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Underrated: Florida State's offense. The Seminoles made the ACC title game, but the perception...

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Underrated: Florida State's offense. The Seminoles made the ACC title game, but the perception seems to be that it came despite offensive inconsistency. FSU ranked 55th in yards per game due to injuries and a brutal schedule [FSU played the toughest schedule of defenses in America. LSU played the second and it wasn't close]. Three opponents ranked among the top seven in Defensive F/+, and seven others ranked in the Top 35 [in comparison, Oregon faced only one top-25 defense]. They did as well as most would do against that slate and ranked sixth in Offensive F/+.

Bill Connelly, explaining that FSU had the 6th best offensive season in the country, receiving a major boost by virtue of playing the toughest set of defenses in all of college football. That's an ESPN Insider piece, but I do hope you'll visit. Meanwhile, FSU's defense sits at 48th-best. That's a huge improvement over last season's 88th mark. We saw here how many unenlightened fans failed to appreciate the offense while loving a defense that while much improved, was far from "very good". The spreads between offense and defense on some of the teams FSU faced was pretty stark. For instance: Team/ O-Rank/ D- Rank Clem/ 78/ 5 UM / 36/ 7 OU / 18/ 6 BC / 98/ 19 BYU/ 97/ 31 UNC/ 45/ 35 NCst/ 44/ 22 UF/ 48/ 25 MD/ 44/ 27 When you look at those defenses faced, it's just insane what this offense did. I doubt FSU will face another set of defenses this quality again in my lifetime. Don't gloss over that. Seriously look at the differences in the offenses and defenses FSU faced.