FSU football: 3 major takeaways from OT win over Clemson

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.

FSU Offense Has To Find Running Game

FSU hasn’t run the ball well all season. Trey Benson led FSU running backs with 25 yards on seven carries.

FSU running backs only ran the ball 12 times, Jordan Travis ran it six, and Jaheim Bell got two carries(I still don’t know why).

I thought the return of Maurice Smith to the center position would help, but that wasn’t the case. Some of it was that FSU was playing the best defensive front they’ll see the rest of the season in Clemson.

Some of it is Jordan Travis isn’t 100 percent healthy and doesn’t seem to have that extra gear or willingness to run like he can when he’s healthy. Some of it is FSU running backs not hitting the right holes when they were there.

Mike Norvell’s offenses have always been able to run the ball, even when they didn’t have a good offensive line and quarterback play.

I think they’ll figure it out, and they’ll need to if they want to have a shot to win the rest of their games.

Defense Won The Game

Was Adam Fuller and the defense perfect against Clemson? No, but they are largely why they won the game. The FSU defense gave the offense four opportunities to take the lead in regulation, and the offense failed to score points every single time.

The offense only scored three points in the second half of regulation. That’s unacceptable for a unit many thought would be among the best in the nation. Clemson ran 79 plays for 429 yards (5.43 ypp) but did most of their damage from missed tackles.

FSU had guys in position to make numerous plays, but missed tackles likely cost them over 100 yards. Clemson receivers made a couple of tough catches on third down to move the chains.

However, it was Kalen DeLoach blitzing, forcing a fumble, and picking the ball up to run it back for a score that changed the game.

Clemson didn’t score in the last 15 minutes of regulation or overtime.

There are many things the defense needs to clean up, and they sorely miss Akeem Dent at safety. However, they have been the most consistent unit on the team thus far through four games.

Bye Week Coming At Perfect Time

This FSU football team needs the upcoming bye-week like nobody’s business. The Noles won’t return to game action until October 7 against Virginia Tech(I will be at that game). That’s 14 days for all the bumps, bruises, and injuries to heal.

That likely gives Akeem Dent and Robert Scott Jr. enough time to return to action. It gives Jordan Travis time to get better, and hopefully, Maurice Smith can return by then since he left the game Saturday. Want to hear some more good news?

Virginia Tech is a terrible team, and FSU could likely go without most of these guys and still beat them, so they could potentially have more time to get right if needed.

The bye-week gives the coaches time to reassess the first four games, self scout, and figure out how to improve.

It also gives some second string guys time to get more reps at practice to continue building the needed depth. It hasn’t been pretty at times, but everyone would have taken a 4-0 start in the preseason.

It’s all about continuing to win and peaking at the right time later this season.