NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media following the Wolfpack's 34-8 road loss to Virginia Saturday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Doeren’s press conference.
Opening Statement
For starters, Virginia, [we’re giving] credit where credit is due, and they played a good game, good game plan. They took care of the football. They were more physical in the run game. Obviously, the stats show that. The scoreboard shows that, and in any game, winning the line of scrimmage and winning the turnover margin are two things that are paramount. We did not get that done today, and that's on me. I told the team in there. As a head coach, I always take it personal how we play, and that was personal that we weren't ready. For whatever reason, that's our job to figure out this week that we have coming up and the next week leading into the Richmond game. But we just weren't on in many areas, and [Beau Pribula] ran the ball well. We didn't do a good job hemming him up at times. He made some plays, and you've got to give that kid credit. He played a good game.
On struggling in the trenches on both sides of the ball…
Well, we knew their offensive line was good. We knew that was going to be a battle, and you know the equalizer was the QB run game. I thought, for the most part, their tailbacks didn't hurt us in the game with the exception of the long pass that [Xavier Brown] caught. But the run game was more about the QB, and for us, we gave up a big pass play off a play action. We covered that in practice 100 times, and so it's just doing your job when your job needs to be done and doing it with discipline. As far as the turnovers, those were costly. They did a good job getting their hands up. They batted four or five passes at the line of scrimmage, and we didn't get any of those on our side, and then obviously the one fumble [cost us]. Those plays are costly in a game like that.
On C.J. Bailey’s performance...
He was inaccurate at times. His guys didn't get open for him at times. There was a blend of it. He got pressured at times, and it takes 11 guys to have a good football play. It’s always going to be the head coach and the quarterback to get the most after a bad game, and I understand why, but it's not all on him. There are some things that he's got to do better, and he'll know that. He'll watch the film. The thing you love about C.J. is he does that. He takes ownership on his part, but we've got to play well around the quarterback, too, and we've got to give him as much time as we can. We’ve got to format things as we call plays that help our players. Today was the first day to see what we have, and so there are some things we've got to work on in a big way.
On Virginia’s secondary…
They mixed coverages throughout the game. They played three buzz, they played cover two, and they played man to man. They've got big, long defensive linemen. They did a good job getting in the throwing lanes, but I just didn't see a lot of separation on some of the plays. When we did have some guys open, he wasn't on. A couple times where we had a chance to get an explosive play, we just didn't connect.
On having a bye week to get better between the first and second games…
We'll see. I mean, that's going to be our goal: to improve in every way possible, and there's a lot to be improved. From now until 13 days from now when we get to play a game, we're going to be working to get better every day in every area, and it’s one day at a time with these guys. There's a lot of football left in this season, and that's the thing I told them. Virginia lost to us last year and still won 11 games, and so there's a lot of football. There's a lot to play for. The world's not going to end, but it was disappointing as hell, to say the least, to see how we played today. I own that. It's on me, so everybody can blame the head coach. That's great, and I'm going to go in there and work my ass off for these guys and help them.
