NC State head coach Dave Doeren on loss: 'We weren't in this game'

Dave Doeren says his team was never in the game in Clemson. (Photo: Jaylnn Nash / USATODAY)

David Hood - Senior Writer - Saturday, September 21 2024

CLEMSON – NC State head coach Dave Doeren was right about one thing: his team was never in Saturday’s game in Death Valley.

No. 19 Clemson scored 28 points in a dominant first quarter and led 45-7 at halftime on the way to a dominating 59-35 victory over NC State, the 800th win in Clemson football history. The 59 points are the second-most scored against NC State in the series (Clemson won 62-48 in 2012) and the 45 scored in the first half were the most ever scored against a Dave Doeren, NC State-coached team in a first half.

Doeren is now 7-27 at NC State against ranked teams, and he was asked what went wrong against the Tigers.

“Explosive plays, guys not fitting the run properly, not tackling well, playing soft coverage. It's not aggressive,” Doeren said. “It looked like we were on our heels, and I'm not sure why. Obviously, they had a bye week and they had some new things, but we didn't use the rules of our system well, and so we got to be better than that. That's not who we are on defense. I know Coach Gibson is sick to his stomach right now about it. The film's going to tell us a lot.”

Doeren said the Pack has to change the defensive mindset.

“Oh, yeah, it's a mindset. We've done that this year. We've played tough defense at times, and obviously, we've given up some big plays, and we've played two really good offenses,” Doeren said. “We haven't played well enough, particularly in the first half in both of them were killers. You give up explosive plays and you get behind like we did against a team like that in their stadium, it's not going to turn out well. There are eight games left in the regular season. I know that our staff will do a good job of looking at our personnel and our schemes and get back to work.”

He was then asked if there were similarities between the 51-10 loss to Tennessee a few weeks ago and the loss to Clemson in a game in which the Tigers held a 52-7 lead with the starters on the field.

Doeren said NC State was never in the game against the Tigers.

“You get behind early in both of them for different reasons. We were in the Tennessee game going into the half, and then pick-six just flipped the complexion of that. We weren't in this game,” Doeren said. “They jumped out on us fast in the first quarter. So different games, you know. I thought we learned a lot coming out of Tennessee and got a lot more physical.

"I thought [in the] Louisiana Tech game we did a lot of good things, held the team to 33 yards rushing. Obviously that didn't translate to this week. Without watching the film, guys, I can't give you 100% on what we got to work on, but there's a lot. One thing about this staff is we'll work on it. We'll get better.”

Doeren said he was also disappointed in the NC State player (Anthony Belton) that was ejected for spitting.

“Disappointed in him. I didn't see what happened prior. He said the guy spit on him first, and he spit back at him. Our guys know when you retaliate, you're the one that gets the flag,” he said. “I don't know if that happened or didn't happen, and it really doesn't matter if it did. We can't respond that way. We have to respond as a mature adult, walk away from the situation. Tell the head coach this happened. Let me tell the ref, and then get the guy later in the game for something. Anthony was disappointed in himself. Obviously, I was disappointed in him. He'll learn a lot from that, but that's not him, and that was a bad response on his part.”