NC State is fighting tooth and nail just to keep their season alive, needing a crucial win against Stanford tonight to have any shot at staying in the ACC title mix. The Wolfpack’s ride has been anything but smooth so far, getting smacked around with a blowout loss to Virginia back in late August. They even had a historically bad play against a lousy Vanderbilt team, and then got handled 38-14 at home by a red-hot Wake Forest squad. It’s been tough, no doubt about it. But if they can pull off this road win, a favorable schedule opens up, potentially giving them a real chance for a strong second-half run.
Wolfpack’s Road Woes vs. Cardinal’s Home Grind
Stanford’s not exactly cruising either, trying to battle through a rebuild under their new head coach Tavita Pritchard. They are sitting at 3-4, and with only one home game left after this one, a loss tonight would put them in serious trouble. The Cardinal offense has been brutal when it’s bad, scoring seven points or fewer in all four of their losses. Seriously, you can’t win if you can’t put the biscuit in the basket, and their ground game has been non-existent against everyone except Elon and Hawaii. On the flip side, NC State is really good at keeping those chains moving, and Stanford struggles to get to the quarterback, which means Wolfpack star CJ Bailey should have time to operate. But let’s not forget, NC State is 0-2 on the road this season. And guess what? Stanford is 3-1 at home, with their only home loss coming against Miami. This isn’t just a walk in the park for NC State.
East Coast Body Clocks and West Coast Traps
Here’s the real kicker: this game kicks off at 10:30 PM ET. For NC State, that means this thing will be wrapping up around 2 AM East Coast time! Yeah, these are college kids, they can definitely stay awake, but that rhythm is gonna be thrown off big time. It’s a true focus-test moment for an ACC team traveling all the way out to the Pacific. Stanford’s offense might have looked putrid in their losses, but those were against nasty Duke, Miami, Notre Dame, and a Wake Forest team whose only loss was to the Hurricanes. This isn’t some cupcake defense they’re facing every week. NC State has had to chew through a ton of adversity already, and they keep fighting back, but their pass rush isn’t going to overwhelm the Cardinal backfield. It’ll be just good enough to secure a tough, late-night victory.
NC State is projected to win this one 34-23. The Wolfpack needs to get it done tonight before they head home to host Cal, Duke, and Syracuse in their next few games, with only one more road game at Florida State the rest of the way. Stanford, meanwhile, has three straight road games coming up, including a trip to Cal. For both teams, it’s about staying alive and scrapping for every single win they can get.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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