Inside the Seminole Film Room: 2nd Half... And Observations

by Bud Elliott on Oct 21, 2008 5:01 PM EDT in FSU Football Comment 5 comments

This is a big update, and should get you East Coasters through the final hour of work.

Inside, you will find:

Inside the Seminole Film Room: NC State 2nd half

Housekeeping:

Please post your questions for the Virginia Tech Expert Here

Inside the Seminole Film Room

The first part is available here (very good, with stillshots).

Let's roll with the second part, shall we? You'll notice this is a bit less detailed. I have to admit, that watching this second half, I came away with the feeling that we still haven't arrived. Hopefully I am just hyper-critical, and nit-pick too much.

1-G	at Fs30	Start of 3rd quarter, clock 15:00, FS ball on FS30.
		Drive: 18 plays, 74 yards, TOP 07:19
		Esco, J kickoff 70 yards to the ST0, Graham, T. return 14 yards to the ST14 (Lampkin, B.).
1/10	at St14	NC STATE drive start at 14:52.
1/10	at St14	Wilson, R. rush for 17 yards to the ST31, 1ST DOWN ST (McClure, D).
1/10	at St31	Brown, A. rush for no gain to the ST31 (Griffin, P;Verdell, T).
2/10	at St31	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Smith, J..
3/10	at St31	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Davis, D..
4/10	at St31	Pierson, B. punt 35 yards to the FS34, Reed, B return 0 yards to the FS34 (Tedder, C.).
		Drive: 4 plays, 17 yards, TOP 01:26
As I detailed in part 1, the adjustments were made in the 2nd quarter, not at half. Neefy had a bust on first down as he came too flat and lost contain. Other than that, we played with better leverage, won first down as Griffin made a great play.
After winning first down, we mixed out looks, had a great fake blitz, allowed Wilson to hang in the pocket forever (w/o escaping), and eventually forced a throwaway accompanied by a hit.
3rd down was well played cover 1 w/ Bradham blitzing. Even if the slant is complete, the stoppers were there. Good drive.

1/10	at Fs34	FLORIDA STATE drive start at 13:26.
1/10	at Fs34	FS ball on FS35.
1/10	at Fs35	Parker, P rush for 2 yards to the FS37 (Morgan, D.;Leonard, R.).
2/8	at Fs37	Ponder, C rush for 16 yards to the ST47, 1ST DOWN FS (McKeen, S.).
1/10	at St47	Easterling, T rush for 2 yards to the ST45 (Rieskamp, J.).
2/8	at St45	Ponder, C rush for 1 yard to the ST44 (Byers, J.), PENALTY ST personal foul (Byers, J.) 15 yards to the ST29, 1ST DOWN FS.
1/10	at St29	1st and 10.
1/10	at St29	Ponder, C pass complete to Easterling, T for 2 yards to the ST27 (Morgan, D.).
2/8	at St27	Smith, A rush for 27 yards to the ST0, 1ST DOWN FS, TOUCHDOWN, clock 10:29.
		Gano, G kick attempt good.
		Florida State 13, NC State 10
		Drive: 6 plays, 65 yards, TOP 02:57
Ponder had a bad throw on the opening bubble, good catch by parker. 2nd down was option. 3rd play was a double reverse, possible pass but I think it was a run.
The 4th play was again, option. He got lit up and we got a cheap penalty call out of it. Caz needed to get off the double and climb.
Even though we scored on this drive, we were far from crisp. There were still holds all over, the 2 bubbles we threw weren't pretty. NC State's horrid tackling let Antone gallop into the endzone.
The TD Play was classic. We has zone read action and bubble action. The result? Strongside LB flies to the bubble, Ponder hands to Antone, Spurlock seals. TD. We're hard to defend because of all these little wrinkles.

