Those big plays NC State coach Dave Doeren was looking for? The Wolfpack delivered

Clemson had some issues, but that’s not N.C. State’s problem.

The No. 9 Tigers were wounded, but Clemson is still Clemson. Either way, Dave Doeren has preached this season that it’s about the boys in red and white. He stressed if his team did what they had to do, in practice and on game day, it didn’t matter who they played the rest of the season.

But to knock off Clemson for the first time in eight years, Doeren knew his team needed to make what he called “big boy plays.”

During the 27-21 double overtime Wolfpack win, N.C. State (3-1) made plenty of the big boy plays Doeren talked about.

“Emeka’s catch was a big boy play for sure,” Doeren said about Emeka Emezie’s diving touchdown grab in the first half. “A couple of the sacks we made, were incredible plays. Drake’s interception … we had to make a couple special, special plays and we did.”

The biggest of them all was Devin Carter’s touchdown catch in the second overtime. Carter, who just missed a touchdown catch in the first half, came up with two scores in the second half. His game winner was a thing of beauty from Devin Leary.

Leary, who finished with 238 yards and four touchdowns, looked for Emezie first. Emezie (14 catches, 116 yards) was covered and Leary had time to go back to his right and threw a dart over two defenders to Carter in the back corner.

It was the type of play that may solidify Leary’s and Carter’s legacy in red and white. Carter has had some drops this season on what looked like easy plays, or layups as Doeren has called them. Against Clemson he was targeted seven times, coming up with five catches and two scores for 54 yards.

One play at a time

Part of making the spectacular look routine, according to Carter, is just that; keep it routine.

“We play football everyday, whether it’s practice or a game,” Carter explained. “So making it bigger can hurt you. You really just have to keep it small and go one play at a time, that’s it.”

Carter made it sound so simple. Leary told the press the goal is to go 1-0 on each play. N.C. State had plenty of chances to do that. The Wolfpack ran 96 plays, compared to 49 from the Tigers.

The first score of the day was a diving catch in the left corner of the endzone in front of the students. Emezie, who finished with more catches than completed passes from Clemson (12) secured the ball to his helmet as he fell to the ground. That score tied the game in the first quarter and was the perfect response after the Tigers took a 7-0 lead.

As Doeren and Leary put it after the game “we didn’t flinch.”

N.C. State didn’t flinch after Christopher Dunn missed his third field goal, including a 39-yard field goal that would have won it in regulation. Isaiah Moore, one of the co-captains, looked at his teammates and had a simple message.

“As soon as we went into overtime I looked at the other captains,” Moore said after the game. “And I said ‘not again. We’re going to win it this time and we believed that.”

Clemson scored on five plays in the first overtime, but only picked up five yards on four plays in the second OT after N.C. State took a six-point lead. The Wolfpack defense harassed Uiagalelei enough that he couldn’t find a receiver. That was the case most of the day. On a defense that’s been super solid all season, Clemson having the ball last with a chance to score, and win, was exactly how the Pack defense wanted it.

“In that last drive, everybody on defense was confident,” defensive tackle Corey Durden said. “At the end of the day, on defense we want the game to be on us and that’s what it was, that’s what happened. It’s a great feeling to win the game on defense.”

Linebacker Drake Thomas came up with an interception in the first half - the big boy play Doeren was referencing and the N.C. State defense at one point forced three straight three and outs.

Struggling to sack the quarterback most of the year, the Wolfpack defensive line, Durden and Davin Vann, came up with back-to-back sacks to stop Clemson in the second quarter. Those sacks, and overall quarterback pressure, were missing in the loss to Mississippi State. After that game, Doeren said his team didn’t make their layups. Saturday they made dunks, three-pointers and halfcourt buzzers when needed.

“We had to make a couple special, special plays,” Doeren said. “And we did. The guys that you think should make them, made them.”