Running to the left is right
Florida State posted big rushing stats on Saturday night, racking up 266 yards on 41 attempts for an impressive 6.5 yards per attempt. But what was really impressive was when FSU decided to run to its left behind preseason All-America tackle Roderick Johnson and junior guard Kareem Are.
There were 10 rush attempts to the left side, and the end result of those rushes was 137 yards. That works out to a gaudy 13.7 yards per attempt.*
The Seminoles’ ability to churn out massive chunks of yardage to the left was so damaging to Texas State that the Bobcats decided to move an extra defender to that side of the field in the second half in hopes of slowing down FSU’s rush. However, the move barely made a dent in FSU’s ground game.
The results were pretty average when a rushing play was called to the right or up the middle. For rushes to the right, FSU finished with a respectable 24 yards on six attempts (4.0 per rush average).* When the play went up the middle or was on the goal line, the rushing total was a bit less with 15 yards on 5 carries (3.0 average).
* Does not include rush attempts on the goal line.
Run heavy start, pass happy end
Jimbo Fisher brought an interesting offensive game plan to the table on Saturday night.
It wasn’t a surprise that FSU relied heavily on the run early. A pass-happy start wouldn’t have made much sense given that Saturday was Everett Golson’s first start at FSU and the offensive line was extremely inexperienced and youthful.
That early reliance on the ground game manifested itself by FSU rushing 31 times though the first half and first series of the third quarter, compared to only 13 pass attempts. That equates to FSU rushing over 70 percent of the time on its first seven offensive series.
The coin was almost completely flipped during FSU’s final five offensive series, when the ‘Noles passed the ball 20 times compared to only 10 rushing attempts.
Why the sudden change from ground to air?
“We just got loosened up and the looks they gave us and what they started doing defensively allowed the passing game to come open,” Jimbo Fisher explained during Warchant.com Radio’s weekly Sunday night interview. “Before, we had the run looks. And then we had the pass looks. We aren’t going to be one-dimensional. We are going to take what you give us, but we are going to be patient.”
Defensive better than expected
While the opponent is nothing to write home about, Florida State’s defense, which was a bit of a question mark following an underachieving 2014 season, certainly passed its first test. Surrendering 16 points won’t make headlines, but when you look deeper into the numbers, it’s apparent that the defense turned in an outstanding effort.
Both scores against the first-team defense in the second quarter came off of special-teams blunders – a successful fake punt (3 points) and fumbled punt return that gave Texas State a short field to work with (7 points). The only other score was in the fourth quarter against FSU’s second- and third-team defensive units.
Outside of those two series following special-teams gaffes, the first-team defense surrendered a total of 91 yards on 40 plays (2.3 yards per offensive play). The first -team unit was also extremely stingy in third-down situations during these nine drives, allowing the Bobcats just 2 conversions on 11 attempts (18.2 percent), and 0-for-1 on fourth-down attempts. For the game, Texas State converted just 4 of 17 third-down tries (23.5 percent).
Linebacker Terrance Smith said after the game he thought the defense could have had a shutout had it not had those key mistakes on special teams, and he may be right. Texas State’s offense simply couldn’t muster a sustained drive when it had a long field in front of it – not until it went against the backups midway into the fourth quarter.
While hardly an offensive juggernaut, the Cougars ranked 25th last season in total offense among all FBS schools and had several returning starters in the lineup Saturday. So even though the defense didn’t exactly dominate one of the nation’s elite offenses, the Bobcats probably bring more to the table offensively than some other opponents FSU will see this season (Wake Forest, Syracuse, Chattanooga).
Heavy rotation on the DL
By the end of last year’s season opener versus Oklahoma State, Florida State’s starting defensive linemen were exhausted. In fact, Mario Edwards Jr. told Warchant.com that he played every one of the 70 plays that the defense was on the field. And the other three starters – Nile Lawrence-Stample, Eddie Goldman and DeMarcus Walker barely got any breathers as well.
Saturday night in Tallahassee was in stark contrast to last year’s opener in Arlington, Texas.
All four on the front line rotated frequently, early and often. Midway into the second quarter, six different players had lined up at defensive end and six more at defensive tackle.
- DE – DeMarcus Walker, Jacob Pugh, Josh Sweat, Giorgio Newberry, Chris Casher and Rick Leonard.
- DT – Derrick Nnadi, Nile Lawrence-Stample, Derrick Mitchell, Fredrick Jones, Demarcus Christmas and Giorgio Newberry.
Pressure Plus
Arguably the number one criticism that followed FSU’s defense following the 2014 season was the inability to mount a consistent pass rush. The numbers back up those claims. The ‘Noles ended the season with a paltry 17 total sacks, FSU’s worst sack-per-game average since sack statistics have been kept.
A dramatically improved pass rush has been the talk of the preseason, but until Saturday it was just talk.
While the statistics show just one sack on the night, FSU’s defense applied consistent pressure when it was needed. Of the Bobcats’ 42 pass attempts, only a handful of times did the QB actually sit in the pocket and look for open receivers – on a large majority of the pass attempts, the quarterback took a quick drop (2-3 steps) with the intended receiver running a very short route.
In looking back at the game, I counted nine times when it was an obvious passing situation, and on seven of those plays the defense got pressure on the Texas State quarterback and affected the play. On four other occasions, when it wasn’t an obvious passing down but the Bobcats still passed, the defense was able to bring pressure on the quarterback.
- One reason was the improved play of DeMarcus Walker, who seemed to emerge last spring when he was named co-defensive MVP. Walker officially finished with just two tackles and one QB hurry, but he was consistently beating his man and causing the Texas State offense difficulties.
- The early emergence of true freshman Josh Sweat has to be encouraging. The former five-star recruit saw the field on the defense’s very first series and impacted the game all night. He was on the field on nearly every third-down situation with the first-team defense.
- The push from the interior of the defensive line was also noticeable. Texas State’s quarterback couldn’t step up to make throws because his line was being pushed into the pocket for most of the evening.
- There were some third-and-long instances where the defensive line consisted of four players that are listed as ends, which gave the defense four players capable of applying pressure – Jacob Pugh, DeMarcus Walker, Giorgio Newberry and Josh Sweat.
- Jimbo Fisher told Warchant.com Radio that he was pleased with Bobo Wilson coming in on punt returns and that the junior receiver will be the starter on punt returns against South Florida.
- As he indicated during his postgame press conference, Fisher said there were no injuries of note following Saturday’s game. Offensive linemen Cole Minshew and Chad Mavety could be back this week at practice. Defensive end Lorenzo Featherston will likely be held out one more week as he recovers from a knee injury.
- Ten true freshmen saw action on Saturday night – WR George Campbell, OL Ethan Frith, DB Derwin James, CB Tavarus McFadden, RB Jacques Patrick, WR Da’Vante Phillips, OL David Robbins, DE Josh Sweat, LB Sh’Mar Kilby-Lane and WR Auden Tate.
