Just how menacing of a downfall awaits NC State Football?

The NC State Football has its sole bye this Saturday, and when considering its upcoming stretch, that is quite fortuitous.

NC State football currently sits at 23rd in the AP Top 25 rankings, donning an impressive 5-2 record. However, the ACC power has several more problems than meets the eye.

Despite what the ranking and record may indicate, the Wolfpack are looking rather troubled today, having lost two of its last three games (with even the win over FSU leaving little to brag about). It is also dealing with a concerning quarterback situation, as star Devin Leary is out for the season with a torn pectoral muscle.

That kind of information would leave a bad taste in the mouths of fans regardless of who was left on their team’s schedule, but in NC State’s case, it’s hard to find any silver lining beyond the decent chance of making a bowl.

Three teams stand out when discussing the Wolfpack’s largest obstacles between now and the postseason: Wake Forest, Louisville, and North Carolina. All three of those football programs have one thing in common, and that is their dangerous quarterback play.

Wake’s Sam Hartman is continuing to cement his legacy as one of the ACC’s greatest QBs ever, Louisville’s Malik Cunningham is a master of exploiting a defense’s weaknesses with his dual-threat capabilities, and UNC’s Drake Maye has already made a name for himself as one of America’s most promising individual talents.

The idea of facing that devilish trio never gives one comfort, but especially when considering the Wolfpack’s aforementioned state, things are taken to a whole new level this time around. In fact, next to nothing about the circumstances surrounding these three matchups today shows NC State football winning any of them.

For context, the Pack has to host both Wake Forest and Boston College before visiting Louisville and North Carolina throughout the month of November. So, not only do you have those three problematic names on your schedule, but you face them in an uninterrupted stretch with the second and third ones both being on the road. Ouch.

With the combination of dormant offense and limited defense that NC State unleashed against Syracuse being our most recent reference for defining the team’s overall formidability, it could be argued that losing all three of those games would hardly be a shock. Even if the Wolfpack won their two other remaining matchups, that would still result in an unimpressive 7-5 record for the regular season.

Now if such a chain of events were to unfold as described, a bowl victory would still leave the Pack with eight total wins, which is far from terrible. However, if many saw you as a favorite to win your conference heading into a season, finishing with an eight in your win column is beyond disappointing.

Of course, this is all hypothetical; NC State could contain Cunningham and the Cardinals, stun one of its in-state rivals, and win a bigger bowl en route to a 10-3 record (which would officially trump last season’s). But again, when looking at the Wolfpack today, which outcome seems more likely?