‘We’ve got a lot to fix’: NC State football searching for answers after Louisville loss
NC State football coach Dave Doeren has to watch the film to get a full scope of what went wrong in the Wolfpack’s 13-10 loss to Louisville on Friday night.
But Doeren summed it up well in the opening statement of his postgame press conference at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“Very, very tough locker room right now. There’s really not a whole lot to say,” Doeren said.
“Defense played extremely well, offense did not. Pretty obvious what the issues were, between penalties and turnovers. … We’ve got a lot to fix.”
A sequence of plays for NC State’s offense seemed to best represent the Wolfpack's night. Following its longest play of the game – a 45-yard pass from quarterback Brennan Armstrong to wide receiver Terrell Timmons Jr. — the Wolfpack was in the red zone and in position to extend its double-digit lead in the third quarter.
3 TAKEAWAYS: NC State football offense struggles in loss to Louisville
WOLFPACK'S REPORT CARD: NC State football’s report card looks rough for offense in loss to Louisville
NC STATE LEGEND: How NC State football 'forged' Hall of Fame NFL coach Bill Cowher
On the next play, Armstrong threw a pass to a wide-open defender in the end zone for the first of three turnovers in a scoreless second half. To rub salt in the Wolfpack’s offensive wounds, former UNC safety Cam’Ron Kelly played a part in two of Louisville’s takeaways.
“It’s gonna be tough. He’s hard on himself, first of all. Nobody feels worse than Brennan does right now,” Doeren said of Armstrong’s performance.
“We’ve got work to do with the whole team. I know he’s gonna own his part of it. There’s a lot of things that happened around him that made it a hard night at that position, too. Like I told them in the locker room: Every player has a part in a win, every player has a part in a loss.”
What went wrong for NC State football's offense against Louisville?
Doeren pointed to several issues that he felt contributed to NC State’s poor offensive showing.
“There’s a lot of things that happened,” Doeren said.
“We got beat in pass protection multiple times. There were some blitzers that came free. There were times where we were not open and there were times where there were guys open and Brennan couldn’t see ‘em because of the pass rush.”
In addition to its three turnovers, NC State had more penalties (10) than first downs (9). The Wolfpack punted on 8-of-13 drives and needed a pair of fourth-down conversions – including a fake punt on a run by linebacker Payton Wilson – to extend one of its two scoring drives.
Wilson addressed the locker room after the loss, urging the team to stick together. When asked about the offense’s woes, he declined to assign blame.
“There’s no team out there that wins when it’s offense versus defense,” Wilson said.
“We have to stay together as one. That’s been our identity, that’s been our culture here. Through good, through bad, we’re always one unit. … At the end of the day, no team wins if you’re separated.”
For Doeren, it's a simple message as the team moves forward to prepare for Marshall next week.
“There’s so many things that we gotta get better at,” he said.
Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Dave Doeren says NC State has 'a lot to fix' after Louisville loss
