Drake Thomas Postgame Press Conference

Drake Thomas finished with six tackles, a sack, 1.5 tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries for NC State in its win at Pittsburgh on Saturday Here's what Thomas had to say during a postgame Zoom conference with the media

NC State's defense didn't get off to a good start at Pittsburgh on Saturday, giving up a 75-yard touchdown pass on the game's second offensive play. It struggled all day against the pass, giving up 411 yards through the air.

But the Wolfpack shored up its run defense from the first two weeks and found a way to bend, not break by forcing the Panthers into kicking field goals and holding them out of the end zone with a dramatic goal line stand.

It was a gritty effort led by Drake Thomas, who finished with six tackles, a sack, 1.5 tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries. Here's what Thomas had to say during a postgame Zoom conference with the media:

What was the key to the defense's resilience?

"It’s really key after those big plays where they get a chunk of yards to just move onto the next play and focus on the task at hand. They get down in the red zone a couple of times, and we get big stops. That’s what we did. We didn’t let the plays before affect the plays that were about to happen. We just had to clear our mind and go out there and do what we were supposed to do."

After the first two weeks, was it a matter of pride to show you as a defense could be physical and stop the run?

"For sure. Last week we didn’t put exactly what we wanted to on the field, and it was really disappointing for us and our coaches. We knew that we had to come out and put our brand of football on display. I think we did a good job of doing that."

How tough was it to bounce back from Pitt’s early touchdown and how did you do it?

"I think it was more of that we knew that was just a huge bust in our coverage. We just needed to communicate and lineup quicker. It wasn’t like they beat us deep. It was more that we just needed to get aligned, we needed to know our responsibility and we needed to make a play. We knew that wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just move onto the next drive, and after that we stopped them the next couple times."

How proud were you of the way the secondary performed despite all the injuries and adversity?

"It was great to see. You’ve got guys with no backups, you’ve got backups in there making plays. You’ve got freshmen, a new nickel goes out playing really hard and he gets the targeting call, and then it’s the next man that steps up. 

"Taiyon Palmer comes in and has a big PBU at the end of the game. It’s big time plays like that. It’s good to have confidence in literally everybody three deep, that guys can go out and make plays like that."

What will this win do for the team’s confidence moving forward?

"It can boost our confidence a lot, but it just proves to us that we are who we’ve known we are. We’ve all known that we’ve been capable of this, and we’ve just got to keep a level head and get back to work (Sunday). Just watch the film, break down mistakes and just get back at it Monday and get ready for the next game." 

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