NC State WR Keenan Jackson and LB Popo Aguirre met with the media to discuss the 35-31 loss at Vanderbilt.

NOTE: Click the videos above to watch each press conference!

WR Keenan Jackson

What was the message in the locker room? Have y'all spoken yet after that?

Yeah, something like that can either bring you together or tear you apart. We're brothers at the end of the day, so that's what we've got to do: stay together.

Well, the result wasn't solely that final play. Y'all had a 17-point lead. What kind of led to the falling apart, for lack of a better term?

Yeah, I mean, we preach finishing in our program. That was messed up on the sideline, but at the end, like you're right. That was a good statement or question. It doesn't all come down to one play.

I'm at it by myself. I actually kept coming back to the football that we could have scored that drive, and I've never even been in a situation where the game came below to two scores.

We can all have something to reflect on, but I don't put that game on CJ. Football is a long game, four quarters. We were literally in the whole entire game until the last second.

It's a long game, a four-quarter football game. A lot goes into it. It's not just one play.

LB Popo Aguirre

What's it like for you sitting on the sideline watching the last play?

It's not about the last play. It happened, but it's a lot. As a defensive leader, what could we have done as a defense? A lot of plays that we gave, and we come on the road; a lot of times it's pretty loud and stuff like that. It's a lot of things you're going against.

We just could have done a better job on defense, getting the quarterback down and containing him a little more. It was really just throughout the whole game that we could have done better, and I could have done a better job of helping out.

Yeah, one play in particular was a Jared Curtis run on fourth down that I think would have sealed the game there. Can you talk about that play? He spun out, got the first down, and then this all happened.

Yeah, big play. The coach did a great job calling up the play once again, but you've got to finish it. We go again now, go back home now. We've got to do a better job of getting the quarterback on the ground, getting everybody on the ground, and that's just something where we look ourselves in the mirror and see how we can get better now.

What do you think their offense was doing in the second half? In the first half, you guys pretty much limited them. What was the change?

It was really just more into passing, but it really wasn't. It was more so our execution. We've got to be able to execute a little more after coming off the half.

It wasn't really more of them. It was just us executing, but we've got to go back now and get that fixed.

What's it going to take to keep this locker room together after something like this?

Good. We jump back into it now, go back to practice, and we attack the next day, man. We're ready for App State at home. Every game is every game, and now we attack the next one.