This Game Wasn't About Richmond. It Was About NC State.

Let's be honest.

NC State was supposed to win this game.

Richmond came into Carter-Finley undefeated, ranked in the FCS, and playing with nothing to lose. But NC State was the more talented football team, the ACC team, the team that had spent the last two weeks hearing about what happened at Virginia.

So no, beating Richmond wasn't the goal.

Getting better was.

And after watching what happened tonight, I think NC State gave us a much better answer than we got two weeks ago.

The biggest concern coming out of Virginia wasn't simply the 34-8 loss.

It was how NC State lost.

The Wolfpack was beaten at the line of scrimmage. The offense couldn't establish the run. C.J. Bailey never found a rhythm. NC State turned the ball over twice and couldn't consistently stay on the field.

Dave Doeren said it himself during the week: NC State needed to be more aggressive, establish the run and stop the run.

Tonight?

That's exactly what we saw.

NC State scored 73 points.

The Wolfpack ran the football.

The offense found rhythm.

The defense was flying around.

And most importantly, there was never really a point where Richmond felt like it belonged in the game.

That's the kind of response I wanted to see.

I don't think you can talk about this game without talking about C.J. Bailey.

After the Virginia game, there were legitimate questions.

He had just thrown for 84 yards, one interception and struggled to get comfortable.

Tonight looked completely different.

Bailey was able to operate the offense instead of having to constantly create something out of nothing.

And that's important.

Because I don't think NC State needs C.J. Bailey to throw for 400 yards every Saturday.

I think this team needs to make life easier for him.

Run the football.

Protect him.

Create manageable downs.

Get the ball to your playmakers.

Then let Bailey do what he does best.

Tonight, NC State gave him that opportunity.

This is probably the biggest thing I'm taking away from tonight.

Against Virginia, NC State rushed for just 76 yards while the Cavaliers ran for 258.

That can't happen if this team is going to be what people expected it to be coming into the season.

Tonight was a completely different story.

NC State controlled the line of scrimmage.

And when you control the line of scrimmage, everything else starts to look different.

The quarterback has more time.

The running backs have lanes.

The defense isn't constantly defending short fields.

You get ahead of the sticks.

You control the clock.

You play with confidence.

That's football.

And tonight, NC State looked like a team that understood that.

No.

I'm not going there.

And I don't think NC State should either.

Virginia exposed some real issues.

You don't erase a 34-8 loss because you beat an FCS opponent 73-0.

But here's what tonight does change for me:

I'm less convinced that Virginia was the identity of this team.

That's important.

Because there is a difference between saying:

"Virginia was a fluke."

and

"Virginia was a really bad performance that this team responded from."

I'm much more comfortable with the second one.

Virginia happened.

NC State got embarrassed.

They had almost two weeks to sit with it.

And tonight, they came out and played with the kind of physicality and urgency we expected to see from the beginning.

That matters.

And this is where Vanderbilt becomes so important.

Because Richmond was the response.

Vanderbilt is the test.

That's the game I'm interested in now.

Can NC State run the football against an FBS defense?

Can the offensive line continue to play like this?

Can Bailey stay in rhythm when the defense across from him is bigger, faster and more capable of creating pressure?

Can the defense continue to stop the run?

Can NC State get off the field on third down?

And can this team maintain this level of physicality when it isn't playing a team it should beat by 30-plus points?

Those are the questions.

I think we learned that NC State is capable of responding.

That's probably the most important thing.

The Wolfpack didn't come out tentative.

They didn't spend the night trying to survive.

They didn't play down to the moment.

They came out and took control.

And for a team that had just been questioned after one of its worst performances in recent memory, that's exactly what it needed to do.

But here's my challenge to NC State:

Don't let this be the game that makes you feel better. Let this be the game that makes you better.

Because there's a difference.

A 73-0 win feels good.

It should.

The players deserve to enjoy it.

The fans deserve to enjoy it.

But the standard has to change now.

The goal isn't to prove you can beat Richmond.

We already knew you could.

The goal is to prove that the team we saw tonight is the team we're going to see when the games get harder.

That's what Vanderbilt will tell us.

And honestly, I'm more interested in that answer than I was before tonight.

Because two weeks ago, I left Virginia wondering:

What exactly is NC State?

Tonight, I have a better answer.

I think this team is better than what we saw in Charlottesville.

But I still don't know how much better.

And that's why next week matters.

Richmond was the response.

Vanderbilt is the test.