FSU football looks to win their final home game of 2020 against Duke.
Normally, I’d say FSU football has never lost to Duke in football, and it’s not going to start today, but we can’t draw that definitive conclusion with the way this year has gone.
FSU enters the game as slight betting favorites, having not played since losing to NC State on November 14. Duke lost to Miami 48-0 last week.
I’m not going to go too in-depth with this as I had to wait until late Friday to make sure the game was going to take place.
The FSU offense comes down to how healthy Jordan Travis is for the game. He hasn’t played since coming out of the game against Pittsburgh(he was hurt going into that game) on November 7.
Jordan Travis being hurt and playing while limited is what caused the FSU offense to stall. He’s most effective in the run game, which makes teams have to respect the pass, and if he can’t run, then the passing game is non-existent.
I don’t expect that to be the case on Saturday against Duke. They have struggled to stop the run all season, and I expect FSU to try and run the ball down their throats. I expect to see a steady diet of Travis, Jashaun Corbin, and Lawrence Toafili, with some vertical shots once Duke starts to cheat to stop the run.
I feel comfortable with the offense as long as Travis is healthy. However, the biggest question is, how will the FSU football defense look? Duke isn’t great offensively, but neither was Pittsburgh, and we saw how that turned out. I thought we’d seen an improvement in the defense after the bye week before the Louisville game, but there were no improvements to speak.
Not to mention, FSU will be without its best defensive player in Asante Samuel Jr., who has declared for the NFL Draft. If the defense has any type of success, I expect the Noles to come out victorious because I’m not sure how much Duke wants to play this game.
Will FSU seize the opportunity for its third win of the season? I think so, so I’m going Noles winning 31-24.