1/10	at St15	NC STATE drive start at 10:20.
1/10	at St15	Eugene, J. rush for 5 yards to the ST20 (McClure, D;Bradham, N.), PENALTY ST personal foul (Hill, A.) 10 yards to the ST10.
1/15	at St10	2nd and 15.
2/15	at St10	Eugene, J. rush for 13 yards to the ST23 (Rolle, M).
3/2	at St23	Wilson, R. pass complete to Eugene, J. for 18 yards to the ST41, 1ST DOWN ST (Nicholson, D).
1/10	at St41	Brown, A. rush for 2 yards to the ST43 (McClure, D;Stewart, K).
2/8	at St43	Brown, A. rush for 6 yards to the ST49 (Wright, R;Bradham, N.).
3/2	at St49	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Hill, A. (Mangum, K).
4/2	at St49	Pierson, B. punt 42 yards to the FS9, fair catch by Reed, B.
		Drive: 6 plays, 34 yards, TOP 02:44
We didn't win first down here, NC State lose it with a dumb PF penalty. Then, we were gashed for another run as Nigel crashes too hard inside and Everette is held.
We get hit for a 3rd n 2 on play action as Nicholson doesn't have his man. Really poor game for him and Rolle.
We really didn't stop the run well on this drive, check these runs: 5, 13, 2, 6. I have no idea why NC State passed. This would be the last drive in which we lacked gap discipline. Got the hands up and forced the double clutch on 3rd down.

1/10	at Fs09	FLORIDA STATE drive start at 07:36.
1/10	at Fs10	Ponder, C pass complete to Parker, P for 8 yards to the FS18.
2/2	at Fs18	Sims, M rush for 1 yard to the FS19 (Maddox, D.).
3/1	at Fs19	Smith, A rush for 2 yards to the FS21, 1ST DOWN FS (Leonard, R.;Byers, J.).
1/10	at Fs21	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Parker, P.
2/10	at Fs21	Smith, A rush for 5 yards to the FS26 (Young, W.).
3/5	at Fs26	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Surrency, C., QB hurry by Michel, R..
4/5	at Fs26	Powell, S. punt 35 yards to the ST39, Graham, T. return 18 yards to the FS43 (Williams, V.).
		Drive: 6 plays, 16 yards, TOP 02:29
In Focus: The quick FB handoff to Sims didn’t get the first down, but we will definitely fake and pitch off of that in the future. This will be especially effective with our WR's blocking.
In Focus: McMahon was pancaked by the blitzing linebacker on the incomplete pass to Parker, forcing a high throw. Shocker. Ho-hum, Freshman All American, immune from criticism. Questionable non-PI call here as well.
3rd down was one of the weirdest plays you'll ever see. None of the linemen move as they thought we had them offsides. Ponder threw it away. Strange. Also, no Gun, no bubbles, no Ponder runs… weird drive.

1/10	at Fs43	NC STATE drive start at 05:07.
1/10	at Fs43	Brown, A. rush for 13 yards to the FS30, 1ST DOWN ST (Robinson, J;Robinson, P.).
1/10	at Fs30	PENALTY ST false start (Vermiglio, J.) 5 yards to the FS35.
1/15	at Fs35	Brown, A. rush for loss of 1 yard to the FS36 (Nicholson, D).
2/16	at Fs36	Wilson, R. pass complete to Williams, J. for 3 yards to the FS33 (Carter, T).
3/13	at Fs33	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Davis, D., QB hurry by Nicholson, D.
4/13	at Fs33	Pierson, B. punt 33 yards to the FS0, touchback.
		Drive: 4 plays, 10 yards, TOP 02:19
We annoyingly get a cutback hit on us on first down. NC State follows with a false start.
Our Dline took over after this, we forced quick throws, and our secondary tackles really well. Really nice zone blitz on 3rd & 13.

1/10	at Fs20	FLORIDA STATE drive start at 02:48.
1/10	at Fs20	Ponder, C pass complete to Sims, M for 11 yards to the FS31, 1ST DOWN FS (Young, W.).
1/10	at Fs31	Smith, A rush for 18 yards to the FS49, 1ST DOWN FS (Johnson, C.).
1/10	at Fs49	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Parker, P.
2/10	at Fs49	Ponder, C rush for 2 yards to the ST49 (Maddox, D.).
3/8	at St49	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Parker, P, QB hurry by Cash, A..
4/8	at St49	Powell, S. punt 49 yards to the ST0, touchback.
		Drive: 5 plays, 31 yards, TOP 01:56
Spurlock and Zebrie did a great job on the first 2 plays, getting seals allowing for big short-side gains.
Great playfake by CP7, Ant, and Oline on the 3rd play. Just overthrew an open Parker. This was a pretty play that we will hit in the future.
Zebrie Sanders and Datko really turned it on in the second half. I can't say the same for McMahon. Sims still can't block worth a damn.
3rd down was a throwaway as NC State had medium pressure up the middle.

