sam Hartman, who suffered a broken right leg against Syracuse last week.
Newman finished 22-of-33 passing for 297 yards and three touchdowns.
Conversely, Wake Forest could be going to a bowl because of the win. The Demon Deacons moved to 5-5 and have games against Pitt and Duke to end the season. A win in either will guarantee a bowl game.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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