Dave Doeren: "They Made One More Play Than We Did"
NC State had a lot to be proud of in a 44-41 loss to No. 11 Miami at Carter-Finley Stadium Friday night: a great game from Bailey Hockman, and only losing by three to the No. 11 team in the country.
Of course, the loss is one that will sting, as the Pack led by 10 in the fourth quarter, but was outgained 213 yards to 6 en route to losing that lead. NC State’s defense simply had no answer for Miami quarterback D’Eriq King, who completed 31 of 41 pass attempts for 430 yards and five touchdowns.
NC State head coach Dave Doeren spoke with the media via Zoom after the game; here’s a full breakdown of everything he had to say:
Opening statement
It was a heck of a football game, first of all. You’ve got to give Miami credit, they made a big play when they needed to and we didn’t at the end. We just couldn’t put them away. It’s unfortunate. I thought our guys fought. We hit. It was physical. It was a back-and-forth. It was a hell of a football game. They made one more play than we did at the end. We had our chances, obviously, and didn’t make enough plays.
You’ve got to give their quarterback credit. We wanted to force him to have to throw the football to beat us. He had struggled on his deep balls throughout the season. Obviously he got better at it during the bye week, because he was on the money tonight. You’ve got to give King credit.
I think there’s a lot to build on with our guys. I thought Bailey battled and did some really good things. I think our backs run hard. That’s a good front. They made some plays on us, particularly during the second half. We really didn’t get our running game going. We had the big kickoff return to get us back in it and Chris Dunn with the big field goal after we got them to jump offsides and whatever that call was.
But it was a heck of a game. I’m proud of the way our guys played, and disappointed we didn’t finish it and get the win. But there’s a lot of improvement from the last game to this one. And playing, again, without Tanner Ingle, Tyler Baker-Williams slides over and plays free safety the whole game. He hasn’t done that all season. We had a true freshman in at nickel that struggled for us at times. That’s part of the deal when you have as many DBs out as we do. But I’m proud of our players. I look forward to coaching them this week and getting ready for the next one.
You mentioned that they made one more play than you guys did. What’s the play that you’re looking for that’s going to take this team to get over the hump and make those plays in these big games?
We’ve made them in four games. In the games we won we’ve made them. So I don’t think you can say that. We didn’t make it tonight. Our other four wins, somebody made a big play. Whether it was a blocked punt, [Emeka Emezie] making a catch or [Devin Leary] making a throw. Tonight it wasn’t. Jakeen Harris had a chance. Joshua Pierre-Louis had a chance. We just didn’t make the plays there at the end. They got in our backfield on that last drive a couple times, but we just couldn’t finish it. I wouldn’t say that’s a consistent problem, but that was a problem tonight. They made one more play than we did.
What are your thoughts on Bailey Hockman’s play?
I thought he played well. I thought he had good rhythm. He was seeing things. He was putting the ball where our guys could make plays. Other than the one throw he missed to Emeka down the left sideline, I thought he was on target for most of the night. A couple times they pressured him and we’d obviously love for him not to take a sack, but I thought he played really hard.
You mentioned that you guys weren’t able to run the ball in the second half. Was that something they did adjustment wise?
I think they definitely got after us a little bit up the middle. They packed the box a little bit more. But their D-Line’s good. Those are really good defensive linemen. They just got used to the blocking schemes and played a little better than they did in the first half. Those are four really good defensive linemen that we were playing against.