This are just some things I noticed from watching the game at the Doak. We will watch the game later and provide further analysis, but these are the things that jumped out.
First thing, the WR's dropped too many passes. Bert Reed dropped a touchdown in the fourth quarter on a corner route on a well thrown ball from D'Vontrey Richardson. Rod Owens also dropped one in the second quarter right off the line from Christian Ponder.
The offensive line played well at some points and struggled during others. The quarterbacks were under pressure way too often for facing such an inferior opponent. This type of inconsistency wil be a huge problem as we play better teams starting next week with Wake Forest.
One play that I really liked was the second touchdown of the game. It was a great wrinkle of the offense where Corey Surrency came off the line acting like he was going to block but instead took off down the field. The rest of the team also sold the bubble screen to the slot receiver, and Ponder pump faked to the slot receiver. Both DB's jumped the route and Surrency was wide open for a long TD. It was a great play design, I just only wish we would have saved it for a more meaningful game.
On the other side of the ball, the defense put way more pressure on the opposing quarterback than they did last week. Even though the pressure was improved, it still could be better. Part of the problem is the weakness and lack of depth at the DT spots. Hopefully, they can continue to improve against Wake Forest and then will get an added boost when players come back from suspension for the Colorado game.
Other problems again this week were dropping too many interceptions and not forcing enough turnovers. Myron Rolle dropped a pick in the first half after it was tipped at the line by Moses McCray. One forced turnover will not cut it on a weekly basis against stronger teams. The one turnover was from a great hit from Kenny Ingram where he forced and recovered the fumble.
Tony Carter also made two bad plays. The first came on Chattanooga's only TD. It was a good route and throw. Carter was beat which happens and is understandable. With our defensive scheme, we play too much man coverage for our DB's to not get beat at times. The WR's in college football now are too fast, too big, and/or too strong to play man coverage and not expect to get beat at least occasionally. The problem with this particular play was that Carter misplayed the ball when he was beat, which allowed the receiver to make the catch and then take it in for the score. The better play would have been for him to accept that he was beat and just try to make the tackle after the catch. The second bad play he made was just a terrible decision. He should never have tried to field a punt by diving. FSU was fortunate to recover the ball, but this could have been very costly against a good team.
The injury to Graham Gano could be very, very costly, like maybe 2 losses. The kickoffs have not been nearly as long as Gano's usually are, which will really hurt in close games where field position is important. The punting also has not been as good, and of course, now we can not make a field goal. It is possible that Gano would not do all three, but he would definitely be a better option at all three. I would expect that he would at least handle the field goals and kick offs.
As mentioned before, these were just a few things that were immediately noticed and we will provide further analysis later.
FSUncensored's take on Noleblogger's take.
The wide receivers definitely dropped too many passes. I didn't see this in the first game and I am going to attribute this to a lack of focus, probably caused by the antiicpation of the Wake gane. The ball from D'Vo to Reed was insanely well thrown.
I was very disappointed in our pass blocking. If this keeps up, we will definitely be throwing more short stuff. Expect us to run Ponder and D'Vo A LOT against Wake. Greenlee is a nice story coming back from his neck injury, but he played like garbage today. That needs to be fixed immediately. If he is our best option, look out.
We previewed the "fake weakside toss, bubble pump, deep bomb" last week. We saw it this week. I agree with Noleblogger that he should have saved this play, but now Wake is in a bit of a bind.
I really liked how we got away from the bubble screen today and managed to work on other stuff.
On the other side of the ball, the defense put way more pressure on the opposing quarterback than they did last week. Even though the pressure was improved, it still could be better. Part of the problem is the weakness and lack of depth at the DT spots. Hopefully, they can continue to improve against Wake Forest and then will get an added boost when players come back from suspension for the Colorado game._Nolesblogger
Agreed, but I would like to add something. Moses McCray played an amazing game today. For those of you who are unfamiliar, McCray is a state championship caliber wrestler, who is 6'3 285ish, at DT (Freshman). Also, today we learned that Budd Thacker will be back for the wake game. This is a huge upgrade for the 'Noles, and should put our DT depth issues to rest.
I am going to explode if I talk about our garbage secondary or special teams decisions. They were very bad.