.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
N.C. State needed a get-well-quick card after blowing a 17-point lead against Virginia Tech.
Daily practices supplied the get-well part. Boston College made it quick.
By the time the Wolfpack finished celebrating touchdowns scored all sorts of ways yesterday, the ACC's September surprise looked exquisitely fit and midseason happy. The 44-17 romp elevated State to 5-1 (2-1 ACC) and made a case for heavier voter turnout in the next AP poll.
Coach Tom O'Brien beat his former employer for the first time since leaving Chestnut Hill four years ago and atoned for a 52-20 pounding last year, but he classified personal retribution as meaningless.
The Wolfpack, reeling from its 41-30 fade route against Virginia Tech, rediscovered the aggressive opportunism that disrupted Cincinnati and Georgia Tech.
Freshman D.J. Green, a 6-4 safety, pounced on a blocked punt for the game's first touchdown. Shortly after halftime, cornerback C.J. Wilson hauled an interception 28 yards and became the first Wolfpacker with two such return touchdowns in the same season since 1966.
The offense got well when quarterback Russell Wilson, outplayed by Tyrod Taylor on the Carter-Finley Stadium grass the previous Saturday, sliced up the BC secondary. He rushed for 45 net yards and completed 38 of 51 attempts for 328 yards and three touchdowns, with two interceptions.
The defense got well by rattling quarterback Dave Shinskie and stuffing tailback Montel Harris, who had torched State for 264 rushing yards and five touchdowns last time. With the Eagles' discordant offensive line in shambles - a sign of bleak days ahead for a 2-3 team - Harris managed just 53 yards on 14 carries.
Wild thing
Of course, lots of defenses will feel an adrenalin rush whenever Shinskie replaces freshman Chase Rettig, who hurt an ankle against Notre Dame.
Shinskie, a 26-year-old sophomore, ventured into pro baseball after high school as Minnesota's fourth-round pick. Seven years later, the right-hander with the 24-30 record and 4.61 earned-run average in various minor leagues said goodbye to the Toronto organization. He picked up the football and earned 10 BC starts, but his spirals sometimes resemble wild pitches.
You might deduce that from stats (7 of 24 for 89 yards with two interceptions) or from the precise commentary of free safety Brandon Bishop, who picked off one pass hurled by the third-team sub and another by Shinskie.
"He was sailing a couple today, and we were just hoping to make plays," Bishop said.
They made the plays, which helped kicker Josh Czajkowski (pronounced chuh-KOW-ski) make the school record book. His five extra points set State's career record (102 and counting). He also kicked three field goals, the first a 40-yard ricochet off the right upright and the second a 44-yard boomer that jumped off his foot, split the middle and might have been good from 60.
Czajkowski, a 5-9 senior from Springfield, Va., didn't bother suppressing a joyous smile. He had missed two 31-yarders at Georgia Tech.
"We keep joking about how I found my 'swag' in the trash can on the practice field," he said. "I didn't do well against Georgia Tech.... The specialists, we always talk about stuff like that. They were joking about it because they notice when I don't have my swagger. They know before the game whether I have it or not. Last week wasn't as bad, but the Georgia Tech week, I didn't have it at all. They just knew. It was a joke. We've moved past it."
Mentally fresh
O'Brien said that State hadn't played as brilliantly as the numbers implied yet had moved into a better place.
"I think we're tired," O'Brien said. "We're heavy-legged. I think mentally, though, this team's learning how to gut it out, how to play through some things and make some things work even if it's not our fastest day."
That's the classic prescription for turning nothing special into a clean bill of football health.
