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FRONT: "My brothers, put a smile on your face." BACK: "If we gonna do it then, we do it big." Every week we break down the result of the previous game. Who really played well for the Seminoles against N.C. State? Did the result have more to do with FSU playing well or the opponent playing poorly, or luck? Read to find out.
Note: there are certain schematic and tendency things we do not discuss in these reviews out of respect for our sources, the school and coaching staff.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Previously: 1st quarter | 2nd quarter
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| Down/Dist | Yard | Formation | Result | Analysis |
| Sade,N. kickoff 63 yards to the FS2, WILSON, J. return 27 yards to the FS29 (Stanley,J.). | Wilson with a nice return. Believe that's his first of the year. | |||
| 1-10 | at Fs29 | FLORIDA STATE drive start at 14:54. | ||
| 1-10 | at Fs29 | WINSTON, J. at QB for Florida State. | ||
| 1-10 | at Fs29 | 11 gun | WINSTON, J. ML pass complete to BENJAMIN, K. for 15 yards to the FS44, 1ST DOWN FS (Green,D.J.;Johnson,D.), clock 14:42. | All curl, Winston hits open Benjamin, who makes a man miss and gets several extra yards out of his size here. Good work from KB. |
| 1-10 | at Fs44 | 21 I | FREEMAN, D. rush left for 15 yards to the ST41, 1ST DOWN FS, out-of-bounds (Green,D.J.), clock 14:16. | Zone left, and this one is almost all Freeman. Both Erving and Stork don't do good job blocking their men, Erving specifically getting beat bad. Freeman bounces through two defenders and gets an extra ten or more yards. Rest of the line and Abram do nice job on their blocks. |
| 1-10 | at St41 | 21 I | FREEMAN, D. rush over right guard for 9 yards to the ST32 (Johnson,D.), clock 13:42. | Power to strong side. Really, really well blocked all around. Freeman is a shoestring tackle from busting big yards on this one. |
| 2-1 | at St32 | 21 I | FREEMAN, D. rush up middle for 6 yards to the ST26, 1ST DOWN FS (Rose,M.;Gray,C.), clock 13:18. | Strong side power again. Well blocked, and Freeman hits the hole hard. Just what you want to see in short yardage situations. |
| 1-10 | at St26 | 11 singleback | WINSTON, J. middle pass intercepted by Johnson,D. at the ST6, Johnson,D. return 0 yards to the ST6 (Jones,H.). | Play action off zone, rollout, Winston stares this one down. His eyes bring the deep half safety off his mark, leaving Greene wide open in the end zone. Safety comes up, makes the play, causes the "interception". I would score this as an interception. Doesn't appear to have control/possession long enough to be a fumble. If he doesn't stare Benjamin down, it would probably have been a good decision. Shaw was probably the safest play here. |
| Drive: 5 plays, 45 yards, TOP 01:54 | ||||
| 1-10 | at St06 | 4-2-5 | Thornton,S. rush over left tackle for 3 yards to the ST9 (LEVENBERRY, E.;MCALLISTER, D.). | Backups in. First team and key rotation players don't play much anymore. Power to strong side, Northrup gets blown up in the hole by the puller. Levenberry does an OK job shedding and making the tackle. |
| 2-7 | at St09 | 4-2-5 | Thornton,S. rush left for 22 yards to the ST31, 1ST DOWN ST (WHITE, M.), clock 12:15. | Strong side power again. This play features why some of these players won't see much meaningful time. Lamarcus Brutus gets stiff armed badly, and then Waisome completely whiffs on a tackle in space. Probably 3 spots this guy could've been stopped with sound tackling. Northrup got beat inside by puller again. Casher nearly got him in pursuit but Brutus got in the way. Waisome's tackling may be his biggest issue in seeing meaningful PT for Pruitt. Keelin Smith also gets beat in space. |
| 1-10 | at St31 | 3-3-5 | Thornton,S. rush left for 2 yards to the ST33 (CASHER, C.), clock 11:37. | Sweep left, Casher gets off his man and makes a great play. Recognizes play, keeps his outside arm free, gets the runner. |
| 2-8 | at St33 | 4-2-5 | Mitchell,B. sideline pass complete to Watson,A. for 9 yards to the ST42, 1ST DOWN ST, out-of-bounds (WAISOME, N.). | Mitchell hits TE on the drag, Waisome has flat. Waisome has trouble bringing him down, TE gets first down. |
