Dave Doeren After NC State’s Loss at Syracuse: BULLETED

Head Football Coach Dave Doeren met with the media after #15 NC State lost at #18 Syracuse. You can watch it above, or check out a BULLETED breakdown below.

• We did win the turnover margin, but they did a better job than us running the football and controlling that part of the game.
• We really had some penalties and some negative plays on offense that set us into 2nd-and-extra-longs.
• It’s hard in a scenario like that with their crowd noise.
  • Their crowd was fantastic for them.
  • It made it difficult, and they’re doing that with a quarterback that’s played in a half of a game. It was challenging.
• You’ve got to give Syracuse credit. They played better than we did.
• We were shorthanded in multiple spots, and as the game went on, it got worse.
• The margin for error is small when you’re in a position like we are.
• I was proud of Jack Chambers.
  • He played hard. He did some good things in the game.
• We just didn’t do enough to get enough points out of the drives that we did have to make it a game there.
  • We had a 1-possession game there, finishing 8 points behind on the scoreboard with a chance to stop them on a 3rd-and-long and didn’t get it done.
• 3 field goals, and they’re all red-zone drives. Trading touchdowns for field goals, it’s hard to win.
• Every time you lose a game, there’s frustrations.
• Like I said, the game that we were in, I know it didn’t end up a 1-possession game, it was a 1-possession game.
  • It’s 3rd-and-12. We’re going to get the ball back, down 8, and have a chance to go score a touchdown and get a 2-point conversion to tie.
  • We didn’t stop them there.
• It was challenging [crowd noise].
  • The dome plus the attendance made it difficult.
  • In the game plan, there were some things we wanted to check to versus certain looks, and we weren’t able to get that done.
  • Whether it was the play clock running out where we had to call timeout 2x on those scenarios or just flat-out can’t hear the cadence or silent count we were doing.
  • Guys weren’t getting off the ball at the same time. The crowd noise was a factor.
• We found out Sunday that he had a partial tear and that it was possible it was rehabable.
  • They were getting more opinions looking further into it, so it was about 1:30 p.m. on Monday after my press conference that they told me.
  • At that point, I decided not telling people was best for our quarterbacks to get ready for Syracuse’s defense and them not have that advantage to know who’s playing in the game.
  • That’s why I did what I did with that, but I didn’t know before the press conference. I found out after.
  • Monday, Devin will get surgery. It’s not his shoulder; that’s the good news. It’s his pec muscle which, from a throwing situation, is a lot better situation than having a torn labrum or a rotator injury.
• He’s been through it before [Leary].
  • I don’t know if that makes it better just because he knows how to go through the mental anguish of not playing.
  • I was proud of him. He immediately turned to Coach Tim Beck and the quarterbacks and said, “How can I help you guys?”
  • He’s a great teammate in a tough moment for him. I’m very proud of him in that.
• We obviously feel for Devin.
  • We felt we were coming in here to win a game.
  • It wasn’t like that wasn’t on the table, but we feel for any player on our team, particularly one like him that’s been through this already.
• It’s tough, man.
  • Devan Boykin went out, and we’re already short-handed in the secondary.
  • We lost Cory Durden, and then we lost Josh Harris.
    • We moved ends into tackles. It’s tough.
  • It’s not easy to win a game when you’re in that kind of situation.
  • The bye week’s coming at a good time for us.
• It looked like he was from the sideline [that Garrett Shrader’s arm passed the line of scrimmage on his 34-yard completion to Damien Alford], but I don’t get the same viewpoint that they have on video.
  • It was probably close, and the refs said that they thought he was right on the line.
• The plan is to play both Chambers and M.J. Morris.
  • Moving forward, we’ll have the chance to play him and M.J.
  • Jack played really hard and did some good things.
  • There were times where it was difficult for him with that noise and the pressures they were bringing.
  • He made a lot of plays with his legs for us today. He didn’t turn the football over. He showed good poise and didn’t get rattled.
  • We can definitely grow from that game and take these next five one at a time.
• There’s upsets all the time. They’re [Syracuse] playing at Clemson, so you’ve got to give the home team advantage because of that.
  • It’s going to be a great football game. That’s a good football team we just played.
  • Obviously, Clemson’s playing Florida State tonight. That’s another good game at Florida State. There’s a lot of things that can happen in the next five weeks for a lot of teams.