The Osceola staff will be taking a second look at FSU's 14-9 win over Cal today (Sunday) and Monday and share our thoughts on some of what we saw, and we thought were key moments in getting the Seminoles back in the win column.
Sidenote: I will be traveling today so might not get through the whole game until tomorrow.
A couple of overall thoughts. FSU didn't play perfect but when you are 0-3 heading into a game there is no such thing as an ugly win. In fact, this game played out about how most of us on the Osceola staff thought. It was going to be a defensive battle where two struggling offenses were going to have trouble getting into the end zone. That is how this game indeed played out. This was a huge win for this team. It had to give it some confidence, especially on defense which played very good football on 3rd down and in the red zone. The offense still has quite a bit of work to do but did just enough to get out of the game with a victory. FSU also won the battle of the kicking game. The Seminoles didn't make any mistakes in the kicking game while Cal missed two very makeable field goals.
This looks like the formula for this football team after four games and a 1-3 start. Play bend but don't break defense behind a what hopefully will continue to be a disruptive defensive front that has played well against the run the last two games and got a little better against the pass (to some degree on Saturday night, not as many blown coverages), great special teams (except for fumbled punt vs. Memphis) and just enough offense to get the job done. We did see a bigger commitment to the running game if not better play and I think that helped in this game.
We also saw a team that played with effort at least from a team standpoint and we are starting to see some young players take steps forward; Quindarrius Jones, Edwin Joseph, KJ Kirkland, Kam Davis and Jaylen Early to name a few. Jahki Douglas, Josh Farmer and Patrick Payton are a couple of the veterans who looked like they might have had their best game of the year.
It was an imperfect performance which ended in a perfect result, FSU went 1-0 against Cal, and that is good enough for this week. Most fans would have liked a little more optically pleasing win, but this is still a flawed football team, particularly on offense, so take the wins when you can get them no matter how they look. And maybe more importantly enjoy them. I am still not sure how many are out there this year.
Now, we will see if this team can build off this as it travels to SMU next weekend for what should be a very winnable game as the Mustangs, I think are very similar to both Memphis and Cal from a talent standpoint across the board and probably not as good as both those teams upfront.
Sidenote: I will be traveling today so might not get through the whole game until tomorrow.
A couple of overall thoughts. FSU didn't play perfect but when you are 0-3 heading into a game there is no such thing as an ugly win. In fact, this game played out about how most of us on the Osceola staff thought. It was going to be a defensive battle where two struggling offenses were going to have trouble getting into the end zone. That is how this game indeed played out. This was a huge win for this team. It had to give it some confidence, especially on defense which played very good football on 3rd down and in the red zone. The offense still has quite a bit of work to do but did just enough to get out of the game with a victory. FSU also won the battle of the kicking game. The Seminoles didn't make any mistakes in the kicking game while Cal missed two very makeable field goals.
This looks like the formula for this football team after four games and a 1-3 start. Play bend but don't break defense behind a what hopefully will continue to be a disruptive defensive front that has played well against the run the last two games and got a little better against the pass (to some degree on Saturday night, not as many blown coverages), great special teams (except for fumbled punt vs. Memphis) and just enough offense to get the job done. We did see a bigger commitment to the running game if not better play and I think that helped in this game.
We also saw a team that played with effort at least from a team standpoint and we are starting to see some young players take steps forward; Quindarrius Jones, Edwin Joseph, KJ Kirkland, Kam Davis and Jaylen Early to name a few. Jahki Douglas, Josh Farmer and Patrick Payton are a couple of the veterans who looked like they might have had their best game of the year.
It was an imperfect performance which ended in a perfect result, FSU went 1-0 against Cal, and that is good enough for this week. Most fans would have liked a little more optically pleasing win, but this is still a flawed football team, particularly on offense, so take the wins when you can get them no matter how they look. And maybe more importantly enjoy them. I am still not sure how many are out there this year.
Now, we will see if this team can build off this as it travels to SMU next weekend for what should be a very winnable game as the Mustangs, I think are very similar to both Memphis and Cal from a talent standpoint across the board and probably not as good as both those teams upfront.
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