FSU football: Top 3 areas defense must improve in 2022
By Kelvin Hunt
Explosive Plays Allowed
FSU football allowed 5.19 ypp in 2021, which was a drastic improvement over the 6.49 effort in 2020. The first four games were rough with FSU players missing tackles when they were in a position to make plays, or simply losing one-on-one battles when they were in a good position in the secondary.
The yards per play average was below five yards over the final eight games, but FSU probably wins a couple of more games if they could have eliminated some of the explosive plays allowed.
FSU tied for No. 49 nationally with 166 plays of 10+ yards allowed in 2021. They tied for No. 25 nationally with 49 plays of 20+ yards allowed and were No. 43 nationally with 23 plays of 30+ yards allowed.
They ranked No. 75 with 14 plays of 40+ yards allowed and had six plays of 50+ yards allowed, which ranked No. 49.
Overall, they were fairly average and probably above average over the final eight games, but they have to find better consistency from game one through game 12 to get that overall ypp allowed well below five.
Players were in position to make a lot of plays in 2021, and those players have to make those plays more times than not in 2022.