Dave Doeren: "It Was a Hard-Fought Defensive Battle"
NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media following the Wolfpack's 29-19 loss to Duke Saturday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.
Opening Statement
Congratulations to Duke on the win. It was a hard-fought defensive game from both teams. When you look at the statistics, they were 0-for-9 on third down, and the game came down to us kicking field goals and them scoring more touchdowns than us. We gave them a short field with a turnover in [our] red zone which hurt. Defensively, we played good enough in that game for us to win. We just didn’t connect offensively enough. I heard C.J. [Bailey] talking; he threw some good balls that were dropped. He threw behind a couple of guys. He threw high to a couple of guys. We’ve got to make some play calls in certain situations to help. Collectively, it’s not good enough. It’s a “we, us, and ours” business. There isn’t any blame other than everybody, and it starts with me. It’s disappointing, more than anything, for our seniors. I take it personally to send them out with a win. I thought we prepared well, but we just didn’t get it done. Duke has a good defense. Statistically, they’ve been really good all year, and they showed that today. They made it hard on us offensively. We just weren’t able to capitalize. We got the ball across the 20, and every time we got down there, we didn’t get touchdowns but once.
On the struggles in the red zone….
It was different on different drives. They zero-blitzed us on one drive three straight times, and we didn’t manage it. We didn’t do a good job. We had a good play call on one, and our receiver slipped; Dacari [Collins] came out one-on-one on a guy, and we thought we’d win there, but we slipped. Other than that, they covered us. They rushed us. They stopped the run. We didn’t get it done. We got outplayed in that area of the field, and there’s nothing magic about it. It’s tight windows, and they made more plays down there than us. We didn’t finish drives in that area of the field. We were able to get down there quite a bit, but we’ve got to finish. It’s not about being 100 percent scoring if they’re all field goals. We’ve got to get some touchdowns. It’s execution more than anything. It’s not one thing. There are multiple things that happened.
On the receivers’ drops…
We talk about being efficient. On first down, you get four yards or more. Whatever the distance is on second down, you get half of it and get yourself in a manageable third down. Then, you operate on third down over 60 percent. When you hit a guy wide open on a slant or a square-in on first down where it’d be second-and-three and it’s dropped, it’s now second-and-10. Those plays are impactful. It’s no different than when you have a 30-yard run but there’s a holding penalty. Those are impactful plays that hurt your offense. I thought we’d gotten past that kind of stuff. We’d caught the ball well all year. This hadn’t been an issue. We’ve had really good stretch-and-catch plays by receivers, tight ends, and backs. It’s frustrating that it happened tonight because that hasn’t been something we’ve done this year. I thought our guys, throughout the season, have really caught the ball well, but that wasn’t the case tonight.
On recalibrating the team’s expectations…
I said this in the locker room; we have two games left. We have a short bye because we play on Thursday the following week. We go down to Georgia Tech, then we come home to play a rival. We have two opportunities to finish, and that’s what they’re going to remember: how they finish. We need to do a great job, one [game] at a time, and obviously it starts with the corrections from this game, getting the guys back in the right frame of mind and getting back to work.
On fixing the red zone mishaps…
If I had the answer right now, I’d give it to you, but I need to look at it. I thought we had corrected that coming out of the last bye. We were much better, but today we were really bad down there. I’m going to get in the film room with the staff, look at it, and see what’s happening, how we’re getting attacked, and what the shortcomings are. It’s been a lot better than it was tonight. It’s not as bad as it could get because there were other games this year where we turned the ball over down there multiple times. We got points, but you need touchdowns to win a game like that.
On what teams have done to limit K.C. Concepcion…
It’s been double-teams. It’s been re-routes with a man over the top. At times tonight, it wasn’t; they put their best DB on him. Sometimes, he covered him really well. Sometimes, he didn’t. At times, we threw the football to him; he had two drops. Most teams have leaned a safety his way which is smart. Because of that, you’ve seen us be able to get the ball to other guys. Justin Joly has benefited from that. Some of the outside receivers have benefited from that. If you watch their game plan, they took their corner that was playing on the outside in the first half and put him on [Concepcion] the entire second half when they were playing man-to-man with a safety over the top. It’s hard when that’ s going to happen. It’s really an outside-inside look. Then in zone defense, you have an underneath player with a zone player over the top. There’s a lot more attention on him. Last year coming out of the bye, it became the show, and people weren’t really in tune. They had the whole offseason to listen to how good a player he is, and obviously they’re paying attention. They’re doing a good job. They’re defending him well. That’s why we’ve had to spread the ball around. It’s about players making plays. That’s how you win games. Obviously, we didn’t make enough of them.
On the other factors, outside of red zone efficiency, that stand out…
Drops and penalties. We had eight penalties, and I don’t have the number [of drops] here. Drops and penalties would be the other two things.