First, no excuse ever to lose that game. But, I think early in the season, the mental approach to each game is impacted way too much by how teams think they played based on misjudged competition. In our case, I was freaked out by ND almost losing to Toledo at home. They are not a top 10-15 team right now. Might be later in the year, but not know. Therefore, our players, coaches, fans, etc. had a false sense of security and our own hype of being back at the worst time. We lost focus, though we hung and could have beat a top 10 team, and it played a big role in the outcome. This seems obvious now, but it is not just FSU, it's happening across CFB in the first two weeks. We had no legitimate reason to just "show up" given the last few years, but it cost us and turned a massive positive in the public narrative to a national embarassment. I hope our coaches, players, fans take this and pull it forward for a long time that each game stands on its own and we are not at a point as a program to just show up.
Now I think we will bounce back and have a great game against Wake and win as the opposite will happen. They are favored, have only played cupcakes, and we will play mad. Take the points. It's all about mental psyche early in the year.