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NC State Head Coach Tom O'Brien Postgame Quotes
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NC State at Virginia
Oct. 22, 2011
NC State Head Coach Tom O’Brien Postgame Quotes
Opening statement:
“Tale of two halves. A lot of offense – especially for us in the first half – but it was definitely a defensive second half. I’m really happy for the kids. It has been a struggle but here we are heading into the second half. To head in with such a big win here and do it the way we did is great. We put together six good quarters of defense so we have to keep that going. Obviously we have some things to work on but the pains aren’t as great right now and I’m happy to go home and get ready to play Florida State next week.”
On playing with a lead:
“Well I think it helps us a lot. We’ve always played better from ahead so that was a pretty bizarre situation there in the third quarter when we got a big play for a touchdown and they turned around and got another big play for a touchdown.”
On missed opportunities:
“We dropped three touchdowns, I think, in the first quarter. We can’t keep dropping the ball but the kids hung in there and kept playing.”
On defending against Virginia’s running game after its performance against Georgia Tech last week:
“I think the difference was that we stayed in our gaps. A lot of their stuff last week came at the perimeter and that was one thing we weren’t going to let them do. If they gashed us, it was going to be inside. They weren’t going to run to the boundary on us like they did a week ago. I mean, they probably got 175 yards outside the tight end box last week.”
On HB Tony Creecy:
“We think our backs are good pass catchers and any time we can get them on a middle linebacker, we have a chance to make something happen so we’ve worked hard at that. Both [our backs] can catch the ball and both of them can run once they catch it.”
On defending against Virginia’s running game in the second half:
“As we talked about earlier, we were going to cut the field off and not let them get to the boundary so once that happened they were forced to bring the ball inside and once that happened we loaded up and played a little heavier inside. They got into a throwing game a little later when we got the lead so they weren’t able to stick with it. We were backed up in our own shadow for most of the third and fourth quarter so they had great field position. It was just a better effort by our kids – especially the defense.”