RALEIGH – Seven days earlier, NC State was one play away from leaving Nashville with a victory.
Instead, the Wolfpack experienced about as painful a finish as football can provide.
NC State took possession at its own 2-yard line with 1:04 remaining against Vanderbilt and a 31-28 lead. But as the Wolfpack attempted to run out the clock, quarterback CJ Bailey was hit and lost the football in the end zone. Vanderbilt recovered for a touchdown as time expired, turning what appeared to be an NC State victory into a stunning 35-31 loss.
So when a 21-point lead disappeared Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium, when App State turned an interception, a touchdown, a surprise onside kick and another touchdown into a 31-31 tie, NC State found itself facing another late-game test.
This time, the Wolfpack finished.
NC State answered App State's furious comeback with a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, reclaimed the lead on Duke Scott's 16-yard touchdown run and scored the final 10 points of a wild 41-31 victory before 56,919 fans.
“Everything this week's been about finish for obvious reasons,” NC State coach Dave Doeren said. “We needed to finish, and we did.”
The victory moved NC State to 2-2 and handed App State its first loss of the season after a 3-0 start. It also extended the Wolfpack's perfect record against the Mountaineers to 7-0 in the first meeting between the programs since 2006.
For much of the first half, there was little indication NC State would need any late-game heroics.
The Wolfpack took the opening possession 75 yards in 10 plays, with Bailey scoring on a five-yard run.
The drive also produced the first of two plays App State might look back on and wonder what could have been.
Near the goal line, Colton Phares appeared to rip the football from Scott and raced 49 yards in the opposite direction. Instead of a turnover that would have given App State possession in NC State territory, officials ruled Scott's forward progress had been stopped before the ball came free. Two plays later, Bailey scored.
App State coach Dowell Loggains disagreed with the ruling but wasn't interested in blaming it for the loss.
“I know it's a judgment call,” Loggains said. “In real time, it felt like it was a fumble and felt like holding the ball on the 50-yard line, and the official saw it differently.”
NC State kept rolling.
Scott scored from nine yards out with five seconds remaining in the opening quarter before Bailey found Ashton Locklear for a 10-yard touchdown midway through the second.
It was 21-0.
App State finally broke through with a five-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Singleton completed passes of 27 and 30 yards to Darrin Fugitt before scoring himself on a three-yard keeper.
But NC State answered again.
Bailey found Keenan Jackson for a 17-yard touchdown with 39 seconds remaining, restoring a three-touchdown advantage at 28-7.
App State could easily have gone quietly to halftime.
Instead, Singleton completed four consecutive passes in the final 39 seconds, including a 30-yarder to Nate Branch, setting up James London's 48-yard field goal as time expired.
The three points made it 28-10. More importantly, they gave the Mountaineers something positive to carry into halftime.
“We needed something good to happen right there,” Loggains said. “It was really huge just coming in the locker room.”
App State refuses to go away
That momentum carried immediately into the second half.
On App State's first offensive snap, Singleton connected with Sam Pickett III for 54 yards to the NC State 21.
The Mountaineers converted a fourth-and-one later in the possession, and Jaquari Lewis scored from two yards out to make it 28-17.
NC State responded with a much different kind of drive.
The Wolfpack consumed 6:45 with a 13-play, 69-yard march. App State kept NC State out of the end zone, but Kanoah Vinesett kicked a 23-yard field goal to push the advantage back to 31-17.
That possession included another potential App State takeaway.
Alex Mitchell stripped the ball from an NC State receiver near the sideline and recovered it. After review, officials ruled the football was touching the receiver while he was out of bounds, allowing NC State to retain possession.
This time, Loggains said he believed officials got the call right.
He also made clear afterward that neither ruling was why App State lost.
“I think it was us,” Loggains said. “There were too many self-inflicted things.”
NC State's efficiency demonstrated his point.
The Wolfpack converted 11 of 17 third downs, possessed the football for 36:23 and went a perfect 7-for-7 on red-zone opportunities. NC State ran 79 offensive plays compared with App State's 61 and finished with 459 yards.
“You want to go on the road and play an ACC opponent and you want to beat them, you've got to play a lot better,” Loggains said. “You can't make errors.”
But if App State hadn't played cleanly enough to win through three quarters, the Mountaineers were about to give themselves a chance anyway.
107 seconds changes everything
NC State still led 31-17 early in the fourth when Keaton Braddock drilled Bailey as the quarterback attempted to throw.
The ball popped forward and landed in the arms of defensive tackle Aaron Clark.
This turnover counted.
App State took possession at the NC State 42, and five plays later Singleton found Pickett for an 18-yard touchdown.
The Mountaineers were within seven.
Then came the play that transformed the atmosphere inside Carter-Finley.
