It's probably a good thing that Saturday's game between North Carolina State and Florida State starts at noon.

It just might finish before dark.

In a battle between two schools fighting to stay out of the cellar in the ACC's Atlantic Division, about the only thing for certain is that the ball will be in the air often. Add TV timeouts and video reviews on disputed calls and a 4-hour game is nearly assured.

"If you look at it on paper, it looks like a shootout," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said this week. "I've never liked to approach a season where the only way you're going to win is outscoring people."

But that's how the Seminoles (3-4, 1-3) have won, and lost, this season. They won 54-28 at BYU and 30-27 at North Carolina, but lost a pair of wild affairs at home - 49-44 to Georgia Tech and 38-34 to Miami.

Quarterbacks Christian Ponder of Florida State and the Wolfpack's Russell Wilson have thrown 482 passes between them this season, producing big yardage, lots of first downs and plenty of points. It's the first downs and 160 incompletions between the two that stops the game clock.

The teams are averaging more than 60 points combined per game and 800 yards of offense. That in itself could make for a long afternoon.

"We've been giving up a lot of yards in the secondary, but you still want people to throw the ball," NC State cornerback DeAndre Morgan said.

Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien isn't so sure.

"Ponder's probably down there salivating about the opportunity to throw against us," said O'Brien, whose team is giving up just under 44 points a game in league play.

Ponder, who passed for 754 yards and eight touchdowns while completing almost 80 percent of his attempts the last two games, is likely to throw frequently against a Wolfpack secondary in shambles and has O'Brien adjusting his starters for the seventh time in eight games.

"We have to play better pass defense," O'Brien said. "The best thing we can do is try not to give up the big play."

Bowden knows all about those big plays. His team has given up far too many that doomed the Seminoles in all four of their losses.

"The key is going to be, 'Is our defense going to get better?'" Bowden said.

Florida State has struggled trying to run the ball all season and NC State (3-4, 0-3) has the league's best rush defense, but ranks eighth in the ACC defending the pass. Florida State is 11th against the pass and dead last in total defense.

Wilson, the ACC's all-conference quarterback as a redshirt freshman last year, worries Florida State's coaches. The two-sport star threw for 322 yards and four touchdowns when the Wolfpack handed 16th-ranked Pitt its only loss of the season last month.

"He reminds us of Charlie Ward," Bowden said of the former Heisman Trophy winner from Florida State. "He scares you to death. He'll keep us on needles and pins all day long."

Probably no one in the stadium will be more nervous about Wilson than Florida State's veteran defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, who has been frustrated all season trying to solve his team's penchant for allowing big plays.

"He's one of the most elusive people we've faced," said Andrews, who watched two other running quarterbacks - South Florida's B.J. Daniels and Georgia Tech's Josh Nesbitt - give the Seminoles fits.

Florida State and NC State have been evenly matched over the last dozen seasons with the Seminoles taking a 6-5 edge last year when Graham Gano's four field goals helped them to a 26-17 win in Raleigh, N.C.

Two of the most memorable shootouts played in Tallahassee were against NC State. The Seminoles defeated the Wolfpack 48-35 in 1997, despite five touchdown catches by the Torry Holt, and in 2003 Florida State got past a Philip Rivers-led team 50-44 in double overtime.