What are we watching against Richmond
· Yahoo Sports
It’s been a long wait for this day to get here, but now we can finally turn the page to (I hope) more constructive play and move on from the UVA debacle. So what are we keeping our eyes on in the bigger picture tonight?
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1.) Find at least the beginnings of an identity offensively. NC State’s performance at Virginia was so bad as to look incoherent, and the offense wasn’t on the field enough to develop a rhythm, much less discover its most important foundational aspects. Pretty much nothing worked, and what did—or could have—worked, often wasn’t well-executed. The Pack has to take the opportunity presented by Richmond to start sorting itself out and establish concepts that work. Where’s the bread and butter?
2.) To that end, who are the playmakers in this offense? We know that NC State would like to lean on Duke Scott and certainly he has better days ahead of him, but I’d like to see a more concerted effort to get Victor Snow the ball tonight. We learned next to nothing about the passing game in Week 0—well, nothing good, anyway—and still don’t really know what we’ve got at receiver. It might end up essential for Snow to get 8-10 touches each week, and now’s a good time to figure that out. I won’t be surprised if Keenan Jackson is a focal point, either.
3.) What does this defense look like when it isn’t in a bad position for 60 minutes? They were set up to fail by the offense in the first game, and Virginia never had to get out of its conservative comfort zone. Still the defense did some good things against actual handoffs, and needs to build on that. Richmond shouldn’t have much of a downfield passing game to speak of, and I want to see how the defense performs against more regular passing downs.