One of the biggest criticisms of this Florida State football team during its four-game losing streak was the defense’s inability to get stops in general or when it really mattered.
We wrote about how Wake Forest wasn’t great on offense. Their quarterbacks were not the most accurate, but that didn’t seem to matter when FSU played Stanford two weeks ago.
That’s why most FSU fans were likely shocked when FSU was less than eight minutes away from pitching a shutout against Wake Forest on Saturday night.
We’ll give credit to the FSU defense. It’s the best effort they’ve given in weeks, and they turned it on once the FSU offense finally started scoring points when they got stops. Who would have thought complementary football would have that type of effect? That’s sarcasm, because FSU has failed to do that effectively in almost every game during the four-game losing streak.
Was the FSU defensive performance fool’s gold, though? Wake Forest had multiple explosive plays called back because of penalties. One could say those plays wouldn’t have happened if the Demon Deacons hadn’t committed the penalties. That’s fair, but Wake Forest also shot themselves in the foot with a huge turnover that had nothing to do with Florida State’s defense early in the third quarter when the score was 14-0.
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The FSU offense had just turned it over on downs, and Wake Forest drove to the FSU 17-yard line, aided by a fourth-down pass interference call, before Wake Forest had an errant snap that bounced off the helmet of a player in motion that FSU defensive back Jabrill Rawls scooped up and returned to the FSU 38-yard line.
That play changed the entire game, as the FSU offense capitalized and scored an eventual touchdown to make it 21-0, and the rest is history.
One could say the FSU defense got enough stops in the first half, that if the FSU offense was more effective, it should have been a blowout at halftime. That would also be true.
As hard as the defense played on Saturday night, it still felt as though they would have gotten carved up if Wake Forest had a better offense and didn’t commit so many penalties. The often had a lot of time to throw the ball, and there were players open over the middle way too much.
It was good to see them playing with some emotion and effort. We’ll see if there have been major improvements next week when they go on the road to Clemson. The Tigers put up 45 points in a Duke loss on Saturday, and they have an experienced quarterback who likely won’t miss some of the throws we saw go incomplete from Wake Forest.