FSU football: 3 issues with the ‘Noles defense against Georgia Tech

Pass Coverage

Georgia Tech quarterback Jeff Sims had time to throw the ball most of the night. He had so much time he was able to complete 68.5 percent of his passes for 277 yards.

Florida State Seminoles Football

It’s not like Georgia Tech has receivers that are known for setting the world on fire, but they were able to get open at will, as Sims found 10 different targets on the night. The Noles only had five pass deflections in the game.

FSU’s defensive backs always seemed to be a step too late as they were playing off the line of scrimmage in zone coverage, or Georgia Tech did a good job of getting matchups with FSU’s linebackers who were poor in coverage.

I can understand FSU playing more zone against a mobile quarterback, but he still was able to get loose for 64 rushing yards. At some point, it would seem the Noles would have gone to more man-to-man or something.

The secondary did force two interceptions, but that was more of the freshman quarterback making bad decisions than anything. He also threw a pass right to Emmett Rice that would have been a pick-six, but Rice dropped the pass.

One can only imagine what will happen against Miami in two weeks with D’Eriq King, who’s more experienced and quicker than Sims.