| 1-10 | at St42 | 4-2-5 | Mitchell,B. sideline pass complete to Underwood,B. for 11 yards to the FS47, 1ST DOWN ST (CASHER, C.;LEVENBERRY, E.), clock 10:50. | Bubble to Underwood on boundary side. WR blocks Waisome well, and action off sweep blocking draws in/freezes LBs for a second. Casher and Levenberry bring him down in pursuit. |
| 1-10 | at Fs47 | 3-3-5 | Mitchell,B. WS pass complete to Underwood,B. for 14 yards to the FS33, 1ST DOWN ST (LEVENBERRY, E.), clock 10:36. | Trips to field, only one Seminole to trips side, with DBs showing blitz. Screen behind trips, Levenberry does a good job recognizing it, shedding a WR blocker and making a play downfield. Keelin Smith, however, gets danced around in space again. White gets aggressive coming at screen and gets blocked right out of the play. |
| 1-10 | at Fs33 | 4-2-5 | Thornton,S. rush over left guard for 3 yards to the FS30 (MCDANIEL, J.;NORTHRUP, R.), clock 09:56. | Strongside power again. 97 does a good job eating up a double team. Northrup hits his man in the hole, and Jacobbi helps clean it up. Nice play by Northrup. |
| 2-7 | at Fs30 | 4-2-5 | Mitchell,B. MR pass complete to Smith,R. for 8 yards to the FS22, 1ST DOWN ST (LEVENBERRY, E.), clock 09:31. | Snag pattern, NCSU WR does a good job on his hitch to find soft spot in the zone. Northrup gets beat a bit in space, but nothing too worrisome. Good play from WR. |
| 1-10 | at Fs22 | 4-2-5 | Thornton,S. rush over right end for 3 yards to the FS19 (LEVENBERRY, E.;NORTHRUP, R.), clock 08:59. | Strong side power. Casher does a good job shedding his blocker, and the LBs help clean it up. |
| 2-7 | at Fs19 | 4-2-5 | Mitchell,B. TR pass incomplete to Underwood,B., clock 08:34. | Cover 0 blitz, Mitchell sees Underwood beat Brutus and overthrows the corner. Really small window here, though. |
| 3-7 | at Fs19 | 4-1-6 | Mitchell,B. rush QX for no gain to the FS19 (NORTHRUP, R.), clock 08:09. | 4 man rush gets pressure, flushes Mitchell out of the pocket, and Northrup has awesome closing speed to get there and bring him down at the line. |
| 4-7 | at Fs19 | Sade,N. field goal attempt from 36 GOOD, clock 07:51. | Pleased overall with the play. Like Jimbo says re: tape, never as good as it looks, never as bad as it looks. The bad moments are fixable, and often come from players who won't ever play meaningful snaps. | |
| Florida State 42, NC State 3 | ||||
| Drive: 12 plays, 75 yards, TOP 05:11 | ||||
| Sade,N. kickoff 11 yards to the ST46, on-side kick, recovered by ST on ST46. | Doeren is playing in his own game. Seminoles are just watching the clock tick down to zero. Well kicked onside kick. | |||
| 1-10 | at St46 | 4-2-5 | Mitchell,B. deep pass incomplete to Copeland,T., clock 07:43. | Not sure why Mitchell threw this. Vertical route, but receiver was well behind Waisome, who has plenty of speed to burn. No pressure, throws the ball just out of reach and out of bounds. Just not a good throw. Guess he liked the size matchup. |
| 2-10 | at St46 | 4-2-5 | Thornton,S. rush right for loss of 1 yard to the ST45 (LEVENBERRY, E.), clock 07:22. | Power right. McDaniel blows his man so far off the LOS he bumps into the RB and changes his course. Great downhill play from Levenberry. Sees it, gets going downhill, makes the play in the backfield. |
| 3-11 | at St45 | 4-2-5 | Mitchell,B. screen pass complete to Thornton,S. for loss of 1 yard to the ST44 (WHITE, M.), clock 06:43. | Really don't know what these NCSU OL are doing on this screen. But it makes it easy for Marquez White to get around a cut from an OL and make a play in the backfield. Good play from White, who has split time between WR and DB often this year. |
| 4-12 | at St44 | Baumann,W. punt 52 yards to the FS4, downed. | Great punt | |
| Drive: 3 plays, minus 2 yards, TOP 01:37 | ||||
| 1-10 | at Fs04 | 21 I | WILLIAMS, K. rush over left guard for 11 yards to the FS15, 1ST DOWN FS (Pittman,B.;Caldwell,R.), clock 06:03. | Power. Karlos shows why he's going to be such a weapon at RB. He runs hard. Powerful runner. Takes 3 NCSU players to bring him down, and even then he falls forward a few yards. And he wasn't even showing his speed on this one! |
| 1-10 | at Fs15 | 21 I | WILLIAMS, K. rush up middle for 5 yards to the FS20 (Jones,H.), clock 05:23. | Power. Karlos again looking good. Burst gets him past two defenders behind the LOS. Does a phenomenal job changing direction in the hole while still moving forward with power. This dude is going to be a special back. |
