East Carolina found itself in a scramble situation as it prepared to attempt a 41-yard field goal in the game’s final seconds on Saturday afternoon.

But then, with 9 seconds remaining, NC State coach Dave Doeren decided to call a timeout. The decision seemingly bailed out an Owls team that was frantically attempting to line up for the game-winning field goal.

Of course, it didn’t end up mattering — East Carolina missed the field goal after NC State’s timeout and the Wolfpack escaped Greenville with a win.

But why did Doeren call timeout in the first place, allowing the Pirates special teams unit to get settled?

“We had some injuries,” Doeren explained in his postgame press conference, via On3. “We didn’t have enough people. We had two guys go down on that play.

“And so I wanted to get the right people on and wanted to have 11 people in the game, obviously, and we were going run a max block type thing. One of the guys that would’ve been in was out with an injury so we had to find his back up.”

NC State wasn’t able to block the kick, but the attempt sailed wide right and pushed the Wolfpack to 1-0 on the season anyways.

Here’s a clip of the try:

Overall, it was an uncharacteristic performance from quarterback Devin Leary and NC State’s offense. The Wolfpack will try to get back on track next week vs. Charleston Southern.