NC State’s defense was dominant last night, leading to a 16-10 victory over Syracuse to improve to 4-2. Head Coach Dave Doeren met with the media after the game in his postgame press conference. You can watch it here, or check out the bulleted breakdown below.
- Great win for our guys. Really proud of them.
- Showed a lot of grit. Lot of determination.
- Syracuse kept hanging in there. They’re a good football team.
- I told them all week, ACC football is 4-quarter football. You have to be ready to play every second of the clock and that’s what it took.
- Showed a lot of stamina at the end…getting that sack.
- The defensive staff really put together a great game plan. The kids executed it well.
- Some good things going in the run game.
- 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.
- Like to thank our fans. Awesome tonight.
- Really, really fun having them like that. Helps our guys.
- Felt it with the pre-snap penalties they were getting and their inability to change some things they wanted to do.
- We just have to get a few boys back from injury and keep moving forward.
Defense last year vs. this year…
- When hiring the safeties coach this offseason (hired Tony Gibson), needed to be able to slow people down that we can’t stop in our other defense (4-2-5): Clemson and Syracuse.
- Been able to stop the run against anybody, but those offensive systems make it hard in a 4-down unless you have 2 NFL cornerbacks who can lock up.
- In the 3-3-5, been able to handle the tempo of 4-wide, spread offenses
- Been able to roll coverages and blitz more.
- There are things we’d like to do better.
- Still giving up some things
- Pass Interference calls, but it got tough when we lost Chris Ingram.
- Basically down to our third, fourth, and fifth corner. That makes it harder.
Bailey Hockman…
- Did some good things.
- Made some great passes. Directed things well. Took care of the football for the most part.
- He’ll learn a lot from this game.
- Has to learn what to do when things aren’t there.
- Took some sacks. Didn’t get rid of the ball. Trying to do too much.
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Syracuse has a good defensive line. Made it tough too because he didn’t really have the time to go through progressions, but he battled.
Louis Acceus…
- Awesome for a kid from New York to be able to play like that against Syracuse.
- Been very steady this year.
- Very athletic guy.
- Almost every game he’s been 1st or 2nd in tackles on defense with the linebacker core.
- Happy he’s continued to improve. Last year he didn’t really play a lot.
- Playing fast, he’s playing hard.
- Taking advantage of his blitz opportunities.
Lack of TD’s in the Red Zone…
- We’re just not able to run the football down there and it forces you to throw.
- Have to be better throwing the ball in the red zone.
- Harder when you get more and more guys in the box obviously in the run game.
- Last year with Ryan, Kelvin and Jakobi, we could take advantage of people who wanted to stop the run.
- We have to get there. It’s an area to improve.
8 sacks…
- We had 8 sacks tonight?
- It’s just amazing we aren’t getting takeaways hitting the quarterback as much as we are.
- Have to figure that piece out, but the pressure on the quarterback has been consistent.
- There’s a good rotation in there too.