| 2-5 | at Fs20 | 11 singleback | COKER, J. screen pass complete to GREEN, C. for 11 yards to the FS31, 1ST DOWN FS (Caldwell,R.), clock 04:46. | PBP calls this screen, it's not. Rollout, Green runs a drag to roll side. Coker does a great job escaping a tackler and getting the ball off. Green uses his speed to get a couple extra. |
| 1-10 | at Fs31 | 11 gun | COKER, J. sideline pass complete to SHAW, K. for 12 yards to the FS43, 1ST DOWN FS, out-of-bounds, clock 04:15. | All curl. Hits Shaw, who nearly breaks it for a big one but gets part of his foot out of bounds. |
| 1-10 | at Fs43 | 11 gun | COKER, J. WS pass complete to GREEN, C. for 11 yards to the ST46, 1ST DOWN FS (Burriss,J.), clock 03:49. | Package power/bubble play. Bubble to Green, and Jesus Wilson, who is approximately 7 inches and 40 pounds smaller than Kelvin Benjamin, gets Green good blocking on a bubble. They must like each other. |
| 1-10 | at St46 | 11 gun | WILLIAMS, K. rush over left end for 4 yards to the ST42 (Pittman,B.;Jones,H.), clock 03:07. | Power left, just not much room for Karlos. Powers himself an extra yard or two. |
| 2-6 | at St42 | 11 gun | COKER, J. deep pass incomplete to WILLIAMS, K., clock 02:45. | Coker gets flushed out of the pocket, tosses it well past Karlos on a wheel. He could've used his legs to get at least close to a first down here. Coker's trying to make the big play while he's in instead of taking what's there. Needs to calm down and work to move the chains. |
| Injured player for NCSU is #11-Burris. Walks off the field. | ||||
| 3-6 | at St42 | 11 gun | COKER, J. sacked for loss of 1 yard to the ST43 (Teal,T.;Cato-Bishop,D.), clock 02:16. | Coker needs to calm down and take what's there. Isaiah Jones had an easy first down on a drag route, but Coker tries to push the ball downfield and takes a dumb sack. Quit trying to make the big play, kid. |
| 4-7 | at St43 | BEATTY, C. punt 31 yards to the ST12, fair catch by Cherry,B.. | Good punt, but we never were concerned about Beatty in compressed space. | |
| Drive: 8 plays, 53 yards, TOP 04:16 | ||||
| 1-10 | at St12 | 4-2-5 | Underwood,B. rush EL for 6 yards to the ST18, out-of-bounds, clock 01:43. | Jet sweep with Underwood. Noles do a good job adjusting to motion, but Demps whiffs in space. Northrup chases him out of bounds. |
| 2-4 | at St18 | 4-2-5 | Mitchell,B. sideline pass complete to Purvis,T. for 10 yards to the ST28, 1ST DOWN ST, out-of-bounds (DEMPS, G.), clock 01:20. | Snag pattern. Mitchell hits the flat, who turns upfield and gets the first. Good read, throw. |
| 1-10 | at St28 | 4-2-5 | Thornton,S. rush left for 72 yards to the FS0, 1ST DOWN ST, TOUCHDOWN, clock 00:59. | Sweep left. Tackle does a good job sealing Eligwe inside. NCSU OL does a good job sealing the edge overall, really. Waisome gets blown up on a cut he could have easily avoided. But what's really bad about this play, and egregiously bad, is Keelin Smith. Keelin is shaken out of his shoes on the damned boundary. Play the kid into the boundary, and he can't go anywhere, Keelin. How do you get juked out of bounds? Keelin gives up a free 50 yards and touchdown. You cannot be this bad in space and expect to ever play a meaningful snap. 37 was consistently awful in space all day. |
| Sade,N. kick attempt good. | Players often show in non-meaningful time why they don't see meaningful snaps. Today was 37's day to show why. | |||
| Florida State 42, NC State 10 | ||||
| Drive: 3 plays, 88 yards, TOP 01:04 | ||||
| Sade,N. kickoff 65 yards to the FS0, WHITFIELD, K. return 34 yards to the FS34 (Paul,S.;Buckley,T.). | Kermit was maybe a couple steps from breaking a massive one. This kid is going to break one before long. | |||
| 1-10 | at Fs34 | 21 I | WILLIAMS, K. rush up middle for 1 yard to the FS35 (Teal,T.), clock 00:26. | Power. Nowhere to go. Lovelady isn't able to drive his man back when pulling, play gets beat in backfield, Karlos falls forward. |
| 2-9 | at Fs35 | 11 gun | COKER, J. middle pass intercepted by Johnson,D. at the FS48, Johnson,D. return 0 yards to the FS48. | Coker throws it high on all curls. Tipped off Christian Green's hands. Ball is high and behind. Not a good throw, but this isn't a bad day to have tip balls go against you. |
| Drive: 2 plays, 1 yards, TOP 00:47 | ||||
| 1-10 | at Fs48 | 4-2-5 | Underwood,B. rush reverse for 9 yards to the FS39. | Casher diagnoses this reverse well, but RB does a good job cutting him. Chased out of bounds. |