Because NC State was penalized for roughing the passer on the touchdown, App State kicked off from midfield. London tapped a dribbling onside kick straight ahead, catching the Wolfpack off guard.
Joe Reddish recovered.
App State had stolen another possession.
Loggains said the Mountaineers had seen an opportunity and were prepared to take advantage of it.
“We knew when we got in the situation — and plus where the field position was — it was kind of a no-risk play,” Loggains said. “You got to try to find a way to steal a possession.”
Four plays later, App State was in the end zone again.
Singleton hit Lewis for 18 yards to reach the red zone. Then, facing third-and-one from the 9, the Mountaineers got aggressive again.
Singleton faked the handoff.
True freshman tight end Gavin Barber slipped into the end zone uncovered.
Touchdown.
London's extra point tied the game at 31 with 9:41 remaining.
In 107 seconds, App State had scored 14 points.
A team that once trailed 21-0 had erased the entire deficit.
“I think our guys believe and I think they've got a lot of fight in them,” Loggains said. “They battled, they fought.”
But App State hadn't come to Raleigh looking for a moral victory.
“We came here to try to win the football game,” Loggains said, “and we didn't get that done.”
One more chance to finish
If anyone understood the weight of NC State's next possession, it was Bailey.
A week earlier, the football had come out of his hands on the final play at Vanderbilt.
Now NC State had watched another late lead disappear, and Bailey was heading back onto the field with the game tied.
He said there was no panic.
“Everybody relax,” Bailey recalled telling his teammates on the sideline. “Just calm down. We got this, bro. One play at a time.”
He gathered the offense together before it returned to the field.
“We've all been in positions before like this,” Bailey said. “We just had to keep a level head.”
Then NC State did exactly that.
The Wolfpack went 75 yards in nine plays and took 4:33 off the clock.
And when NC State needed someone to finish the drive, it turned to Scott.
The running back bounced outside and raced 16 yards into the end zone.
NC State 38, App State 31.
Scott finished with 148 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries, leading a Wolfpack rushing attack that accumulated 206 yards. App State managed only 62 yards on the ground.
Doeren called Scott a “workhorse.”
“He's got a second gear that can run away from people, but he's low to the ground,” Doeren said. “He's patient and explosive.”
Bailey was even more appreciative of having Scott behind him.
“It's very relieving,” Bailey said. “It takes a lot of stress off of me as well.”
He also directed credit toward an offensive line that allowed NC State to lean on its ground game when it mattered most.
“It starts with y'all,” Bailey said of the message to the linemen. “It don't start with me. It starts with y'all up front.”
App State still had 5:08 to answer.
The Mountaineers moved near midfield but soon faced third-and-two.
Singleton's pass fell incomplete.
On fourth-and-two, Jackson Vick broke up another attempt across the middle.
NC State took over at the App State 33 with 3:59 remaining.
The Wolfpack didn't immediately settle for a kick. They kept the football for more than two minutes before Vinesett connected from 35 yards, finally giving NC State some breathing room at 41-31.
App State made one final push and moved inside the Wolfpack 25. Needing two scores, the Mountaineers attempted a 42-yard field goal on fourth-and-one with 47 seconds left.
London missed.
This time, Bailey could finish the night in victory formation.
Two teams leave Raleigh with something to remember
The final numbers reflected two very different offensive approaches.
NC State established control on the ground, rushing 46 times for 206 yards while Bailey completed 24 of 33 passes for 253 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Ten Wolfpack players caught passes.
App State relied heavily on Singleton's arm. He completed 26 of 38 attempts for 317 yards and two touchdowns without throwing an interception. Pickett finished with 97 receiving yards, Branch had 87 and Fugitt added 63.
The Mountaineers leave Raleigh at 3-1 knowing they were capable of climbing out of a 21-point hole against an ACC opponent.
They also leave knowing the comeback wasn't enough.
“Our kids fought hard,” Loggains said. “I'm really proud of their resiliency, but you're not going to beat a team like that making self-inflicted things.”
App State now gets an open week before beginning Sun Belt play at home against Old Dominion on Oct. 10. NC State remains home to face Louisville next Saturday.
For the Wolfpack, though, Saturday night's significance went beyond getting back to .500.
Seven days earlier, NC State had walked off a field in Nashville after seeing a victory disappear on the final play.
Against App State, another comfortable lead vanished.
The Mountaineers kept coming. They forced the turnover. They recovered the onside kick. They erased 21 points and silenced much of a sold-out Carter-Finley Stadium.
NC State had every reason to remember what happened a week earlier.
Instead, Bailey gathered his teammates.
The offensive line went to work.
Scott carried the Wolfpack back into the end zone.
The defense got the stop.
And after a week spent talking about how to finish a football game, NC State finally got the opportunity to show it could.
This time, the Wolfpack finished.
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