RALEIGH, N.C. -- In a game that lived up to its hype as an aerial shootout featuring two of the nation's best quarterbacks, it was the ground game of NC State that proved decisive in the end. Wolfpack tailback T.A. McClendon, who was listed as doubtful to play earlier this week because of a knee injury, rumbled 38 yards for the game-winning touchdown with just 23 seconds left.
The run, a play in which McLendon took a shotgun draw and broke the tackle of Virginia safety Jay Dorsey near the line of scrimmage, gave NC State (7-3, 4-2 ACC) a 44-37 edge and Wolfpack safety Victor Stephens returned a Matt Schaub interception for a touchdown with eight seconds left to make the final score 51-37.
"I thought both teams had about the same game for 58 minutes," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "Unfortunately, in the last two minutes, State made more plays than we made."
McLendon, who has played in only five of nine games this year because of assorted injuries, finished with 216 total yards (112 rushing) despite undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery Oct. 22. NC State coach Chuck Amato called him "very, very, very doubtful" last Wednesday.
"Isn't it a shame that T.A. hasn't been able to play as much as we would have liked this season?" Amato said. "It's incredible what he has gone through the past two weeks, and then to come in tonight and play the way he did. He did really well. He's a force just being in the backfield. He's a big leaguer."
The game was a rollercoaster from the start, as the teams put up 44 points in the first 20 minutes and ended up combining for 996 yards of offense.
The game was dominated by the combined 805 yards passing compiled by Schaub and NC State's Philip Rivers. Schaub finished 41-of-55 for a school-record 393 yards and four touchdowns. Rivers was 29-for-34 for 410 yards and four touchdowns as well.
"Neither of us really deserved to lose that game," Schaub said. "It was a great job by both offenses. It was hard-fought right down to the wire."
State got on the board first when a shotgun snap went over Scahub's head at the nine-yard line, and N.C. State safety Garland Heath dove on the ball in the end zone.
Virginia (5-4, 3-3) bounced back, with the first of sophomore tailback Wali Lundy's three touchdown receptions capping a nine-play, 80-yard march.
"Emotionally, our team quickly recovered" Groh said of the botched snap. "Unfortunately, with that recovery, they didn't provide us with an eraser. We couldn't go up to the scoreboard and take the seven points off."
With just under 10 minutes left in the second quarter, Virginia took a 24-20 lead on a 17-yard touchdown reception by Ryan Sawyer. The Cavaliers forced fumbles on the next two State possessions, but the State defense held and Rivers, who completed his first 17 passes, guided the team on a two-minute drill to cut the halftime deficit to one.
The teams went to the fourth quarter tied at 30, after Virginia kicker Connor Hughes sandwiched two second-half field goals around a 75-yard touchdown pass by Rivers to T.J. Williams.
N.C. State went ahead 37-30, but Schaub calmly marched Virginia back, hitting Lundy on a fourth-and-two from the 'Pack seven. Schaub rolled left and threw back across the field to his wide-open tailback.
Virginia's defense held, but the offense went three-and-out and then McLendon, whom Virginia freshman linebacker Ahmad Brooks described as a "bulldozer," raced 38 yards.
The game featured a number of outstanding individual performances for the Cavaliers, as junior tailback Alvin Pearman caught 13 balls for 87 yards, giving him 37 catches in his last three games. Sophomore receiver Marques Hagans set a career-high with seven catches for 67 yards, and Schaub tied his own school record for completions. On the Wolfpack side, Rivers continued to post eye-opening statistics. His only incomplete pass of the first half came on his last attempt, when he had to throw the ball away with two seconds left to ensure that there was time for a field goal. He picked apart a Virginia defense against which he had never thrown a touchdown pass and racked up over 400 yards passing for the third time this season.
"It certainly has to be one of the best games in the history of this conference," Groh said. "There were an awful lot of equal performances."
Virginia has this weekend off and will return to action Nov. 13 at Maryland.
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