It wasn’t pretty for FSU football against the Florida Gators on Saturday night. The FSU offense ran three plays in the first quarter, and the FSU defense was on the field for much of the first half.
Florida ran a simple offense, leaning on its running game to get to third and manageable for their freshman backup quarterback. It felt like death by a thousand paper cuts, on top of a major blunder by the ACC officials in a critical situation.
It was third and goal from the FSU 10-yard line, and safety Akeem Dent timed a blitz perfectly for the sack, which was a loss of 10 yards.
However, the refs called a penalty for unnecessary roughness, which gave Florida first and goal from the five-yard line instead of fourth and goal from the FSU 20-yard line.
That play seemed to take the wind out of the sails, and FSU was reeling over the next few minutes. However, Florida failed to deliver a knockout blow.
One key moment was Billy Napier deciding to kick a field goal on a fourth and one from the FSU 17-yard line to make it 10-0.
They probably should have gone for it, and had they gotten it, they would have had a great shot to score a touchdown.
FSU at a 14-0 deficit would have been daunting, considering the game flow. Nevertheless, FSU continued to fight. Here are my five major takeaways from the win over Florida.
Ability To Overcome Adversity
We’ve seen it from this football team all season. They got behind against Clemson 17-7 in the first half on the road earlier this season.
FSU got behind Duke 10-0 in the first half earlier this season. They were behind Northern Alabama 13-0 last week before they scored 58 unanswered points.
Saturday night was no different as the Noles were down 12-0, with four minutes to go in the first half. However, once the Noles cut the lead to 12-7 at halftime, I never felt we were going to lose the game.
Florida squandered some major opportunities to score, and I knew the FSU defense has been lights out in the second half every game. I needed the FSU offense to wake up, and I figured they would after that 90-yard 10 play touchdown drive before halftime.
Mike Norvell says it all the time, but this team is built to overcome adversity. It’s such a stark contrast to the program when he took over in December 2019.
It was good to see this was still the case, even though Jordan Travis wasn’t on the field.
Special Teams
When I compare FSU football to other teams nationally, I always like to use offense, defense, and special teams. FSU is among the most complete teams nationally in all three phases.
It’s important, because some teams can pick up the slack when another phase isn’t playing well. We saw a prime example Saturday night with the FSU special teams unit.
The FSU offense couldn’t get much going, and aside from one shank, Alex Mastromanno had another solid night punting.
He had punts of 47, 16 43, 44, and 43 yards. Florida didn’t return a single punt all night. Ryan Fitzgerald did a great job kicking every kickoff(except one) out of the end zone to limit Florida’s kick return game. Fitzgerald also made his lone field goal attempt.
Keon Coleman didn’t have a big night as a receiver, but made his presence felt at punt returner. His 34-yard punt return set up an FSU offensive score.
FSU struggled with poor field position in the first half, and that punt return was huge to give them a spark.
Tate Rodemaker Managed And Made Some Big Throws
I said in my podcast, I was cool with Tate Rodemaker not forcing things and FSU punting. I knew Rodemaker needed to play a clean game to have a chance to win the game.
Aside from a couple of plays, I thought Tate Rodemaker made solid decisions and didn’t give Florida’s defense a chance to change the game.
While he only completed 12 of 25 attempts, Rodemaker made a couple of huge third downs plays. The 3rd and nine throw to Johnny Wilson to set up the first FSU touchdown. The fourth down conversion pass to Ja’Khi Douglas was a grown-man throw.
He also had a big-time throw to Jaheim Bell. He had a few throws he’d like back. He threw two catchable passes to Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman that needed to be better passes.
The pass to Wilson was on third down, and the pass to Keon Coleman was in the end zone. Rodemaker held the ball a bit too much and didn’t use his legs nearly as much as I thought.
All in all, he did enough to win, but will need to step up his game more next week against a better defense. Also, shoutout to Trey Benson for his performance. It’s frustrating to watch Benson because he’ll have six runs for nine yards and look awful, then will break a long run for a touchdown.
Defensive Line ATE
The FSU defensive line whipped Florida’s offensive line all night. Florida hit a couple of runs here and there because FSU linebackers didn’t fill their gaps(and a lot of holding went uncalled on the UF offensive line).
The FSU defensive line had 7.5 tackles for a loss and six sacks. Jared Verse had 2.5 sacks, and Patrick Payton had two more sacks.
Braden Fiske had five tackles and a sack. Joshua Farmer had five tackles and one tackle for a loss. Fabien Lovett had three tackles and a sack.
Florida’s offense was limited with the backup quarterback, and they had no shot in obvious passing siutations. Aside from a couple of passes where their backup QB made a great throw, FSU didn’t give up much through the air.
A lot of folks wrote off Adam Fuller’s defense before the season began, but they have been dominant much of the year.
They kept the Noles in the game long enough for the FSU offense to get themselves together.
Dominant Defense
The defense was why the Noles were not getting ran out of the Swamp in the first half Saturday night. They held Florida to field goals(aside from the erraneous unnecessary roughness call). Florida missed two long field goals and only had 232 total yards.
The FSU defense held Florida to 34 total yards in the second half. They had six sacks and 11 tackles for a loss. Florida only had 86 yards passing, and Florida’s best receiver, Rickey Pearsall, only had one reception for 17 yards. Florida’s freshman standout, Eugene Wilson, had three receptions for 36 yards.
I know some folks will point to the quarterbacks FSU faced this season, but this is the type of perforance you give when facing guys like this. I pointed out how well the FSU defensive line played, and their performance helped the FSU secondary lock up the Florida wide reciever corps.
It’s all about playing complementary football. Adam Fuller called some well-timed blitzes when they needed it most. It’s great to see the defense rise to the ocassion since I’ve been vocal about how they’d be fie all season.