Dave Doeren: "I'm Really Proud Of These Guys"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after the Wolfpack's 16-10 home win over Syracuse.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.

Opening Statement...
I thought it was a great win for our guys. I’m really proud of them. I thought they showed a lot of grit, a lot of determination. 

Syracuse kept hanging in there. They are a good football team, and like I told them all week, ACC football is four-quarter football.  You have to be ready to play every second of the clock and that’s what it took today.

I thought we showed a lot of stamina at the end, getting that sack, and the defensive staff really put together a great gameplan. The kids executed it well.

We had some good things going in the run game. We were able to complete some passes and score enough points to win.  At the end of the day, that’s what counts, that’s what matters.  

We’d like to thank our fans, it was awesome tonight.  It was really, really fun having them like that, and it helps our guys. You felt it with the pre-snap penalties they were getting and their inability to change some things they wanted to do.

I’m really proud of these guys.  We just have to get a few boys back from IR and keep moving forward.

Last year there were 92 points and 1100 yards of offense.  Different for you... what did you take from the defense.  It feels like the 3-3-5 was part because of Syracuse, games like that.
The discussion we had when we hired the safeties coach and we need to be able to slow people down that we can’t stop in our other defense, that’s Clemson and Syracuse. 

Those passing attacks with their receivers and quarterbacks. We’ve been able to stop the run against anybody, but those offensive systems make it hard in a four-down unless you just have two NFL corners who can lock up.

That’s why we did that, to be able to handle the tempo of four-wide, spread offenses and be able to roll coverages and blitz more.  There are things we’d like to do better and we’re still giving up some things and PIs, but it got tough when we lost Chris Ingram. We’re basically down to our third, fourth, and fifth corner.  That makes it harder.

What were your impressions of Bailey’s first start?
He did some good things. He has to learn what to do when things aren’t there.  He took some sacks, didn’t get rid of the ball, he’s trying to do too much, but he did some good things. 

He made some great passes, he directed things well, he took care of the football for the most part, and he’ll learn a lot from this game.

Syracuse has a good defensive line, they really do, so that made it tough too because he didn’t really have the time to be able to go through progressions, but I thought he battled.

Louis Acceus had three sacks and 10 tackles overall...
That’s awesome for a kid from New York to be able to play like that against Syracuse.

Lou has been very steady this year. He’s a very athletic guy... I think almost every game he’s been first or second in tackles on defense with the linebacker core.

I’m happy he’s continued to improve because last year he didn’t really play a lot.  He’s playing fast, he’s playing hard. He’s taking advantage of his blitz opportunities.

You’re getting field goals in the redzone. Is there a specific reason for the problems there?
There’s a lot of things.  We’re just not able to run the football down there and it forces you to throw. We have to be better throwing the ball in the redzone. It’s harder when you get more and more guys in the box obviously in the run game.

Last year with Ryan and Kelvin and Jakobi could take advantage of people who wanted to stop the run. We have to get there. It’s an area to improve.

Larrell Murchison has 5.5 sacks in the last two games... the defense has 16 in the last two games...
We have 8 sacks tonight? That’s awesome.

It’s just amazing we aren’t getting takeaways hitting the quarterback as much as we are. We have to figure that piece out but the pressure on the quarterback has been consistent. 

There’s a good rotation in there too.