Only two ACC teams are ranked in the AP Top 25 coming into Week 8 and they will play each other at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina. The undefeated NC State Wolfpack (5-0) have their sights set on knocking off Clemson (6-0) and taking over first place in the ACC. The No. 3-ranked Tigers are coming off their biggest victory of the year two weeks ago at Wake Forest.
- North Carolina State is 6-2 ATS in its last eight games vs Clemson.
- The total has gone UNDER in Clemson’s last five games at home vs teams with winning records.
- Clemson is 5-1 SU and 3-3 ATS at home after a bye in the Dabo Swinney era.
NC State vs Clemson Game Center
Finley and Lawrence are the Top QBs in the ACC
Ryan Finley and Trevor Lawrence dominate the stats leaderboard among quarterbacks in the ACC. Finley is first in passing yards (1,621), completion percentage (69.5) and completions (130). Lawrence leads in QB rating (174.2) and is second in completion percentage (69.0). They are tied for most yards per attempt at 8.7. Lawrence has been sacked four times, Finley just twice.
NC State is sixth in the nation with 335.4 yards per game in the air but is 95th in rushing at 144.8 yards per game. Meanwhile, the Tigers are a little more balanced in their attack with 250.2 yards per game in the air and boasting the fourth-ranked rushing attack in the FBS at 280.8 yards per game.
Clemson running back Travis Etienne is sixth in the FBS with 761 rushing yards and is tied for fourth in rushing touchdowns with 11. He will be a big factor in Clemson’s success or failure on Saturday. He’s rushed for over 120 yards for four consecutive games but was held to just 44 yards vs Texas A&M in Week 2.
Defense Likely to Tell the Tale
The Clemson Tigers have the third-ranked defense in terms of yards allowed per game at 261. NC State is a little further down that list but still a respectable 35th at 341 yards allowed per game.
Clemson is sixth in points allowed per game at 14.5 while NC State is 16th with 16.8. A function of this could very well be from playing in the weak ACC, but nonetheless these teams have gotten the job done.
One area where there is a weakness for the Wolfpack is their pass defense, which ranks 94th in the FBS. If Trevor Lawrence can expose them for their average allowed yardage of 234 per game, or more, the Tigers could get close to covering the spread.
My Pick for this Game
This game opened with a 16-point spread favoring the Tigers. That’s a fairly big number when you’re talking about two undefeated teams meeting in a game to determine first place in the division.
When you consider that Clemson narrowly got past both Syracuse and Texas A&M, is 2-4 ATS in 2018 and has only covered twice in the last eight vs NC State, there’s definitely an argument to make for the Wolfpack covering 16 points.
The total for this game opened at 56 and has since moved to 56.5. With two defensively strong teams, I'm happy to fade the public here and bet the UNDER.
