Passive philosophy backfires on defense
It was pretty obvious after the first couple of series Saturday that Florida State's defense was content to not take chances and wait for Wake Forest freshman quarterback Kendall Hinton to make mistakes. On paper, the conservative game plan made some sense, but not so much in practice.
In the last two games against Army and Indiana, Hinton completed just 34 of 69 (49 percent) of his pass attempts, had three interceptions and just one touchdown. It follows that he would be off-target often enough against a basic defensive formation such that the Deacons' offense would be forced into a good number of third-and-long situations.
That just didn't happen.
Wake Forest's offense faced just two third downs that were longer than six yards. In fact, the Deacons needed just four yards or less on 10 of these third-downs tries. On those 10 third-and-four or shorter situations, Wake converted seven. Being able to consistently convert on third down and control the football not only greatly contributed to the huge disparity in time of possession -- 35:56 to 24:04 -- it also kept FSU's offense off the field. That resulted in the Seminoles having just nine full offensive possessions, the fewest of any game so far this season.
Offense better but sputters down the stretch
Through the first two and a half quarters at Wake Forest, it looked like Florida State's offense got a wake-up call after its lackluster effort at Boston College. The Seminoles scored on four of their first six drives, including three touchdowns, and appeared to have the game well in hand with a 24-10 lead midway into the third quarter.
At that point, all FSU needed was one field goal, and the outcome would have become a foregone conclusion. Instead, the offense reverted to sputter-mode, opening the door for Wake Forest to make a comeback attempt. If not for an interception by Tyler Hunter late in the game, the Deacons might have been able to tie the game at the end of regulation.
On those final three drives, the Seminole offense managed just 32 yards on 12 plays (2.7 yards per play) with one first down. The 2.7 yards-per-play average is exactly what FSU averaged at Boston College following the first, and only, scoring drive.
A season-high in penalties
Through the first three games, FSU averaged 5.3 penalties per game for 37 yards. That dramatically changed in Winston-Salem this past Saturday.
Florida State was tagged with a whopping 10 penalties for 100 yards. That's the most penalties assessed against FSU since the Oct. 19, 2013 game at Clemson. Meanwhile, Wake Forest was flagged just five times for 32 yards.
More surprising than the high number of penalties was that most were called against the Seminole defense. All in all, the defense was flagged seven times for 80 yards. The inordinate number of defensive penalties greatly aided Wake Forest's game plan to eat the clock and keep the football away from FSU's offense.
There were also several non-calls that were just as perplexing including a horse-collar, a roughing the kicker (called running into), a couple of clipping calls on Wake Forest kick returns and also some holds that went unchecked.
Doing a little research, I discovered that lead official Penn Wagers was quite notorious in the SEC before "retiring" earlier this year. With his long history of controversy, you have to wonder how voluntary his departure was considering he quickly latched on with the ACC (guessing he took a pay cut).
Sampling of links on Mr. Wagers during his time in the SEC:
SEC: Referee Made Mistake Running Clock
Notorious SEC referee behind controversial calls decides to retire
FSU with the most active players in the NFL?
With practice squads, injured reserve and players constantly being activated or sliding into inactive status, it's difficult to confirm exactly how many players from one school are on active NFL rosters.
With Florida State setting the record for the most players drafted over a three-year stretch (29), it's not surprising that the 'Noles are near the top of the list for the most players in the league.
According to ESPN, FSU currently has 36 players in the NFL. However, a story in Business Insider, citing Pro-Football-Reference, says FSU is No. 1 overall in players in the league with 56 (see chart below).
A story by the NCAA website in September reported that LSU led the way with 38 players on NFL rosters after teams trimmed their rosters down to 53. FSU was reportedly in sixth place with 33 players. http://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2015-09-06/colleges-most-players-nfl-rosters
While it's up for debate which school has the most players in the NFL, FSU definitely has the honor of having the most on a single team -- seven on the Buffalo Bills. Cool video from Buffalo station WIBV.
Records watch
So far in 2015, some records have fallen and others are within range.
• With the win on Saturday, Florida State has won 26 games in a row against ACC opponents. The record for the most straight ACC wins is 29 set by the Seminoles from 1992 to 1995. FSU could potentially tie that record on Oct. 24 at Georgia Tech. The next ACC game after that is Halloween versus Syracuse.
• For the fourth straight game, the Seminole offense did not commit a turnover. That extends what was already a school record for protecting the football. FSU's only turnover was on a punt return in the opening game against Texas State. Only two other teams have just one total turnover (LSU and Navy).
• Dalvin Cook's first-quarter, 94-yard touchdown run was the longest run in BB&T Field history. It was also the third-longest rush in the history of FSU football. The longest was Larry Key going 97 yards vs. Virginia Tech in 1976. Sammie Smith's 95-yard run vs. Furman in 1987 is the second longest.
• Even with him sitting out the final three quarters of the Wake Forest game, Dalvin Cook is still on pace to shatter FSU's single-season rushing record. Through four games, he has 570 rushing yards on 66 carries (8.6 per-rush average). Assuming a 13-game schedule (no ACC championship), Cook is on pace to rush for 1,852 yards. The current record is held by Warrick Dunn, who rushed for 1,242 yards in 1995.
Last edited:
