Dave Doeren: "They Outplayed Us"

NC State took a big step back Saturday, falling 45-24 to an undermanned Virginia Tech team. 

After the loss, head coach Dave Doeren spoke to the media about what went wrong, what comes next and the status of injured safety Khalid Martin. Martin, who suffered a hip injury and was transported from the field to a local hospital by ambulance, was alert and conscious and being transported to a bigger hospital in Roanoke after the game, according to NC State. 

Here’s a full breakdown of everything Doeren had to say:

Opening statement

First of all, Virginia Tech deserves a lot of credit. They were the most physical team tonight. They outplayed us and outcoached us. We’ve got a lot to learn from this film and we’ve got a lot of work to do. So we didn’t expect it. I obviously was excited about where we came out last week. We did miss having some guys tonight from a health standpoint on defense, but there’s a lot to work on. I thought our guys continued to play hard but we just did not do enough to give ourselves a chance to win. 

We gave up over 270 yards rushing, turned the ball over twice on offense. It just took us too long to going offensively, obviously only having 80-some yards in the first half, and the defense didn’t start the way we expected them to. It’s a loss. It’s not the end of the season. We’re 1-1. We’ve got an opportunity to learn from this game, just like we did the last one, we’ll go back and regroup.

The really scary part was when Khalid was on the turf. Was he communicating with you guys and do you know what the injury was?

I don’t know. He was communicating with us at the time. He was moving his fingers and toes and all that. He had a lot of pain. He said, ‘Go finish the game coach. Tell the guys to finish.’ So he was speaking; he was aware. But I’m not sure where things are at, we’re going to have to find out when he gets where he’s going from a doctor standpoint. Our parents go out to him and it’s just a tough injury.

When did you start thinking about making the quarterback change and could you evaluate Devin Leary’s play once he did come in?

We didn’t talk about it at halftime. We thought we’d be able to come out, regroup, get some things going and we just didn’t. After the second interception, we said give him another series, see how he responds. We felt like we needed a spark on that drive, needed to see what Devin could do. He led us on two scoring drives, did some good things. He also did some things that he’s got to learn from. But I was happy with the way he came in the game cold. He moved the offense for the most part. 

How concerned are you with the defense and how much did Payton Wilson being out hurt?

Not having Tanner Ingle or Payton Wilso, our top two tacklers on defense, hurts. That definitely hurts. Teshaun Smith couldn’t play tonight either. So Rakeim Ashford came in and started for Tanner and then he got hurt, and then Khalid came in and got hurt. We have some deficiencies right now on the defensive side of the ball, and a lot of them are on the weak side of our defense. It was evident. A week ago Drake was playing Sam linebacker, tonight he had to play Will because Payton was out. 

So we were not at full strength. I know Virginia Tech wasn’t either, but when you’re missing a guy like Tanner who’s a captain and a hitter, physical guy, Payton who’s a hitter and physical guy, that was their kind of game tonight and we would love to have had them but we didn’t.

Was there anything on offense Virginia Tech did that you guys didn’t expect or was it what you thought they would do?

We didn’t know what we were going to get. Obviously Hendon Hooker was first on the depth chart and so you have to prepare for what he did, and then once we saw the other guys in there we had to figure out, ‘Alright, what’s this going to be.’ They had some new schemes, there was a lot of plus-one runs, and we just didn’t do a good job getting off blocks and tackling. I thought we set the edges better than we did a week ago, but a lot of the hits in this game were more internal. It just wasn’t good enough.

You said during the week you wouldn’t know who the personnel would be so you guys would have to adjust in-game. Virginia Tech was really committed to the run. What adjustments did you guys make?

We were taking our middle safety and adding him into the run game. I think in the second quarter, we did some good things. Offensively, we just couldn’t get anything going. The defense was out there a lot in the first half. They went up 17-0 and I felt like we did a nice job there for a while and then just felt like we ran out of gas in that first half, defensively. There’s a lot of things we’ve got to do better. There isn’t one single thing I can tell you. Adjustment wise, we were slanting the front, we were angling the front, we were pinching, we were bringing guys off the edge. We took our safety in the middle of the field and tightened him into the run game. There were a lot of different things we tried to do. But none of them were good enough. 

What were you seeing from the offensive line?

I’d have to look at the film to give you a clearer answer. It looked like they packed the box which we knew they were going to. They’re going to force you to throw the football when you play them. From a penetration standpoint, they dialed up some pressures that we didn’t pick up. There were times where we just got beat one on one. It wasn’t only any one player. You could probably go across the board. They outplayed us, bottom line.