By Will Vandervort.

NC State enters Saturday’s game in Death Valley as a two-touchdown underdog, but don’t think the Wolfpack’s head coach believes that.

After watching his team go toe-to-toe with the nation’s No. 1 team in the country in Florida State, including a 17-point lead at one point, Dave Doeren believes his team can beat anyone in the country, including the Tigers.

“I believe we can beat anybody, and that game showed that,” he said. “There were so many plays — even with the 41 points, our offensive guys will tell you, we turned it over twice, and one of them was in the red zone going in to score. We know that we can score on anybody.”

But can the Wolfpack (4-1, 0-1 ACC) stop Clemson enough for it to matter. They allowed the Seminoles to gain 520 yards last week and outscore them 49-17 in the last 45 minutes of the game.

This week they will be playing a Clemson team that scored 50 points in its win over North Carolina and had 528 total yards.

Like NC State, the Tigers (2-2, 1-1) are also playing with a tremendous amount of confidence. Deshaun Watson came on at Florida State two weeks ago and nearly pulled off the upset on the road and then in his first career start, he lit up the Tar Heels for 435 yards and a school-record six touchdowns.

He threw touchdown passes to Mike Williams (2), Germone Hopper (2), Artavis Scott and tight end Jordan Leggett.

“Right now he’s throwing the ball really well, one interception and ten touchdowns, I believe,” Doeren said. “His receivers are strong. They’ll go up and get the football. They play with confidence. We’re going to have to have tight coverage. We’re going to have to be able to go up and play jump balls, and our pass rush lanes and our pressures are going to have to be disciplined.”

Clemson’s defense will have to be disciplined, too. Though the Tigers have looked good at times on defense, they have also had a few breakdowns here and there as well. North Carolina had 342 yards and scored 28 points in the second half last week after being held to 136 yards in the first half.

Defensive coordinator Brent Venables said most of those yards came down to three plays – a busted coverage on short-yardage and two screens.

“One of those plays, on the 75-yarder, you just tip your hat because it was a good call at the right time and you move on,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “But the others were plays where we had breakdowns and just weren’t disciplined.”

They will have to do their jobs against a Wolfpack offense that is averaging 40.2 points and 505.2 yards per game. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett threw for 359 yards and three touchdowns. He is second in the ACC in total (304) and passing yards per game (278.2).

“We have that confidence,” Doeren said. “I think now we’ve have to deal with the crowd noise that we’re going to get at Clemson, but I think it was a confidence builder (last week). Like I told the guys after the game, we’re way better than we were, but we’re not as good as we can be.

“So we’ve got to keep fighting and scratching to move and close the gap that existed between us and where we were last year.”