NC State quarterback CJ Bailey and linebacker Popo Aguirre met with the media to discuss the 38-14 loss to Wake Forest.
NOTE: Click the videos above to watch each press conference!
QB CJ Bailey
What was the biggest difference offensively in the second half, when you guys weren't able to move the ball down the field?
Honestly, it was just execution.
We just had to find a way. We needed one play. We were one play away from scoring, especially on those first couple of drives.
We just needed a play to be made by anybody, including me.
We couldn't find that spark in the second half, and I take full accountability for that.
Can you walk us through the first drive of the game, when the ball got punched out, and you fumbled? Itt was a fumble.
It was bad ball security. That's on me.
You have the bye week coming up. How important is that going to be, not only for getting the team back together but also for the team's health?
We were down a lot of guys, especially on offense and a lot on defense as well.
This bye week is definitely needed for recovery.
It's also always good to work on what we need to work on. There's a lot of execution that needs to be cleaned up, and a lot we need to see from everybody in practice.
This is going to be a great week for us to get better and work on what we need to improve
You've had a positive attitude in the face of adversity this season. What's the message to the team after a loss like this?
Same thing: bounce back.
Coach Roper does a good job in our meetings of teaching us that this game is week-to-week.
We can't get too high or too low. We've always got to stay level-headed.
Coming off Vanderbilt, that was one of the biggest lessons — keep doing the same thing and stick to our process.
Before the season even started, we set out our week.
This is what we do on Monday. This is what we do on Tuesday. This is what we do on Wednesday.
We've got to keep that same process going for the rest of the year, even through this bye week.
As long as we stick to that, keep believing in ourselves, and stay confident, we'll be fine.
Has Coach Doeren spoken to the team yet? If so, what kind of message did he convey?
Yeah.
His message was that we can go play six great games.
This bye week is definitely needed for us to get better.
Going into next week and then going into the Stanford game, we've got to bring our best.
Every week, we've got to keep stacking days, keep building, and keep becoming our best.
That's his message to us.
LB Popo Aguirre
You guys gave up three touchdowns in the third quarter. What do you think went wrong?
Mainly discipline. We’ve got to be a little more disciplined.
Penalties were really the main thing that killed us all day, and we’ve got to do better with that.
We didn’t execute coming out of the half, and we gave up some big plays. Part of that was communication.
We’ve got to get back in there and clean that up.
It was a lot of penalties and miscommunication.
A lot of teams this year have been able to score at the end of the first half and then open the second half with a score against your defense. What have you noticed about that and teams being able to carry momentum into the second half?
We did a good job with that in the Louisville game.
That’s just one of those things we tried to do better this week, and we weren’t able to.
They’ve got a good quarterback on the other end, and we didn’t execute.
When we have a chance to make a play, we’ve got to make it.
We came out of the half and had penalties. We can’t have those.
That’s a momentum breaker right there.
It was second-and-22 in the third quarter on that touchdown drive. Was that sequence kind of a backbreaker after they got the 22 yards, hit the big pass play, and then got the roughing-the-passer penalty?
I wouldn’t say it was a backbreaker.
We continued to stay in it and fight.
We were beating ourselves on small things.
As I said, we had them backed up a few times, and we kept beating ourselves.
That’s something I have to do better with as a leader, helping us understand the situation.
We won’t have that next time.
You guys have been struggling to maintain leads for several weeks now. You’ve talked about why, but realistically, what does it take to get everyone on the same page so you don’t keep doing that?
Just continue to attack it.
We changed up the practice script a bit, and we felt like we finished a little better last week.
That’s something we’ve just got to continue to attack.
As CJ said, something we’re trying to make sure we’re doing is attacking each week and treating each week as its own.
Now, all we can do is go hard during this bye week, get some guys healthy, and attack it.
We’ve got to work on finishing again.
