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FSU Football: ‘Noles defense played their butts off against Miami

By Kelvin Hunt

MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 06: Brian Burns #99 of the Florida State Seminoles causes a fumble by N'Kosi Perry #5 of the Miami Hurricanes in the first half at Hard Rock Stadium on October 6, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 06: Brian Burns #99 of the Florida State Seminoles causes a fumble by N'Kosi Perry #5 of the Miami Hurricanes in the first half at Hard Rock Stadium on October 6, 2018 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /
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FSU football had a chance to capture what would have been its biggest win of the year but failed in the second half. The FSU defense played excellent in the loss.

Casual folk will look at the FSU football score against Miami and the FSU defense fell apart because they gave up 21 points in the second half.

The fact of the matter is if you watched the game, the FSU defense shut Miami’s offense down. It was the FSU offense’s inability to avoid turnovers deep in their own territory that changed the entire game.

Miami scored 14 points off turnovers that gave them the ball at the FSU 20 and FSU 17. Did I mention this happened on back-to-back possessions in 42 seconds?

The only thing I’d question about the FSU defense is the personnel they used in certain situations. It was not ideal to have true freshmen defensive backs who are giving up six inches in height on an island in the red zone.

They also gave up a couple of third and long conversions that were costly but that’s going to happen from time to time.

Here’s how FSU dominated the Miami offense:

  • Miami averaged 3.9 ypp
  • FSU sacked N’Kosi Perry five times and had 13 tackles for loss
  • Miami converted just five of 18 third downs(had been converting at 48 percent)
  • Miami offense had SIX three and outs
  • Miami rushed for 2.2 per carry

Thoughts

Miami actually drove the ball down the field and scored twice. One drive was 14 plays for 83 yards and the other was four plays for 73 yards. The other scoring drives were 20 and 17 yards respectively.

One could hope the FSU defense could have held Miami to field goals after the two turnovers by the FSU offense but that’s a tough ask. Not to mention the referees were quick to throw penalty flags for defensive pass interference against FSU, although Miami was mugging FSU receivers and it never got called.

FSU beat itself in the game with turnovers. It’s the one thing we said they couldn’t do and you saw the result of when they protected the ball and when they didn’t.

Next. 3 Reasons The Noles Could Have Upset Miami. dark

This FSU defense was excellent aside from a couple of plays here and there and certainly played well enough to win against Miami.

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