FSU football: 3 big overreactions to the Pittsburgh win

Offensive Playcalling

I’m not going to lie, watching the game in real-time was frustrating, particularly all of the called screen passes Pittsburgh kept snuffing out. It’s also frustrating to watch FSU continue to call run plays up the gut in short-yardage situations when they know the offensive line can’t move defensive fronts off the line of scrimmage.

The FSU offense continuing to throw passes to receivers downfield who seemingly can’t win 50-50 passes was frustrating. The flea-flicker play late in the game on 2nd and six was frustrating because I felt like FSU was in a rhythm and could have scored on that possession.

However, in hindsight, I think Mike Norvell was extra-vanilla offensively because he didn’t think Pittsburgh could score.

Also, I think Mike Norvell was putting some stuff on tape for Miami to prepare for next week with that game on deck. I also think he was giving some young guys an opportunity to show what they could do in certain situations. It’s almost like he treated the game like a scrimmage at times. Norvell usually has a reason for everything he does, so I’ve learned to trust him.

However, that’s not to say some of the stuff frustrates you as a fan. However, it’s also possible some of the stuff he put on tape Saturday could directly impact the Miami game next week.

If they ran a ton of screens to set up something for next week that results in an explosive touchdown score? It was well worth the frustration Saturday.