Florida State football film review: Offense v. Clemson

Every play broken down, with video and analysis. This content is best viewed on a computer or tablet, not a phone.

Dalvin Cook was Dalvin Cook at his absolute best Dalvin Cook. Just incredible. Even did a decent job getting in the way of free rushers the interior of the offensive line let in. One drop and one obvious missed cut aside, excellent.

Jimbo Fisher is incorporating more and more Auden Tate and using his size well. 50/50 balls galore, and using it as a threat to stretch Clemson vertically, opening up space for 2 man concepts. Fisher is having Francois toss 50/50's to Tate when matchup/leverage dictates it. Tate had multiple plays where the defender was forced to interfere due to his size. Some were even flagged.

I absolutely abhor the referee blame game, but the much discussed series of calls had a significant impact on the game. One lesser discussed note - the play where Tate is mugged, came just after. FSU was stopping Clemson regularly, and held them to a FG when they got the ball at midfield. Had just one of those calls not been played, very easy to believe Clemson doesn't get the FG and the complexion of the 4th is changed.

Tate is still young. He's a pretty solid player already but has his moments where he looks like a 2012 Kelvin Benjamin. Importantly, his size is letting Rudolph play more in the slot, which creates good matchups for both.

Major accuracy issues when not pressured, despite very friendly playcalling

Francois isn't perfect pre-snap but he isn't running FSU into 9 man boxes. Pretty solid grasp of the offense overall. The execution, namely accuracy, is lacking. Francois showed comfort in offense and even a couple plays where he showed some anticipation. Hadn't seen much, if any, of that before. That's a serious positive.

Francois put 10+ balls into uncatchable spots. Mostly on easy throws. While the OL isn't good, Francois is leaving a ton of yards on the field and costing FSU a lot of drives. It is hard to determine how much of this is related to injury as opposed to the accuracy issues that have plagued him throughout his career since high school.

Fisher really called this game to the passing strengths of Francois and his receiver corps. The Two Man concept was used a lot from 3x1 and some 2x2 sets. Fade/digs or Fade/out variation accomplishes two things - simple vertical stretch which isolates your big No. 1 Tate, and lets Francois throw the digs and outs he seems to be more comfortable and accurate with. Tons of first down passes to help him out to - more on that below.

First half offense lived and died by the Francois. He was good on the scripted drive and the final two minute drive, and quite poor in between. Counted 8-9 poor balls without pressure in the first half alone. LOT of first down passing - Venables didn't respect Francois much and let them try to throw. Francois couldn't execute. Venables’ gamble paid off.

The result of this was that the first down misses, against very favorable looks, put FSU behind the chains — a situation everyone knew going in Clemson would dominate. The Tigers did.

Adjustments

Fisher called a good game. First half featured orbit action, inside zone, and only had one Two Man call. Second half they immediately went to counter trey and crushed Clemson with it. Were very successful with Two Man concept in second half as well.

Clemson has freaks up front

Dexter Lawrence is everything. The most physically talented defensive tackle to come through the ACC in a while. Christian Wilkins is also special.

Sacks

Francois was sacked six times. That is way too many.

One was entirely Francois’ fault for not accounting for the defender and not throwing the ball away.

One was the fault of the backs and tight ends, who had two blockers for one defender and got split.

Three were entirely or mostly the fault of the offensive line — two physical whippings and one miscommunication/assignment error.

One, we’re not sure who to blame. Just a great blitz by Clemson that was perfect against FSU’s playcall. Sometimes bad luck happens.

But this doesn’t entirely encompass all the hits that the line allowed, which likely have a cumulative impact on Francois.

Offensive line

Bud covered the offensive line earlier in the week (below), but it is worth noting that Florida State had seven false start penalties called against it, and four of the seven were not on the offensive line (1 WR, 2 TE, 1 DB). This is a discipline issue, not specifically an offensive line issue, though three from the offensive line is way too many.

FSU’s run blocking was great ... Creating a 50% opportunity rate, compared to Clemson’s 32%. Its 3.39 line yards/carry was also excellent. And Dalvin Cook maximized those blocks for the most part, hitting a high percentage of correct holes and showcasing his speed.

... but its pass blocking on 2nd/3rd-&-long was awful. There were an unacceptable number of plays where Francois had no shot. This was largely expected, however, as Clemson’s defense was and is one of the best in the nation on obvious passing downs. On third/4th and 6+, FSU converted just 3 of 11. That’s what Clemson’s defense does to opponents in those situations. FSU simply did not stay out of those long downs enough. Of the six sacks, four that were definitively the fault of the offensive line came on 3rd-13, 3rd-16, 3rd-20, and 4th-32. Clemson’s defensive line dominates everyone in those spots, as FSU fans saw Saturday night.