NC State head coach Dave Doeren met with the media following the Wolfpack's 35-31 loss at Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
Very sad ending to a game where I thought we did a lot of good. We fought really hard, controlled the football game, and responded when we needed to respond multiple times. They're a good program; they fought back and got some momentum, and we'd get it back, all the way down to the end when we intercepted a pass. It's a shame it came down to that play where that should never happen. Obviously, it’s a play that breaks your heart more than anything. I was proud of how our guys played for 59 minutes and 59 seconds.
Everyone will think about the last play of the game and not all the other stuff that happened, and that's football. That's how it is. It’s the same in basketball: guy hits a game winner at the end, and that's all they talk about. Man, our kids fought, and it's hot down there, and it really, really hurts when you lose a game like that. But the guys went all in and did a lot of good.
Stick together. There’s a lot of football left. It's okay to be mad, sad, and disappointed; just don't point it at somebody else. Look at yourself. What could you have done? Everyone's going to talk about the last play, but shit, there was 10 to 20 plays in that game that, if we would have played better on, maybe it doesn't even come down to that, right? Like, it wouldn't have come down to that. I mean, how many missed tackles on their quarterback did we have in the fourth quarter? I mean, it's ridiculous. There are things we could have done way better where it doesn't come down to that, and that's the message: “What could you have done to help this game and help the team win?”
We went four wides. You know, our tight ends were pretty tired at that point, and they were playing man. It was a good man route. C.J. [Bailey] gave him a chance, and he went up. Their DB [Ricardo Jones] did a great job breaking it up. It's a good play call, and they made a good play on that.
It's just a play where you roll out and you don't get tackled. You try to burn as much time as you can, then fall on the ground, and protect the football. He got hit, and he didn't protect the football. So the plan was to take safety. We're trying to run out the clock if we can, but there's no intent to run the football and get hit on that play.
He had a hell of a game until that play. He really did. I know he feels terrible. I haven't talked to him yet. He came to you guys first, so I’ll go find him next.
I mean, I can't go out there and tackle for guys, and I can't hang onto the ball for guys. We called a good game. They made some plays, and we made some plays, and we made enough to be in the lead for 59 minutes and 59 seconds at an SEC school on the road. We played pretty damn good and coached pretty good, but we didn't make that play at the end. There's always things when you watch the game, and you think about what you did, but that's not how life works. It's not. You move forward, and you take the lessons from the day, and you try to get better for the next one.
