This is ‘not us.’ Doeren says he didn’t recognize his NC State team in loss to Clemson.

Dave Doeren watched the film of N.C. State’s loss to Clemson and didn’t recognize his own team.

All the things that worked in the Wolfpack’s strong start were absent in the 41-7 loss to the Tigers. The third-down success on offense, the limited mental mistakes, an opportunistic defense all helped N.C. State take a 5-0 mark into the top-20 showdown at Clemson.

“Not us, really,” Doeren said. “Which is probably the most disappointing part of the game to me. Win or lose, we all expected to go in there and play the way we’ve been playing — not beating ourselves, playing hard, playing tough and giving ourselves a chance. We didn’t get that done.”

The passing of quarterback Ryan Finley, especially on third down, was a key in the Wolfpack’s ACC wins over Virginia and Boston College. Finley’s favorite target, junior receiver Kelvin Harmon, had been nearly unstoppable in the first five games. But Finley was off (21 of 34 for a season-low 156 yards) and turnover prone against the Tigers (two interceptions and a fumble) and Harmon (two catches, 13 yards) was never a factor.

After rewatching the game, Doeren wasn’t ready to assign blame to his star quarterback or star receiver.

“It wasn’t Ryan,” Doeren said. “It wasn’t Kelvin. I mean, it was across the board as a team, we just got away from what we’re good at.”

N.C. State entered the game as one of the best offenses in the country on third down. In the first five games, Finley and the Wolfpack offense converted on 60.8 percent (42 of 69) of its third-down plays. Against Clemson, N.C. State was just 2 of 12 on third down.

After only being penalized once in a 28-23 win over Boston College on Oct. 6, N.C. State was flagged six times in the loss to the Tigers. The crowd noise caused problems with the snap count for the offensive line.

The defense gave up a season-high 471 yards, including 380 in the air. The group had been especially effective in the red zone in the first five games but allowed Clemson to score a touchdown on 4 of 8 chances. The Tigers also converted 8 of 15 chances on third down.

“We didn’t get off the field the way we have been on third down,” Doeren said. “Offensively, we didn’t stay on the field the way we had been on third down. Just really a recipe for disaster against a great team.”

Doeren said he noticed after his team started slow and fell behind early, it started to press and tried to do too much. “When you do that in football, it’s never good,” Doeren said. “When you start trying to do too much, or do somebody else’s job, inevitably don’t do your own.”

As bad as it went for N.C. State against Clemson, it still has six games left and still has a 5-1 record. After watching the film together, Doeren reminded his team they have to “get back to being us.”

“That’s the biggest thing I told the guys: You guys are a really good football team when you just do your job,” Doeren said. “We have to get back to that.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 4:27 PM.