NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media for his postgame press conference after the Wolfpack’s 17-24 loss to Syracuse tonight. You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.
Obviously, again we lost because the three turnovers going in to score. And all three different, but all three costly. I mean, you would hope that you’d at least get 9 points with three trips into the red zone and come up with zero on all three trips and you lose. Obviously that dictates the outcome of the game.
Syracuse quarterback played really well. He’s a good football player, very accurate and gives his receivers a chance to make plays and they did not turn the ball over offensively and we did three times. That was the difference in the game.
I am proud of our guys. They finished.
You know we were down. To see them come back like that shows me they got a lot of fight, and so I am proud of them for that. For coming back and fighting and giving us a chance to have one possession game there down the stretch.
How deflating for an offense is it to move the ball just to have it get taken away down toward the end of the drive?
I mean, it’s one of the tenets of our program.
We’re undefeated in the last five years when we win the turnover margin. Talk about it every week and the guys know it. We got to do a better job believing it.
It’s the most important thing. On the whole field is the ball. There’s a reason they named the game after it? And we’re not coveting the ball enough on offense, and obviously they did a better job of that than we did it with their offense compared to ours and their defense compared to ours.
That was the game. Three times we just marched right down the field. Did a really good job moving the football. Converted on those third downs, made some plays and each time we got down there was a different player. We got to get back to protecting the football. It’s how you win games.
How would evaluate what you saw from CJ (Bailey) today?
Awesome, good, some bad. I thought he made some good throws.
He missed a couple. He had KC (Concepcion) down the middle on one. Could have been a really good throw. On one of the vertical seams, but he made some plays for us.
I know he’s taking this hard, because of the fumble he had on blindside hit. I don’t put that on him, even though he should be able to hang on to the ball.
But when you get in the middle of your back, we should protect him better than that. The other one, he was definitely off the mark on the throw to Kendrick. That could be a better throw.
CJ is doing a lot of good things as a true freshman. I’m excited about him. I’m not down on him.
He’s going to get better and better each week. We’re going to ride him. He’s our guy.
Guys around him got to make plays for him as they did in the fourth quarter and just need more of them.
Number one, the 72 yard pass towards the end, it looked like the clock did not stop. I don’t know if it did or not. If it’s supposed to stop after first down. What’s your perspective on that? Did it stop because it was unclear up here?
It was unclear on the field. There’s a lot of things unclear on the field. I can’t critique officials.
You guys know that there was a lot of things down there that were hard to understand.
Your skill guys made some great plays, Concepcion, Noah Rogers. Are you seeing some separation and now getting back to what you envisioned from some of these guys at the beginning of the season?
We’re getting better. The chemistry between the quarterback and his receivers is improving. We saw explosive play from Noah. It was a great job by him getting back in bounds after the reroute.
I thought Hollywood (Smothers) sparked the offense and we needed a spark. KC, we got him involved. Justin Joly continues to make plays.
There are some positives. And there were some positives last week. We’re just not getting the satisfaction of a win from these things because we’re beating ourselves too much. That has to get fixed.
Whether it’s a costly penalty, we had two guys in motion, that’s a mistake by the quarterback. He’s got to let the guys get set for a turnover. The fastest way to lose a game is to beat yourself.
Been pretty good at that around here. Not beating ourselves over the last four seasons. We got to get back to it.
And this team will continue to work. They’ll continue to get better. And there’s some good young players.
And so we’re going to let those guys mature. Play for their quarterback.
What did you think about the atmosphere and the crowd here tonight at Carter-Finley?
Oh, it was awesome. Crowd was great. Very thankful.
I thought the uniforms looked great, too. Crowd was awesome, man. They were loud.
They were into it. It’s been a while. Obviously, it’s our first Saturday night game of the year.
Thankful to the fans and to the student section. They were great. And I know they’re frustrated by the outcome of these games.
Just hang in there. Some good young players that are fighting hard for you. And they’re going to keep getting better.
Syracuse finished this game 8 of 15 on third down and 1 of 3 on fourth down. How would you assess that side of the ball’s job on those potential drive ending plays?
We had opportunities for sure. A lot of third-and-mediums. And they made more plays than we did.
We’ve got to have tighter coverage. We missed Brandon Cisse tonight. For sure.
One of our best defensive backs. We missed having him out there. Missed not having #10 (Caden Fordham) on defense.
When you’re missing good players on a certain side of the ball on key downs, it shows up. Was it good enough? No, we expect to be better than 8 of 15. So 50%, you know, we expect to be better than that.
Obviously, fourth down, they were only one of three. So it means we were two of three. That’s pretty good.
And it’s the third-and-medium area, where they converted on some slants and just really tight coverage throws. Good catches by their guys. We’ve got to have tighter coverage and be able to break those up.
Noah, go ahead.
What’s the message to this team moving forward from this loss to keep them together? How do you try to keep their spirits up moving forward?
I mean, we fought hard. I told them I was proud of their fight. And told them that we can’t turn the ball over three times in the red zone and expect to win.
I mean, it’s honest. I was proud of how they finished. And they fought hard, man, all the way down to the onside kick.
We had a chance at that football and Kanoah did a nice job. So you just tell them the truth. I mean, I care a lot about these players and just want them to play hard for each other.
Keep getting better. Eventually the tide’s going to turn if you do it that way.
