NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren: "It Just Got Away From Us"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after the Wolfpack's home loss to Notre Dame.

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Opening Statement...
FIrst of all you got to give Notre Dame credit. Every time we got in that game and made it a game within one possession, they responded, and that's what good teams do, and we had our opportunities throughout that football game.

There were times where we did some really good things, and too many times where we self-inflicted things. We uncharacteristically gave up big plays on defense at inopportune critical moments of the game that swung momentum their way.

Weird day obviously with the break after the first quarter and then a second quarter and then a halftime and all those things. A six-hour, five-hour game coming out of that first quarter with a long break, obviously they bust a long run, and we got back in the game.

We score and we stop them, and we're going to come out of the half with the football and they do a good job offensively. He scrambles around and makes a play. 

We got some guys playing really bad technique at times, poor eyes at times, we got lots to fix. I think it's going to be great film to learn from. Games like this are not lost by any one person or player or coach, they're lost by teams and they're won by teams. This will be a team loss that we have to look at what we can do better and key moments and make layups and gimme plays. I said, that was a critical part of this gameplan and had some opportunities to extend drives on just basic things, throw and catch, and we're not getting that done to the ability level that we have.

There was good moments in the game. It was good to see Bradley Rozner make some plays today. That was growth for him. It was good to see Dacari Collins makes plays at the end of the game. It's good to see Juice Vereen make some plays. Those are three things that didn't happen a week ago so that's growth.

We're gonna go into this film, and really breaking it down and studying it and seeing where we can improve. Our team will do a great job of that. We've always been a group that responds. I look forward to that challenge and opportunity with these guys next week.

Thoughts on Brennan Armstrong’s play...
It's hard when you look at a stat line to really understand how a guy played and obviously how guys play with your quarterback matters too.

Sometimes the players that had the ball, hit him in the hands that ricochet up and end up being interceptions and they would tell you that that's on them. Then there's another play where he was a little late on an in-breaking route, and their DB stepped in front and made a nice play.

You're down two possessions or two scores or three scores you're pressing a little bit, and trust me our gameplan wasn't to be in that situation at that time. If you study takeaways on defense most of them happen in two minute situations third and long's.

I look forward to studying the tape. Clearly there's a lot of things that Brennan will tell you and his coaches will tell you he can do better, and he will but this is a group thing we've got to clean up. I know Coach Anae and I will look hard at what we're doing well and what we're not and grow from there. 

The mental aspect from the hour-long break...
It's hard because it's not like they said, “hey, we'll see you in 90 minutes.” It was every 30 minutes we got a new update. We brought them inside and told them to take off their wet gear and put on dry stuff.  Strength coaches, nutritionists, trainers, everyone's walking around. Our coaches, we met and then we got with our guys, and then we're patient and then relaying it. There's a pretty fluid situation for the team.

It really wasn't like a halftime or someone would have said, “you got 60 minutes,” you could plan that out pretty accordingly. I thought we managed it as good as we could have obviously doesn't look that way. Coming out with the way they busted out the door there on that run. That was a disappointing start, obviously, and uncharacteristic for us to give up a run like that.

More on Juice Vereen’s play and playing time moving forward... 
Yeah, that's the one thing with coach’s offense, is, you're going to earn your reps. As guys perform and earn that they're going to gain repetitions in the game. It's really about building trust with the play caller, as a player that's out there. If you're a guy that's not making plays and someone else is, then they're going to earn that opportunity.

That's the competitive piece of this game. That's the one area that Robert does a nice job of, is getting the guys in the game that are making the plays and finding ways to get him the ball.

What areas did this team make jumps from week one to week two?
As you break this game down, it was an awkward game, with the delays and everything that happened, but we had too many penalties that were self-inflicted for one, too many drops, and then we turn the football over and we lost the turnover margin. Those are areas we did not do well. We gave up too many explosive plays, those are areas we did not do well.

 I hit on some of the things we did do well, and you know, our kids don't quit.  Tere was a lot of fight in them in those guys that made plays. It was good to see Noah Potter get a takeaway and Red Hibbler forced another fumble early in the game. We weer breaking on the football and knocking guys back. 

There were good things in there, and we were playing toe to toe with the number 10 team in the country for a long period of time. It just got away from us toward the end.

You mentioned Notre Dame coming back after your scores, what could you attribute it to?
I think you got to give them credit first.

They came out and executed those drives after we did. They responded, we did the same thing a week ago. Anytime the previous team we played made something happen, the other side came in and quickly shut it down and gave the momentum back and they were able to do that on us.

Obviously there we things we had to do with that, whether it was we get a takeaway on defense... We got the ball right there and then we get a penalty, a false start on offense, which leads to first and 15.

Self-inflicted things like that. That's, on us. You have to give Notre Dame credit for their response as a team when they went ahead.

With this performance, how do you keep the guys mentally engaged for next week?
We’ll be very, very focused on improvement as a football team. I don't think it really matters who we play. I know what you're talking about with and who our next opponent is, but there's going to be so much on this film that we're not going to like it.

It's not going to be hard to get out there and focus on the improvement that needs to take place.  There's a lot of football in front of this team, and they all understand the work that needs to be put in, in order to have the kind of season we want.