Over the next few days we will be looking for areas in which Florida State can improve in the 2011 season.  Specifically, we are going to review 19 of the 43 scoring drives Florida State allowed in ACC play in order to highlight areas of potential improvement.  Later in the Summer we will offer our estimations of how much Florida State's defense can improve.  And the 88th-ranked defense has a lot of room for improvement.  Today we'll look back at drives 19-14

#19:  Greg Cooper's 3 yard run caps a 6-play, 59-yard drive to put Miami on top for good.

One common theme in the worst 19 scoring drives FSU allowed in conference play is the inability to force 2nd and 8+ and 3rd and 5+ situations, also known as "passing downs."  That's important because the 'Noles were 100th in non-passing down defense, and 55th in passing-down and distance defense.  Here, FSU didn't force a single one and Miami went 59 yards in only 6 plays.  We covered Miami's 1st-down success in a few thousand words and pictures here.  And of course, FSU allowed a big play (40-yard pass).

Inside, see more trends develop as we examine drives 18-14

#18:  NC State ties FSU at 28 with a 7-play, 74-yard drive.

Here FSU, which was considerably better in passing downs than non-passing downs, actually manages to force two passing downs.  That's the good news.  The bad news was that the 'Noles surrendered a 32-yard completion on 3rd-and-11.  But FSU also allowed plays of 12, 5, 20, and 6 on the drive.  

#17  Javarris James 6-yard TD run caps a 7-play, 75 yard drive to put Miami ahead 14-10

Miami having success on 1st down?  Shocking.  The Cane didn't even face a 3rd down on the drive, and faced only a two 2nd downs (none of the 2nd and 8+ variety, of course)!  FSU did not force Miami into any passing downs on this drive.  This drive did not feature a 30+ yard play, but with plays of 6, 6, 9, 11, 11 18,  and 19, Miami didn't need the big one.

#16:  Boston College drives 65 yards in 6 plays to go up 21-3 before half.  

Florida State faced 6 plays on the drive and couldn't force a single passing down.  Every play gained at least 3 yards as the Eagles offense, anemic against most everyone, had no trouble marching on FSU.  

#15:  Clemson scores on its 7-play, 76-yard opening drive

Florida State forced a single passing down on this drive, but Clemson converted it.  The 'Noles allowed plays of 5, 8, 11, 14,  17, and 23 yards. 

#14:  Miami opens the scoring on a 6-play, 66 yard drive.  

Here again, we covered this last September, but FSU got rocked on 1st down from the opening drive of the year until the final drive.  Miami faced only one passing down, and Mark Whipple ran to get into a more manageable 3rd down situation.

Analysis of the TD:

If you follow FSU football, you know that Mickey Andrews loved to play cover-1 on 1st down. That means P-Rob (bottom of screen, #21), is on a wideout. Our deep safety (off-screen) plays deep, Korey Mangum (#22) takes the slot receiver, Dekoda Watson takes one of the tight ends, and Jenijie takes another. Bradham takes the running back), and Kendal Smith looks to be mirroring the QB. I wish I could offer better analysis, but Mangum plays this so poorly that there just isn't much time to see the play. In any case, here's the look at the snap:

Mangum has the slot receiver, Travis Benjamin.

Mangum is still not in the picture, which is disappointing.  Benjamin is extremely fast.  Where is Mangum?  

I had to rewind the tape ablout 10 times, but this is the first step Mangum took.  Literally, he stood there flat-footed until Benjamin's 6th step.  Benjamin has all the momentum, and he is faster than Mangum.  Mangum might think he can just turn Benjamin too the deep safety, but at this point, his technique is so bad that the safety will be of little help.  And that is exactly what happened:  

Yeah, that's Benjamin looking up for the ball, 4 yards past Manum even after slowing up.  Mangum showed possibly the worse technique ever displayed by a DB.  There is a chance that Mangum thought he was playing another coverage, but to be honest, I can't figure out what that would be.  And neither could his teammates.  Bradham and the other defenders ripped into Mangum, he tried to explain himself, they told him he was wrong, and I captured this image as Mangum says "my bad", while slapping his head.

TD Miami and it was way too easy.  But there is also a Mickey Andrews problem here.  FSU simply cannot let a rover man-up on a receiver, much less an awful player like Mangum.  That's a mismatch.

Observations:

FSU did not take care of business on 1st and 2nd down:  The 'Noles faced 39 plays during these 6 drives.  Only three were of the 2nd & 8+ or 3rd & 5+ variety.  Because FSU did not force these teams into predictable down and distances, the 'Noles were kept off balance because the opposing offenses had the option to run or pass, which they did.

Big Plays:  This ties in with the point above, but when a defense puts itself in bad situations, it will surrender big plays.  Of the 39 plays FSU faced on these 6 drives, many resulted in big gains, including:  40, 39, 38, 32, 23, 20, 20, 19, 18, 17, 14, 12, 11, 11, and 11 yards.  An amazing 15 of 39 plays went for 10+ yards! 

What are your thoughts?  Do you notice any trends?  Think you know where we are going with this analysis?