NC State coach Dave Doeren lamented the lack of better tackling Saturday in the 21-20 win at East Carolina.

Doeren thought part of that was the trade off in keeping players healthy during training camp, a trade he is still willing to make. However, the lack of hitting in training camp did affect NC State’s defense on a few plays, and senior safety Tanner Ingle missed more tackles than normal. Doeren pointed out that Ingle will need to improve his tackling and senior cornerback Derrek Pitts suffered a mental mistake in the red zone that led to one of the ECU touchdowns.

Doeren thought ECU quarterback Holton Ahlers exposed some weaknesses with his legs. He rushed five times for 57 yards and wasn’t sacked once.

“That might have been a record for missed tackles in a game and I take the blame for that,” Doeren said. “We didn’t tackle enough in training camp. We were trying to get these guys to the first game healthy, and that was a success.”

The other dynamic at play was No. 13-ranked NC State hadn’t played a game since Nov. 26, 2021. However, ECU had a similar drought too. NC State had two full scrimmages during fall camp.

“I do think it hurt Tanner,” Doeren said. “Watching him tackle, he was not himself. He is a much better tackler than he showed in that game.”

Holding East Carolina to essentially four scoring opportunities was more than adequate, but compounded when the offense had just two touchdowns. Doeren didn’t think they the offense and defense didn’t play off of each other, evidenced by not getting any points off two interceptions.

“In a lot of ways, it didn’t feel like a win because obviously our second-half performance,” Doeren said. “I do think it is a blessing to have a chance to learn such a great lesson, but not have a lesson.

“It was a lesson in humility to our players and not have a loss.”

NC State has four straight plays — though the play-calling got interrupted twice by officials — at the one-yard line, and the Wolfpack couldn’t cash it in during the fourth quarter. Junior running back Jordan Houston also fumbled at the one-yard line previously in the game.

Doeren said the inability to punch it in was unprecedented in his coaching career.

“It felt like we had two plays called that would have scored, but the ball was stopped by the official,” Doeren said. “That was kind of weird in its own right. We have to run nine plays, even though it was only seven plays.”

Doeren praised Houston and sophomore DemIe Sumo-Karngbaye for running hard and said they combined for 70 yards after contact. He was just frustrated that his team couldn’t execute well enough.

“There were a lot of issues,” Doeren said. “They put a lot of people at the line of scrimmage. We had to block. At times you have to run over a guy to get in and we didn’t do that. We didn’t get enough movement.”

Doeren pointed out that he’d still go for it on fourth and goal at the one-yard line instead of kicking a field goal to go up by 10 points.

“The analytics tell you to go for it inside the three every time,” Doeren said. “If you don’t get it, you are giving the ball back to them in a position you should hold them in, and get the ball back in good position again.

“The odds of scoring on fourth and one is very high. I also believe as a head coach, you have to show trust to your line. If it’s fourth and one at the goal line and don’t go for it, if I was an offensive lineman, and my coach did that to me, I wouldn’t be very happy.

“They owe me one and they know it.”

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