NC State Football: 3 takeaways from Week 7 victory over Pittsburgh

After going back and forth for much of the afternoon, NC State football pulled out a victory to remain undefeated in the ACC. Here are three takeaways from the game.

This was a game of two very different halves.

After failing to get much going on the offensive side of the ball in the first half of the game, with only 69 passing yards on seven completions in the first half, NC State went into halftime tied with the Panthers at 14 apiece.

And even those 14 points were fairly deceptive.

If it wasn’t for Nyheim Hines’ two big runs, an 83-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and a 92-yard punt return for a touchdown at the end of the next subsequent drive, the score could have been much more lopsided and the Wolfpack could have been on serious upset alert.

But in the second half of Pitt’s Homecoming game, NC State corrected course and finished strong.

The Wolfpack scored 21 unanswered points in the second half of the game and put the Panthers away in impressive fashion.

Even without a strong performance by junior quarterback Ryan Finley, fifth-year head coach Dave Doeren’s squad found a way to win, something playoff-caliber teams need to find a way to do.

And after Clemson lost a stunner to the Wolfpack’s Week 5 opponents the Syracuse Orange, NC State has proven that they have serious playoff potential.

With the team now going into their Week 8 bye, NC State will need to tighten any loose ends as they prepare for a grueling string of games down the stretch including a Week 9 road trip to Notre Dame and a Week 10 winner-take-all bout against the aforementioned Clemson for the soul of the ACC Atlantic.

Here are three takeaways from NC State’s commanding victory over the Pitt Panthers.