 Eagles quarterback Chris Crane lunges for the end zone against NC State on Saturday. The fifth-year senior finished with five touchdowns - two passing and three rushing - and 428 yards.
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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.'"
2008 Woodie Awards
