Sorry this week's Five Takes is a little late. We had several big recruiting updates the last couple days and wanted to get those up before we ran my weekly column.
Take One: Questionable calls drastically changed game
If you’re a Florida State fan, the overriding theme for Saturday’s game was officiating. Several times during the four-hour contest, there were questionable calls or non-calls made by the ACC officiating crew.
At different times, both Florida State and Clemson were on the short end of the stick for certain officiating decisions. However, the large majority of those calls went against the home team, with many occurring at extremely inopportune times.
The most notable call, and the one that probably altered the outcome of the game, took place at the 11:30 mark of the fourth quarter. With Florida State holding the edge in momentum and a two-point advantage, Dalvin Cook ripped off a 42-yard run that would have given FSU a first down at Clemson’s 33-yard line. But late into the play, referee Jeff Heaser flagged Freddie Stevenson for blocking below the waist. After a lengthy argument between Jimbo Fisher and the officiating crew, the bench was also penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. When the dust settled, the offense was backed up to its own 10-yard line – 57 yards from where it would have been had the call not been made.
Replays showed that Stevenson initiated the block of Clemson safety Van Smith above the waist region but barely grazed him. After the block attempt, Stevenson fell to the ground with his hand landing on Smith’s foot. The revised 2016 NCAA rule provides that on blocks of this nature, the force of the initial contact must be directed from the front if it is below the waist. But some screen shots of the play clearly show that Stevenson did initiate contact above the waist.
Simply put, the illegal block call should never have been made, especially not in that situation. There are numerous similar blocks made in every college football game (probably more when Georgia Tech is involved) that never get flagged. Even assuming the official was out of position to see where contact was initiated and mistakenly believed that Stevenson's block started around the waist, to make an incredibly ticky-tack call like that in the fourth quarter during a crucial moment was a foolish.
Several other questionable calls just exacerbated the apparent disparity, and inconsistency, in the officiating.
During the series immediately prior to the illegal block call, safety Trey Marshall was ejected for a targeting penalty when it looked like the helmet-to-helmet contact was caused by a Clemson receiver dipping his head into the defender. Nevertheless, the 15-yard penalty was assessed and FSU’s starting strong safety was ejected. At another point, quarterback Deondre Francois was hit late by a defender leading with his helmet. And there were a couple of instances late in the game when it appeared as though an FSU receiver was being held or interfered with by a Clemson defender -- but no call was made.
All of this added up to a horribly officiated contest that very likely changed the outcome of the game. And it’s not lost on anyone that the outcome might have saved Clemson’s, and the ACC’s, chances of making the College Football Playoff.
Take Two: Tracking OL woes
USA Today Sports Images
Despite several questionable officiating calls on Saturday, Florida State was in still prime position to win the game late.
With 43 seconds left and FSU down just three points, the Seminoles had first-and-10 from Clemson’s 34-yard line. With a timeout left, there was plenty of time to drive for a potential game-winning touchdown, or at the very least give Ricky Aguayo a higher-percentage shot at a game-tying field goal. Instead, a disastrous meltdown in the final seconds destroyed all chances at a win, or even an attempt at a tie.
In what may go down as the biggest late-game implosion since Xavier Lee threw three straight incompletions – on the same simple route -- versus Miami in 2007, the offense completely bogged down on six straight plays from scrimmage. On first down, right tackle Brock Ruble, who two plays earlier got called for holding, was flagged for a false start. That penalty effectively pushed the offense out of field goal range. On the very next play, true freshman right guard Landon Dickerson was cited for a false start. So instead of a first-and-10 from the 34, FSU was pushed back to a first-and-20 from the 44-yard line. Following back-to-back incompletions, Clemson ripped through FSU’s porous line twice for sacks to secure the victory. On both plays, the Tiger defenders easily penetrated the line, depriving Francois of any opportunity to find a receiver.
A common theme on Saturday was that every penalty that was assessed against the offensive line, and nearly every breakdown, occurred between the center and right tackle positions. That portion of the line has been a major weakness over the last two seasons.
At no point during preseason practices was it anticipated that Brock Ruble or Landon Dickerson would be starters. At right tackle, the staff seemed sold on the notion that former defensive end Rick Leonard would be able to quickly make the transition to a new position in a matter of months. After just three games, it became apparent that he wasn’t ready and was benched for Ruble. Even more odd is that redshirt junior Wilson Bell, who has 14 career starts at guard, was benched early in the season for a true freshman. Now, it sure looks like it may have been too soon to throw Dickerson into the mix.
The staff also seems to have put all its eggs into having Alec Eberle in as the starting center. He took most of the first-team reps at center during spring and preseason practices. Despite all those snaps with the starting line, being in the system for three years and starting six games last season, the play at center hasn’t shown any real improvement.
Leonard, Ruble and Eberle have a lot of football in front of them, and they could all eventually develop into outstanding college players. But for now, with the benefit of hindsight, it sure looks like the staff was premature throwing Leonard into the mix before he was ready, and failed to come up with workable contingency plans at right tackle and center.
