NC State sophomore quarterback CJ Bailey met with the media after the Wolfpack’s loss at Notre Dame.
NOTE: Click on the video above to watch the interview.
C.J., what was the kind of message you wanted for the match for us?
For the game just now, so we had a long season, we've got a lot of stuff to fix. We've got to play more comprehensively, play more offense and defense. So we just got to move on to the next game.
How big were the turnovers? I mean, you guys were there at seven, I think seven to ten at halftime. Just speak to that, if you don't mind.
Yeah, it was, he was in the game the whole time. He just had to score more. We had five ways to keep the ball in his arm. The turnovers that came back then, and the crucial moments, we had two fourth downs, one at the end, one before that, it was just me, I'm a competitor.
I'm not going to just take a sack and go on fourth down. I'm going to try to make a play. That was when those two came in front of me. I was trying to throw the ball around the third man, but it happened. Games, we've been changed throughout the game, but we've got to be better. In my position as well, we've got to be better. The turnovers wasn't a big factor. It wasn't the reason we lost. We just had to score more.
What was the biggest difference between that second quarter drive where you guys were able to score, rather than basically every other drive you guys really couldn't get past in the field?
Just execution. There was a lack of execution coming off that touchdown. We just had to put our balls up and let's go.
Looking forward, how are y'all going to balance? You have a tough schedule. You have to have a sense of urgency, but then at the same time, you also have a sense of belief. How do you sort of balance that, fix the problem, but also believe that you can do it?
There's never no lack of belief. We all believe in each other. It's just about getting to the end. We've got to execute.
Both sides apply. I applied defense today because I didn't play ball today. That was big for us. We pray for moves like that. We execute well in offense.
Is it frustrating when you see the defense kind of keep you guys in the game for as long as they do?
Yeah, it's very frustrating. We can't score any two minutes in the game. Things will be better.
Anything schematically from Notre Dame that surprised y'all?
We knew everything they were going to do. It's hard knowing that we knew what it was going to do. We knew how it was going to play us, and we did it. We just couldn't execute. We killed ourselves.
What's the mentality going into the bye week? Is it an opportunity to reset, or is it an opportunity to practice a little bit more?
Going into the bye week, we just want to build on what we have. If we have something good going on defense, we've got to get better on offense. Our mindset is not necessarily reset, but just build on it. Work on scoring more on offense. Work on everything on offense.
What were the conversations like on the sideline with the offense when you guys lost momentum and back-to-back punts in parallel?
We just kept having that mentality that we were going to score, even though we didn't score. There were more points than we needed to, but on the sideline, coming off a heavy job, we were like, yeah, let's go score. We believe in each other. We were telling each other that the whole game. We just didn’t execute.
