Doeren's comments following loss at BC
NC State coach Dave Doeren was clearly unhappy with his team's performance Saturday. It's a frustration voiced by his comment to Wolfpack radio announcer Tony Haynes immediately after the game, when he said the loss made him "sick to my stomach."
Here's what Doeren had to say once he had time to collect himself during his postgame session with the rest of the media, starting with an overview of what went wrong in the 45-24 loss at Boston College:
"I don't know where to start. We didn't tackle well, we didn't set edges, didn't play low enough, didn't have good enough technique. They did a better job than we did. That's the bottom line."
"They pushed us around at times. Their running backs ran through contact. You're not going to have multiple guys in the sets they're at to the ball. You've got one or two guys that get there. At times we made the plays. Too many times we didn't."
Doeren was asked about the decision to pull starting quarterback Bailey Hockman in favor of Devin Leary. He then assessed Leary's 15 of 32, 259-yard, three-touchdown effort:
"I just felt like Bailey was a little bit shook (after throwing a pick six in the first quarter). I could be wrong on that, but that's how we felt. Devin went in and was calm and we wanted to give him a shot."
"Both him and Bailey throw the ball well. It was more about being in a bad situation and Devin seemed calm, seemed level. That's it. He was just playing. It was valuable reps to see what he dould do."
Doeren was asked how much the epidemic of injuries that has sidelined both starting offensive tackles, both starting cornerbacks, defensive end James Smith-Williams and others may have contributed to the loss ...
"There are 11 guys that were on our two-deep when the season started that are done playing right now. So that's a lot of things chemistry-wise that make it hard whether it's offense or defense."
"For us, it's a multitude of things. It's not just one thing, one tackle, one guy or another. There are a lot of players that aren't playing. it's not an excuse. The guys that are there have to take advantage of the opportunity and play better. We've got to do everything we can schematically to make plays."
Finally, Doeren was asked if he can pinpoint why his team has so much trouble getting the ball into the end zone in the red zone. State's first three trips inside the BC 10 Saturday resulted in two turnovers on downs and one Christopher Dunn field goal.
"It's everything. We had a guy early in the game when we ran a timing route. Thayer (Thomas) was open and Bailey threw it over his head. That would have been a touchdown. We got stopped twice down there on an inside run off the edge. Last year Reggie (Gallaspy) would have run through that play. This year we're not able to do that."
"We went with Matt (McKay) to see if we could get the quarterback run going and that didn't get us in the end zone. There's a lot of things we've got to look at."