Take Three: Fisher’s decision to publicly rip the officials was the right one
During his post-game press conference, Jimbo Fisher didn’t hesitate to air his frustrations with the ACC officiating crew following FSU’s 37-34 loss to Clemson. The decision to “go public” instead of handling grievances with the league behind closed doors has drawn mix reactions from fans and media. The reaction from the ACC office certainly wasn’t mixed as they reprimanded Fisher and issued a fine to the school for $20,000.
Make no mistake, his decision to publicly throw Saturday’s officiating crew under the bus was a good one.
For years, Fisher frequently hinted that he was dissatisfied with certain calls, or even some officiating crews, but until this weekend never crossed the line of going fully public with his concerns. Instead, he followed league procedure by sending clips of questionable calls to the ACC Coordinator of Football Officiating for clarification. Sometimes the league admitted mistakes, but this was always done behind the scenes. The hope is that these exchanges would improve the quality and fairness of officiating and do so without having to worry about blowback from college fan bases and media.
While that’s all good in theory, if Fisher truly believes that FSU has consistently been on the short end of the stick or is convinced that the quality of officiating hasn’t improved by going through the accepted channels, then going public may be the only way to bring about necessary change. There’s also no doubt that lashing out at officials for what the team believes were incorrect calls won him points with the players. Finally, Fisher’s actions show that he is incredibly passionate about winning, and sometimes wears it on his sleeve like many of us do.
Even after Fisher publicly outed the officiating from Saturday's game, some in the media still missed the boat. Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi incorrectly stated in his Monday column that Stevenson's contact "appeared to be below the waist from behind". I know Mike was at the game because I saw him there but he apparently wasn't paying much attention to the replays or saw the screen shot above before writing his misguided column. Sure, Fisher could have dialed it down a couple notches in his post-game presser but when a blatantly incorrect call just cost you the biggest game of the season, and this type of lousy officiating has become commonplace in the ACC, he had every right to blast what was clearly horrible officiating.
Take Four: Defense passes eye test
Getty Images
If you just looked at the box score, you might think that Saturday was another down-and-out performance by the Seminole defense. Of course, with Florida State giving up 37 points and 511 yards of offense, it wasn’t exactly a performance that the defense should be satisfied with. Nevertheless, in this instance, statistics don’t tell the whole story.
Unlike earlier games against Louisville and North Carolina, the defense has been much more physical as of late. Effort no longer appears to be an issue. On Saturday, the defense was also much more active, recording four sacks with seven tackles for loss. The ‘Noles hurried the quarterback three times and broke up five pass attempts. Point is, despite Clemson posting big offensive numbers, the Seminole defense passed the eye test.
It’s also important to note that after giving up two straight touchdowns to start the game, the defense settled down, holding a vaunted Clemson offense in check for a good stretch of the game. Following those two first-quarter scores, the Tigers managed just two field goals over the next eight drives. And it’s probably not a coincidence that Clemson scored two touchdowns and a field goal on its final three drives only after starting strong safety Trey Marshall was ejected from the game for a questionable targeting call (see Take One).
With Marshall on the bench, an already depleted Seminole secondary was down a third starter for the final 13:51 of the game – Nate Andrews and Derwin James were injured earlier in the season and already out. With Marshall absent, FSU’s secondary down the stretch included two true freshmen and a true sophomore with two career starts. This inexperienced group got baptized by fire as it had to go up against one of the nation’s top quarterbacks and passing attacks.
Over the course of the Tigers’ final three drives against FSU’s depleted secondary, Deshaun Watson led his team on three straight scoring drives that amassed 17 points and 173 total yards of offense. Of those 177 yards, 134 came via the pass, 28 via the run and 15 from a penalty. Clemson’s coaching staff knew full well it could take advantage of the inexperience in the Seminole secondary and pounced on the opportunity.
Regardless of those final few drives, it seems obvious that the defense is trending in the right direction after a horrific start to the season.
Take Five: Stat Wrap – Week Nine
* After nine weeks, Florida State ranks in the top 25 in the following categories: Turnover margin (12), red-zone offense (5), punt returns (6) and time of possession (5).
* In the not-so-good category, FSU ranks No. 90 in passing yard allowed, No. 79 in scoring defense, No. 73 in third-down conversion defense, No. 118 in net punting, No. 121 in sacks allowed (3.25 per game), and No. 126 in penalties per game (8.9) and penalty yards (83.9).
- Individually, Jesus Wilson is No. 3 in punt returns, averaging 17.2 yards per return.
- Freshman Ricky Aguayo is No. 22 in scoring, averaging 9.3 points a game.
- Senior defensive end DeMarcus Walker is No. 6 in the nation in sacks with 8.5.
- Sophomore cornerback Tarvarus McFadden is tied for No. 1 in interceptions with six.
- Junior tailback Dalvin Cook is No. 5 nationally in rushing with 1,069 yards (No. 2 among P5 schools).
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