FSU football: 3 hidden areas Noles must improve in 2021

Red Zone Scoring

The FSU offense showed signs of life last season, particularly on the first drive of games with scripted plays. Once those plays were done, it was a lot of inconsistency, especially in the red zone.

The Noles left way too many scoring opportunities on the field, getting in the red zone 31 times and only scoring 23 times (73 percent). The good news is 19 of those 23 times were touchdowns.

The other good sign is the number of times FSU was in the red zone in only nine games. They reached the red zone 40 times in 13 games in 2019 and 32 times in 12 games in 2018.

We’ve talked about the need to improve field goal kicking, so that’s part of the low scoring percentage in the red zone.

However, the Noles need to score touchdowns and not settle for field goals. Often, the Noles would commit dumb penalties (false starts or holding), and the offense wasn’t good enough to overcome those mistakes.

The offense had limitations in the intermediate passing game, plus the wide receivers often struggled to get separation in close quarters. The ability to score in the red zone will increase with better quarterback play.

Better quarterback play makes the defense have to respect more options, plus it makes the offensive line look better without having to pass block as long.

The Noles have several 50/50 games on the schedule, and scoring touchdowns instead of kicking field goals could be the difference in a few wins or losses.