NC State upsets Louisville at home, putting the Wolfpack right into the ACC Atlantic race

College football’s Thursday night game was a dang good one. The No. 24 North Carolina State Wolfpack upset the No. 17 Louisville Cardinals, 39-25, in a back-and-forth game all night from Raleigh, N.C.

The fourth quarter had a lot of different momentum swings. NC State entered with an 11-point lead, but Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson scored a four-yard touchdown to make it a 24-19 game. NC State countered with a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to seemingly put it away, but Jackson led a seven-play, 80-yard scoring drive to pull within seven.

Jackson got the ball back after his defense forced NC State to punt, but that’s when disaster struck — on second down, Jackson threw a pick-six to give the Wolfpack a two-touchdown lead.

On Louisville’s next drive, the Cardinals were able to get into the red zone, but the Wolfpack defense held strong and kept Jackson out of the end zone to seal the victory.

Jackson finished with 354 yards and a touchdown, along with two rushing touchdowns. Make no mistake — he was able to pull his team within striking distance in the second half, but the pick-six turned out to be the dagger that put the Cardinals away.

On the other side, Wolfpack quarterback Ryan Finley had a fantastic performance, throwing for 367 yards and a touchdown. Nyheim Hines, who had two touchdowns for NC State, was fun to watch too.

Early in the second half, NC State was able to easily get into the red zone but unable to punch the ball in the end zone, which allowed Louisville to get back in the game. In the third quarter, the Wolfpack missed a 35-yard field goal, which allowed the Cardinals to counter with a field goal to pull within four.

But the Wolfpack found some consistency scoring in the red zone eventually, with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including a successful 2-point conversion.

In the first half, NC State struck first with a huge 48-yard touchdown pass from Finley to receiver Kelvin Harmon. Jackson was able to get his team on the board with a touchdown pass of his own midway through the 1st quarter, but NC State scored a field goal, then took a 10-point lead after a touchdown was set up by another bomb from Finley:

With less than 30 seconds before halftime, Louisville was able to get into field goal range after the Wolfpack touchdown and made a 28-yard field goal to cut the lead to seven.

There’s no question that this victory is a statement win for Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren, who is in in this fifth season as NC State’s head coach, and tonight without a doubt sets up his program to make a huge leap into national prominence. Not to mention, NC State now has a real shot to win the ACC Atlantic.

For Louisville and Jackson, this season obviously isn’t how it was expected to go, but there are still games against Wake Forest and Florida State remaining. At the very least, we’ll certainly get some more highlight reel plays from Jackson.