Make it Crane

RALEIGH, N.C. - At the end of Saturday's game, one thing was going through NC State head coach Tom O'Brien's mind:

Didn't Matt Ryan already graduate?

The guy who delivered a crushing, 38-31 defeat to O'Brien's Wolfpack wasn't No. 12 - it was No. 10, but you never would have known it.

Here's some food for thought: Last year, on Sept. 8, NC State visited Chestnut Hill. Matt Ryan finished that afternoon with 142 yards, one touchdown, one pick, and an average of 4.2 yards per throw.

At the end of the first quarter of this year's game, Eagles quarterback Chris Crane had 178 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, and 9.9 yards per throw. In just 15 minutes, the guy who got harassed, booed, taunted, and (last week) replaced had blown the beloved Matty Ice out of the water.

"I told [Crane], this is a step, not an arrival," Eagles offensive coordinator Steve Logan said after the game. "We have to keep it in perspective."

Whether it was an arrival or not, it was a huge leap for the fifth-year senior, who made his first career start on the road at an ACC school. He finished the day with 428 yards, two touchdown passes, two rushing touchdowns, and a lot less pressure on his shoulders to be great. On Saturday, he was better than that; he was, in the words of an awed NC State reporter, amazing.

"I was pretty explicit with [Crane] during the week: We were going to take the gloves off and put [the game] in his hands," Logan said. "He had to prove he could play aggressively smart and not aggressively reckless."

There have been bad days for Crane, who struggled considerably through the first four games of the season. He often tried to hit receivers who weren't there and he tried to force the ball into the hands of receivers who were there, only to see the pass carried away by a safety or a cornerback. He was forced to hand off to Josh Haden or Montel Harris because he just couldn't seem to connect with anybody in the air.

"He's a rookie," Logan emphasized. "Only as we build up snaps and reps will he begin to understand, 'Hey, this is a bad play.'"

He had the build, he had the arm, and he had the brain, but something just wasn't clicking.

Did he change something on Saturday? Not really. Crane just stopped trying to change anything.

"This week felt like practice," Crane said after the game. "I was never overwhelmed, I was in a rhythm, and I felt good every time I threw the ball. It's great when that translates into a win."

The clutch timing of Crane's performance isn't something that a box score can articulate. Crane was so good on Saturday because he put the ball exactly where it needed to go, when it needed to go there. Third down? No big deal. Just five minutes into the game, he faced a third-and-9 situation from his own 40; seconds later, he rocketed a 24-yard completion to Rich Gunnell. He did it again a minute later, on third-and-15, but this time, he connected with Justin Jarvis for a 41-yard touchdown pass. And then he did the same thing later, again and again and again.

"I told him, 'You're on a roll right now. You're feeling it,'" Gunnell said. "It's like in basketball: you make eight or nine 3s, and you're just flowing."

And he kept flowing - all the way up to the final three minutes of the game, the one time he truly needed to come up big. NC State had just mounted a massive comeback to tie the game at 31, the crowd was going crazy, and BC had the ball and no momentum. What did he do?

He connected with Anderson on second-and-10 for a huge 36-yard gain. He faked a handoff to Montel Harris, kept the ball, and got into the red zone. Then he rushed 13 yards for the final, game-winning score. A quarterback was born.

"[Crane] really showed up today," said head coach Jeff Jagodzinski. "We kind of found ourselves and what we are today."

What they are, finally, is a team with a leader.