1/10	at St20	NC STATE drive start at 00:52.
1/10	at St20	Wilson, R. rush for no gain to the ST20 (Nicholson, D).
2/10	at St20	Eugene, J. rush for 13 yards to the ST33, 1ST DOWN ST (Rolle, M).
1/10	at St33	Wilson, R. pass complete to Spencer, O. for 67 yards to the FS0, 1ST DOWN ST, TOUCHDOWN, clock 14:51.
		Czajkowski, J. kick attempt good.
		NC State 17, Florida State 13
		Drive: 3 plays, 80 yards, TOP 01:01
I'm not sure I've ever seen our linebackers play worse. Ingram and Nicholson especially. Oh, yeah, we're also losing contain like crazy.
On the TD, we were in a mega-blitz, which I think is a lazy playcall, but we will debate that later. Mangum got burned by a very fast guy. Very NICE playcall by State.

		Pierson, B. kickoff 65 yards to the FS5, Garvin, M return 25 yards to the FS30.
1/10	at Fs30	FLORIDA STATE drive start at 14:44.
1/10	at Fs30	Ponder, C pass complete to Sims, M for 11 yards to the FS41, 1ST DOWN FS (Morgan, D.;Leonard, R.).
1/10	at Fs41	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Surrency, C..
2/10	at Fs41	Smith, A rush for loss of 7 yards to the FS34 (Rieskamp, J.).
3/17	at Fs34	Ponder, C pass complete to Easterling, T for 23 yards to the ST43, 1ST DOWN FS (Ellis, D.).
1/10	at St43	Ponder, C pass complete to Parker, P for 7 yards to the ST36 (George, K.;Leonard, R.).
2/3	at St36	Ponder, C pass complete to Easterling, T for 6 yards to the ST30, 1ST DOWN FS (George, K.).
1/10	at St30	Ponder, C pass complete to Sims, M for 7 yards to the ST23 (Johnson, C.;Leonard, R.).
2/3	at St23	Smith, A rush for no gain to the ST23 (Young, W.).
3/3	at St23	Reed, B rush for 6 yards to the ST17, 1ST DOWN FS (Johnson, C.).
1/10	at St17	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Parker, P (Morgan, D.).
2/10	at St17	Ponder, C pass complete to Reed, B for 17 yards to the ST0, 1ST DOWN FS, TOUCHDOWN, clock 10:40.
		Gano, G kick attempt good.
		Florida State 20, NC State 17
		Drive: 11 plays, 70 yards, TOP 04:04
Young offensive line gets worked on the 7 yard loss run.
Ponder's pickup of 3rd and 17 was beautiful. He slid in the pocket, contorted his body away from the rush, and threw a beautiful strike over the head of the defender into Easterling's arms. Then, he threw a terrible ball into the endzone, his 2nd goof.
Great WR blocking on the drive. Ponder 6-8 on the drive. Bert Reed great moves, and nice job by Jimbo to find creative ways to run the ball.

		Esco, J kickoff 64 yards to the ST6, Graham, T. return 7 yards to the ST13 (Team).
1/10	at St13	NC STATE drive start at 10:33.
1/10	at St13	Brown, A. rush for loss of 1 yard to the ST12 (Brown, E;Griffin, P).
2/11	at St12	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Williams, J. (Rolle, M).
3/11	at St12	Wilson, R. pass complete to Smith, J. for 9 yards to the ST21 (Robinson, P.).
4/2	at St21	Pierson, B. punt 40 yards to the FS39, fair catch by Parker, P.
		Drive: 3 plays, 8 yards, TOP 01:37
Man, our secondary tackles well!!


