FSU football: Three North Carolina weaknesses benefitting the Noles

Final Thoughts

If I had more faith in the FSU football secondary, I wouldn’t hesitate to put the Tarheels on upset alert. However, the Noles made a Syracuse quarterback that couldn’t pass look like Tom Brady a few times last week.

I think FSU can limit North Carolina’s run game and put them in predictable passing situations as they did against Syracuse. The question is can they get stops on third and fourth downs?

I know they have dealt with injuries to players like Travis Jay and Akeem Dent. They have freshmen Omarion Cooper and Kevin Knowles in the rotation, but there’s too much miscommunication in key moments.

On a down-to-down basis, the defense plays well for the most part, but Sam Howell will pick things apart if the FSU defensive line can’t get constant pressure. The linebackers still struggle in space, and I expect their No. 1 receiver to have a big day.

North Carolina is a flawed team with a good quarterback that covers up a lot of their warts. It’s what FSU would have been if he stuck with his commitment coming out of high school.

If FSU can avoid turnovers and dumb penalties and not make dumb decisions on special teams? This game could be much closer than most expect. I know that’s a lot of IF’s, but hopefully, we’ll see an FSU team play well for 60 minutes.