BY JOE JOHNSON

jjohnson@heraldsun.com; 419-6667

RALEIGH -- At least against Wake Forest, N.C. State pressured the quarterback.

There was none of that from the Wolfpack on Saturday, as Duke quarterback Thaddeus Lewis had a banner day with career highs in touchdown passes (5), completions (40) and passing yards (459).

N.C. State's secondary, already under suspicion, proved unable to stop the opposition for the second week in a row. Duke's offense dismantled the Wolfpack in much the same way Wake Forest did a week ago.

The only difference being that the Blue Devils protected Lewis a lot better than Wake Forest protected Riley Skinner. N.C. State had six sacks against the Demon Deacons but Duke allowed only two.

"A lot of double-teaming and slide protection," N.C. State defensive end Willie Young said. "They had a game plan that was on point and good enough to beat us."

Part of Duke's game plan was to throw. And throw. And throw. And N.C. State knew to expect it; the Wolfpack just couldn't stop it.

"We knew it was coming," Young said. "We did the best we could up front. We have no control of what goes on in the secondary or with the linebackers."

N.C. State defensive back Clem Johnson said some of the same mistakes that were made against Wake Forest in the second half cropped up again against the Blue Devils. But this time Duke had the entire game to exploit the Wolfpack's weaknesses.

"They understood that we'd been struggling a little bit in the secondary for the past few weeks," Johnson said. "They used three-step drops and quick passes, and they were making yards after catch.

"It's the same mistakes. It's a lot of little stuff. Little stuff here and there is turning out to be big mistakes."

Lewis, who came within 20 yards of the Duke single-game record, rarely was hurried, much less touched. In the first two Duke scoring drives, Lewis hit 14 of 16 passes. Most of those were of the short variety and the Blue Devil receivers made most of their yardage after catching the ball.

"They had a good game plan for us," O'Brien said. "They were max protecting. They weren't going to let us pressure the quarterback. Whether we were man or zone, we weren't even in the same area code with some of their [receivers] sometimes."

And when Duke's offense appeared to be ready to falter, Lewis stepped up with more accurate passes. The Blue Devils converted 13 of 19 third downs, including a slew of third-and-longs.

"Incredible," O'Brien said of Lewis' performance. "It was a great percentage. It was a lot of yards. He had some guys running wide open that we didn't do quite the job we should have.

"He certainly made us pay when we made mistakes."

N.C. State's generosity in the passing game was juxtaposed against the stinginess against the run again. The Blue Devils managed only 43 yards on 35 rushing attempts. But most of those rushes came in the second half after the Blue Devils got time on their side.

"Things have changed dramatically the way people have started playing against our defense," O'Brien said. "We're going to have to evaluate what we're seeing and how best we can defend it. People aren't even trying to run the ball on us anymore."