1/10	at Fs39	FLORIDA STATE drive start at 08:56.
1/10	at Fs39	Smith, A rush for 3 yards to the FS42 (Young, W.).
2/7	at Fs42	Smith, A rush for 8 yards to the 50 yardline, 1ST DOWN FS (Byers, J.;Maddox, D.).
1/10	at Fs50	Ponder, C pass complete to Owens, R for 7 yards to the ST43 (Leonard, R.).
2/3	at St43	Smith, A rush for 5 yards to the ST38, 1ST DOWN FS (Johnson, C.;Michel, R.).
1/10	at St38	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Sims, M, QB hurry by Holmes, A..
2/10	at St38	Ponder, C rush for 11 yards to the ST27, 1ST DOWN FS (Gray, J.).
1/10	at St27	PENALTY FS holding 10 yards to the ST37.
1/20	at St37	Ponder, C pass complete to Easterling, T for 12 yards to the ST25 (Johnson, C.;Morgan, D.).
2/8	at St25	Thomas, J. rush for loss of 1 yard to the ST26 (Maddox, D.;Rieskamp, J.).
3/9	at St26	Ponder, C pass incomplete to Surrency, C..
4/9	at St26	Gano, G field goal attempt from 44 GOOD, clock 04:33.
		Florida State 23, NC State 17
		Drive: 10 plays, 35 yards, TOP 04:23
This drive was about Smith keeping his legs churning. Still though, Rod Owens and Owens needed to stay in bounds on 2 plays.
McMahon missed a block causing the incomplete to Simms.
More nice playcalling by Fisher here. Fake End around qb keeper, middle screen, etc.
This drive was a mixture of brilliance and youth. Still, 4:23 off the clock and a field goal will work.


		Esco, J kickoff 65 yards to the ST5, Graham, T. return 29 yards to the ST34 (Carr, N.;Bradham, N.).
1/10	at St34	NC STATE drive start at 04:26.
1/10	at St34	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Hill, A. (Smith, K).
2/10	at St34	PENALTY ST holding (Green, M.) 10 yards to the ST24.
2/20	at St24	Wilson, R. pass complete to Graham, T. for 15 yards to the ST39 (Robinson, J).
3/5	at St39	Wilson, R. sacked for loss of 9 yards to the ST30 (Stewart, K).
4/14	at St30	Timeout NC State, clock 03:01.
4/14	at St30	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Eugene, J. (Roberts, R).
		Drive: 4 plays, minus 4 yards, TOP 01:31
1/10	at St30	FLORIDA STATE drive start at 02:55.
1/10	at St30	FS ball on ST29.
1/10	at St29	Smith, A rush for loss of 1 yard to the ST30 (Young, W.;Holmes, A.).
2/11	at St30	Timeout NC State, clock 02:50.
2/11	at St30	Ponder, C rush for no gain to the ST30 (McKeen, S.;Michel, R.).
3/11	at St30	Timeout NC State, clock 02:42.
3/11	at St30	Ponder, C rush for loss of 5 yards to the ST35 (Young, W.).
4/16	at St35	Timeout Florida State, clock 01:59.
4/16	at St35	Gano, G field goal attempt from 53 GOOD, clock 01:53.
		Florida State 26, NC State 17
		Drive: 4 plays, minus 6 yards, TOP 01:02
		Esco, J kickoff 67 yards to the ST3, Graham, T. return 35 yards to the ST38 (Team).
1/10	at St38	NC STATE drive start at 01:44.
1/10	at St38	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Spencer, O..
2/10	at St38	Wilson, R. pass complete to Brown, A. for 3 yards to the ST41 (Ingram, K).
3/7	at St41	Wilson, R. pass complete to Hill, A. for 1 yard to the ST42 (Ingram, K).
4/6	at St42	Wilson, R. pass incomplete to Graham, T..
		Drive: 4 plays, 4 yards, TOP 01:14
1/10	at St42	FLORIDA STATE drive start at 00:30.
1/10	at St42	Team rush for loss of 1 yard to the ST43.
2/11	at St43	End of game, clock 00:00.
		Drive: 1 plays, minus 1 yards, TOP 00:30
		FINAL SCORE
		Florida State 26, NC State 17

Note that we did not run out of CHOLLIE (Gun 3WR, 2RB), and went pretty heavily with the I-Formation in the second half.
Would you prefer a more general game review after I watch the tape, or do you like the play-by-play format?

