FSU football: Louisville game gives Noles an edge for the first time

FSU football will look to sustain the momentum gained from its huge upset win over North Carolina when they travel to Louisville.

FSU football may have played its most complete game in all three phases last week as they upset No. 5 North Carolina.

The first half was the most complete since sometime in the Jimbo Fisher era, but the second half saw a lot of points left on the field with an inability to step on North Carolina’s necks when they had them down.

FSU football will go into the Louisville game as betting underdogs for the third consecutive game. However, the Noles have covered the spread in the last two games and won outright last week as +13.5 point underdogs.

There’s one thing favoring the Noles against Louisville that they haven’t had all year. The Cardinals will be the first team on schedule the Noles played last year.

They have the same quarterback, running backs, and its two leading wide receivers from a year ago returning. Defensively, they return most of the team they had last year, but the offense is the strongest part of their team.

This game will be the first team the Noles have faced that they can use last year as a map of sorts to game plan. All of the other teams they have faced so far were either not on the schedule last season or featured new quarterbacks or new offensive coordinators.

The FSU defense had some success against this team last year, and looking at that film could give Adam Fuller ways to see how Louisville tried to expose them. I think FSU’s offense will be able to have success against Louisville’s defense.

The biggest question remains on defense for the Noles. They had their best effort last week against North Carolina and will find success again if they give the same type of effort. The offensive coaches can look at last year’s film to see there their defense was vulnerable as well.

That’s something this coaching staff seems to excel at, game planning and playing to the strengths of their players.

We’ll see how good they are on Saturday afternoon with finally having last year’s game film to use.