Dave Doeren said no one felt worse than NC State QB Brennan Armstrong felt worse after the Wolfpack’s Friday night loss to Louisville. Armstrong, a transfer from Virginia, had his least productive game so far at NC State, going 13-of-25 passing for just 112 yards and 2 interceptions.

Armstrong was NC State’s leading rusher with 61 yards, but the passing issues were the focus of Doeren’s postgame press conference. Doeren shared his thoughts on what went wrong.

“So there’s a lot of things that happened,” Doeren told reporters. “We got beat in pass protection multiple times. There were some blitzes that came for free. There were times where we were not open and there were times where there were guys open and Brennan couldn’t see him because of the pass rush.”

Doeren reminded reporters and fans that connecting with an open receiver isn’t always as easy as it looks.

“I know when you’re in the stands, you see a guy open and you’re like, throw it to him. Well, you know, he might have a guy in his face, and he can’t see him,” Doeren said. “So sometimes that happens at the quarterback position. Again, without really seeing the tape and knowing all those things as it happened in real-time to be able to give you a lot better detail, obviously, in my press conference.

“From the sideline, they played a lot of man coverage. We weren’t always open. There was a lot of pressure. We were behind the chains too much. Whether it was a penalty that put us back there or negative plays, we were in a lot of bad down and distances, and that’s tough on offense.”

Armstrong and the Pack will look to get back on track in Week 6 against Marshall.