Posted by ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich

It wasn’t the debut many ACC fans -- and most within NC State’s program -- were expecting last Thursday night. It was an unusually quiet night for the ACC’s Rookie of the Year, quarterback Russell Wilson, but he was only one missing piece to NC State’s dull offensive performance in the Pack’s 7-3 loss to South Carolina.

NC State has a chance to regroup this weekend when it faces Murray State and next weekend when it plays Gardner Webb, but Pittsburgh is looming before the month ends. The good news is that there’s still plenty of time to work out the kinks in the offense before traveling to Wake Forest on Oct. 3 in what will be NC State’s first conference game.

An offensive boost over the next few weeks would help NC State start the season strong instead of falling behind early as it has done in the past two seasons under coach Tom O’Brien. And while South Carolina’s defense was better than advertised, the Pack also showed it's got room for improvement.

O’Brien will be looking for his offensive line to control the line of scrimmage the next few weeks, but he’s not as concerned about Wilson as some Wolfpack fans might have been on Thursday night.

“I’m not worried about Russell, he competes,” O’Brien said. “He always has competed. Certainly things were flying fast out there the other night. When you come right down to it, a lot of games are decided in the last four minutes of a game. And we might be in 10 of them this year, the way that one was. We spend a lot of time practicing the last four minutes of a game -- ahead, behind, tied, whatever.

“We were in a situation when he had to make throws, he made three pretty good throws. Then he ended up getting sacked on a coverage sack. We didn’t have anybody open. We had enough time to throw that ball. That wasn’t a line problem.”

Still, the offensive line gave up six sacks. As the game progressed, NC State fared better at blocking the run and controlling the ball, but O’Brien said the lack of protection for Wilson was “glaring.” There are no changes in the depth chart there this week, but O’Brien said the staff was “very unhappy with our performance up front.” Jake Vermiglio’s status (calf) will be updated on Thursday, but the loss of him early in that game shook up the cohesion on the line.

It also didn’t help Wilson’s stat line that the receivers dropped five balls. Wilson hasn’t lost any confidence in them.

"They are all my good friends," he said. "I'm just trying to keep them positive and let them know I am going to keep coming to them. I don't care if they have dropped six balls already, I am going to keep throwing to them. I won't hesitate to throw the ball to them, as long as they are in my reads."

"I have all the confidence in the world in the offensive line, the tight ends, the receivers and the running backs," Wilson said. "I think we will be just fine.”