Dave Doeren: "We Just Have To Get Better"

NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media after the Wolfpack's loss at Wake Forest.

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

How much did the turnover on the kickoff return set you all back?
That was a bad situation for us to have to be in on defense. The whole first quarter didn’t go our way. We didn’t get off the field on third down.

Field position was pretty critical in this football game on the road, and we didn’t have any. We had 99 yards and 97 yards and 98. Their punter did a tremendous job of pinning us deep.

To answer your question, it was critical.

What did you think of Devin Leary’s play?
He made some good throws.

He was in a difficult situation being down, 21-0. They were able to defend the coverages at that point. When you get up on somebody by three scores, you don’t have to defend the run as much as you would in a tight game. He was facing a lot of Cover 2 on first and second down which isn’t normal for Wake Forest.

He did some bad things too. It’s going to be a great game for him to learn from, a tough way to learn.

Devin just keeps fighting. There was a lot of that in this game. I thought our guys didn’t quit. I liked the way they responded in the second quarter. We didn’t do enough to get back into it, but there are some good things in there.

With an older team you could be harder on them. How would you handle this week?
We’ve just got to get better. I can’t even look at the score right now. I've just got to get better. We’ve got 10 penalties. We’ve got three turnovers. There’s a lot to fix.

I think, for us, it’s just the guys that we can play with, because we had some more injuries today, what can we do to help them be in the best place they can be mentally and physically, and put together a plan that they can execute?

It doesn’t matter who we play. It’s just us getting better, and if we do that with a young football team, who knows what can happen? We just need some good things to happen. A lot of guys are dropping passes; we need to help ourselves a little bit too.

Bam went out, Isaiah Moore, Trent Pennix.  How critical is the injury situation right now?
It’s a code red. We’ve got a lot of guys out. There were 11 starters out before we got to this game. I don’t know what the status will be on any of those guys that were hurt. We’re down to the bottom in some position groups.

I thought Jordan Houston really played well today. That was probably the best I’ve seen him run. Trent did some good things. Hopefully, he’ll be okay, but there are a lot of guys out right now.

Their first couple of drives was there anything they were doing offensively you hadn’t seen?
They converted on third down three times on one drive. We had them third-and-long three times. They just converted and made plays, and we didn’t. It wasn’t anything that they did. They have good receivers.

They had a lot of time to throw. I don’t feel like we pressured them or beat them with our pressure. Their O-line picked it up pretty easily. We didn’t get to the quarterback a whole lot today, and that’s something we had done well.

You’ve got to give them credit. That’s an experienced offense that operating at a high level. It’s the reason that they’re where they’re at statistically in the ACC. They’re competing against a bunch of young guys right now that are trying to do the best that they can do, and we’ve got to do better than that.

Considering the situation in the secondary, is pressure something you have to do now?
Obviously, pressure helps coverage, but you can’t sit there and zero on one the whole game either and make those guys defend with no help.

I think you just have to mix it and pick your points, and when you do bring it, you’ve got to win. You can’t just run into people.

You’ve got to work rushes and edges and beat blocks. If you create one-on-one blocks for five guys, somebody’s got to get to the quarterback.