What went right, wrong on offense for FSU vs. Oklahoma

Orlando FL - The Seminoles won a thriller against Oklahoma with their offense coming alive in the second half.

Jordan Travis and Johnny Wilson had a remarkable game against the Sooners and gave us a glimpse of what 2023 might look like, and it is very explosive.

This team isn’t perfect - they struggled in the redzone and on third down, but their ability to create an explosive play at any time makes them so dangerous. I think there are areas where they need to improve this off-season but this team has a lot to work with.

What went right

The Seminoles first drive went well. Oklahoma rushed three players on both 3rd down situations and Jordan Travis made the most out of it. He made a wide-open throw to Johnny Wilson across the middle and made some magic scrambling away from multiple OU defenders.

While it would have been great to finish the drive with a touchdown the ‘Noles did what they do well, they moved the ball quickly with explosive plays.

They were playing very efficient football with the RPO, especially on their first touchdown drive - they got one big play to Johnny Wilson and then scored off a play-action fake.

Mike Norvell is just so good at taking advantage of defenses that are in conflict...

To open the first half the Seminoles offense was explosive and efficient with a 15-play, 94-yard touchdown drive.

While the handoff to DJ Lundy did not lead to a touchdown the direct snap to Treshaun Ward in the wild cat did. Scoring to open the half was so important to establish some momentum for this offense.

Johnny Wilson did have the one drop that would have led to a touchdown on that drive, but the team scored anyways and he had a stellar game overall.

Wilson has a very bright future but still needs to clean up a few things.

Treshaun Ward played well the entire game but made his best play in the fourth quarter:

After this the Seminoles defense got a great fumble recovery to give their offense an opportunity to score and they made the most of it.

First, it was a big play to Trey Benson for 33 yards and an eventual touchdown from Markeston Douglas over the middle of the field.

It was a great play design from Mike Norvell, he lined up Douglas as a left tackle and the tackle as a tight end leading to a wide-open TD.

Their last offensive drive was pretty representative of their season on offense, explosive plays with a failure to convert on 3rd down.

They started with a big throw down the sideline to Johnny Wilson and then just played a smart game and played the clock out forcing OU to take their final timeout.

Both Johnny Wilson and Jordan Travis put up some video game numbers against Oklahoma but I think Travis has to be the player of the game on offense:

In this game, the offense was good enough to get the job done and took advantage of the opportunities that OU gave them in the second half. While they do need to get better at finishing and sustaining drives they have been finding other ways to win.

This is a top offense in all of college football and they have a lot to build on...

What went wrong

After the first drive it was a bit of a slow start for the Seminoles with a three-and-out, and then a failed conversion on fourth down. In both instances, they just struggled to win the battle up front in the trenches.

The Seminoles offensive line has come a long way since 2021 and they have a lot to build on from this season, but they need to start winning the battle up front if they want to go from a Top 10-20 team to a national contender.

What really hurt the Seminoles was the drop from Camm McDonald on 4th down and 9... it was a good call, a good throw but just a missed opportunity.

While the receiving core has improved from 2021 to now it still has a lot of room for growth, drops hurt the Seminoles a few times this season.

Even looking at the last game vs UF the dropped balls from receivers were part of the reason the Gators were able to hang around in that game.

While Johnny Wilson had some nice plays against the Sooners he also had a dropped touchdown - he has a lot of talent but has shown too much inconsistency and he needs to work on that this off-season.