FSU football: 3 major takeaways from OT win over Clemson
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football got the overtime win on the road against a desperate Clemson Tiger team. A lot of folks picked the Tigers to “upset” the Noles, but FSU made a few more plays when it mattered. It’s why I predicted FSU would defeat Clemson in the preseason.
The crazy part? FSU didn’t play well at all, especially offensively, as they only had 311 total yards in the game. The offense only ran 57 plays in the game, including overtime. Their struggles were the inability to establish a running game, too many vertical passes(and receiver drops), and the inability to convert third downs (4 of 13).
The defense wasn’t flawless and plagued by missed tackles, and credit to Clemson receivers making a few contested catches on third down. Clemson was 6 of 14 on third down and 1 of 2 on fourth down(including the final play of the game).
There is a lot of stuff FSU needs to improve upon, but some of it involves team health. They continue to miss Akeem Dent at safety and tackle Robert Scott Jr. missed another game. Maurice Smith returned Saturday but exited the game hurt.
At the end of the day, FSU is 4-0 and where they wanted to be at this point in the season. Here are three major takeaways from the Clemson win.