Game report: N.C. State 26, SMU 17

[PonyPride]

Heartbreaking loss lends confidence to Ponies
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Senior SMU defensive end Kevin Aldridge was asked after Saturday's 26-17 loss to North Carolina State whether he believes in moral victories.

After a long sigh, Aldridge replied. "I prefer to think of it as a building block," he said. "We showed we can stick with an ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) team. If we can play with them, we can play with anyone we play."

The Mustangs more than played with the heavily-favored Wolfpack. The Ponies (0-3) exchanged blows with the team that administered a 41-0 pasting last season and nearly pulled off the upset.

In the process, the Ponies found other reasons for encouragement. The offensive line that entered the season as the team's biggest question mark had its second strong outing, keeping quarterback Kelan Luker upright for most of the night and opening holes for running backs Kris Briggs and Keylon Kincade, who combined for 173 rushing yards as the previously dormant SMU offense rolled up 316 total yards in its best performance of the season.

Kincade, who had a game-high 93 rushing yards, said he and Briggs present a potent combination for the Ponies' ground game.

"That (the Mustangs' rotation of the two backs) really kept them on their heels a bit," Kincade said. "I think they didn't really know what to expect. Kris goes in there and bruises them up, and I come in and run around them."

Kincade also said he wasn't surprised by the impressive performance turned in by SMU's offensive line.

"No, I wasn't surprised at all," he said. "They did a great job, but I've known they had the potential to do that."

In addition, the Mustangs made big plays. SMU head coach Mike Cavan has said repeatedly that although the team's speed and athleticism have improved each year he has roamed the sideline at SMU, the young team had yet to turn that physical ability into big plays. But against N.C. State, that changed. Cornerback Jonas Rutledge turned in the team's most electrifying play of the season when he fielded a kickoff midway through the second quarter and raced back and forth through the coverage en route to a 65-yard return. Luker mixed up his standard package of short, quick passes with several unusual routes, such as the play in the second quarter when he rolled to his right, turned and flicked the ball across the field to Briggs, who rumbled 43 yards downfield. And Kincade, touted as the speed complement to Briggs' power running game, slashed through the N.C. State defense all night, showing a field vision and change of direction ability not seen in an SMU tailback since Donte Womack.

The Mustangs almost scored in the first quarter, but Jacob Crowley's field goal was partially blocked. But the Ponies did take the lead in the second quarter when Crowley connected from 36 yards with 9:01 left in the first half.

The Wolfpack bounced back when senior tailback Ray Robinson -- who finished the game with 45 rushing yards on 18 carries -- scored on a 2-yard run with 5:22 left in the half.

But the Ponies also showed their resilience, rallying for a touchdown of their own when Luker flicked a 14-yard touchdown pass to tight end John Hampton along the right side of the end zone with 1:47 left before halftime.

N.C. State roared out of the intermission, scoring on its first drive. The ’Pack was helped by multiple SMU penalties. Adam Walterscheid's second-half kickoff sailed out of bounds, putting the ball at the 35. On the next play, cornerback Kevin Garrett was called for two penalties, getting flagged for being offsides when he crowded too close to the line of scrimmage and then got whistled for pass interference. The drive that resulted in Robinson's touchdown only featured three plays of actual offense by N.C. State.

SMU trailed for the first time, 13-10, a deficit that doubled when N.C. State kicker Austin Herbert drilled a 28-yard field goal. But again, the Ponies bounced back. Luker drove the Ponies down the field. On third-and-8, Luker stepped up into the pocket to avoid the pass rush coming off the corners. With open space in front if him, Luker decided to forego a mad sprint to the first-down marker, instead flinging a pass into the back left corner of the end zone, where junior Chris Cunningham went up between a pair of N.C. State defenders and pulled in a 32-yard touchdown pass, capping off a nine-play drive that covered 80 yards.

"I looked up and saw that the safety wasn't going to get there," Luker said. "Luckily the ball went over him. I could have thrown a better pass, but he (Cunningham) made a great catch."

Crowley's extra point gave the Mustangs a 17-16 lead.

The Mustangs were wary of quarterback Philip Rivers, one of the nation's most dangerous passers, who had struggled in the first half but heated up in the second half before finishing with 215 passing yards. With the clock winding down, Rivers tried to busy the Ponies with a touchdown pass, but Rutledge knocked the ball down at the goal line; had he been able to make the interception, he faced nothing but open space in front of him and conceivably could have run 100 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

N.C. State then went on 13-play 75-play scoring drive that ended with Herbert's second field goal of the game, this time from 24 yards. On the drive, Robinson picked up more than half or his rushing yardage after being stifled for most of the game.

"We switched to another defense," Aldridge said of the drive. "We went to more of a pass-oriented defense, because we thought they were going to try to go downfield more."

SMU got the ball back at its own 11 with just under four minutes left. But after Briggs got stuffed at the line of scrimmage, Luker dropped back to pass on second down. Under a heavy rush, Luker retreated toward his goal line, and with an N.C. State defender draped all over him, he desperately tried to fling the ball out of bounds. The ball instead flew out of his hands into the end zone, where junior defensive end George Anderson (of LaPorte, Texas) pounced on it for a back-breaking touchdown for the Wolfpack.

"I was just trying to get rid of the thing," Luker said. "They had ahold of me, and I was almost down. I tried to throw it away, but it was too late. I was just trying to throw it out of bounds."

The Ponies are off next weekend before facing Hawaii at Ford Stadium at 11 a.m. Oct. 6. Luker said the off-week does not come at a bad time.

"We're not going to dwell on this," he said. "I think this comes at a good time for us. We know we played well, and now we have two weeks to think about what we did right and work on some other things. We played well today, and we have two weeks to get even better before we play Hawaii."

[The Q]

Great story - a hell of a lot more than the DMN offers, but that's no surprise.

Couple things: Chris Cunningham went over 100 catches for his career. Don't know if he can catch Jason Wolf as the school's all-time leader (unless we re-vamp our offense completely), but he has a chance to go waaaaaaaayyy up on the receiving charts.

Nice work so far this year by Jacob Crowley. A lot of us were ready to toss him into Central Expressway last year for shanking more than he made. But I think if we're going to barbeque a guy when he falters, we also need to give him his due when he does well. Jacob is hitting the ball well, has good distance and is getting the ball up faster when it leaves his foot than he did last year, reducing the chance of it getting blocked. Keep it up.