More Observations:

Please read The Kool-aid debate first, as I put a ton of observations in there. The ones below are leftovers.
Of our 35 passes, we ran 11 screens, completing 10 of them, for well over 100 yards. This is a very good screen team. This works because we have very athletic offensive linemen. It also works because we need to keep teams from all out blitzing us.
Our run defense did improve in the second half, but let's all hope that this was a major anomoly.
Including bubble-screens (we use zone action on those), 21 of our passes involved play action, and 14 did not. I'd really like to see us use more play-action.
Jermaine Thomas didn't look great in limited action, but let's give him time, considering he is battling injury and youth.
Having a bigger, though less experienced body next to McMahon might help out our interior.
We finally hit the middle screen (Surrency and Easterling). I can now stop predicting that we will hit this.
The RB's seem to be holding on to the ball much better.
Our WR blocking is scarily good.
I really doubt that we will continue to hit 3rd and long runs from the I-Form.
Everette Brown was doubled on almost every play, often by a Tackle AND Guard.
FSU is still very healthy compared to most teams, in terms of starters lost.
Our ends get up field way too fast, and often crash down way too flat.
Tendency: In the past 2 weeks, we have thrown only 2 times on 2nd and 6 or less. I hope we break with this and go deep after a good run.
Tendency: We threw on 23 of 35 first downs. Of the 12 runs, only 6 were by a running back. Do we scheme around weaknesses? You bet we do.
Tendency: We ran on 13 of 18 2nd and 8+ situations. What does this mean? It means that we are patient and committed to getting to 3rd and workable. A lot of teams like to play base personnel on us on first down, then switch to Nickel. At that point, Christian counts defenders, and we run the numbers game.

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Comments

Your analysis makes me think of the Wake game

I really think that game is on Jimbo — he opted for the Golden Corral 100-item buffet of play calling instead of one of those little greasy spoons that don’t do many things but they’re all larded up and good.

By that I mean, if he had called the Wake game like the rest, we’d be 5-0, But he had way too many downfield plays — medium range passes — which put too much pressure on a young quarterback and a set of offensive lineman that all look like they could qualify for a welterweight fight.

Anyway, not raggin him – he has obviously adjusted and called the games beautifully since then, but I fear there is still some fool’s gold here — if McMahon, for example, is getting manhandled by marginal DL’s what will happen when he faces a real one?

by Fsued on Oct 21, 2008 5:14 PM EDT reply actions

Living in Tuscaloosa,

I know all about the greasy spoon. City Cafe is my favorite.

You’re right about the Wake game, Ed. Wake was the only team to truly challenge us this year, and we did not respond well. They called it right, and in a way, Jimbo called it wrong. I wish we would have played it much more conservatively, considering how well the defense played.

My guess is that we will see a lot of middle screens and maybe some RB screens against Va Tech, along with a lot of running, and long, low percentage but high- yield passes.

The offensive line will continue to be a big concern, and not one that we can really expect to get significant better without an off season in the weight program.

Tomahawk Nation: No-Holds-Barred Nole Analysis

by Bud Elliott on Oct 21, 2008 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Wow, McMahon was bad

I usually watch the line play during a game, but I had to watch the QB to see where McMahon was. He just gets blown up all the time. I lost count of the number of plays he cost his team. I really hope he gets it together because he seems like a good guy that works hard (how could you start for Trickett if you didn’ work hard?), but it doesn’t seem to be coming together for him. I do think he got better in the second half, but it would have been tough to be on the field and be worse at that point.

Do you think we’ll start seeing passes to Sims instead of Caz from here on out or was this just Jimbo scouting himself and going against tendencies? (I guess it could be that Sims is back in the fold too after the suspensions and all, but it seems like we could have seen him more last game.)

I’m glad you mentioned the OLine and Duece on the play fake. The Oline is a major reason why a play fake works (safties and LB often key on this for a hint), but it seems under covered in sports. Our Oline has had a few times where they made the play because of their play fake blocking.

You might also want to add to your tendencies that we look for Easterling across the middle on 3rd and long on ins, usually from the left side. I don’t know if I’m just making more of this than was really there, but it seems we’ve run that route multiple times, and hit it multiple times in those situations. Then again when they collapse on him we have Carr and Surrency on the outside. Tough play to defend if the blocking holds up.

by evenflow58 on Oct 22, 2008 9:44 AM EDT reply actions