Florida State Embarrassed FOR THE THIRD TIME!
Humiliating Losses: 24-21 to Georgia Tech, 28-13 to BC, 20-12 to Memphis
Might as well do a follow-up to our early articles on the developing Florida State debacle. Seminoles have shown amazing consistency in how poorly they’re playing. Box scores so similar every week against what were supposed to be inferior opponents.
Saw a clip from ESPN showing Kirk Herbstreit asking why there was such “disrespect” for Florida State this week. Point spread vs. Memphis was only -6.5?! Turned out to be way too high, for the same reasons that earlier double-digit spreads were way too high against Georgia Tech and BC. You almost have to be blind to ask why FSU wasn’t getting respect in the line based on the numbers you’ll see below.
Georgia Tech (+10.5) 24, Florida State 21
Boston College (+16.5) 28, Florida State 23
Memphis (+6.5) 20, Florida State 12
Total Yardage: Georgia Tech 336, Florida State 291
Total Yardage: Boston College 369, Florida State 293
Total Yardage: Memphis 337, Florida State 238
How could a team with any quality gain only 238 total yards at HOME in a DOUBLE-BOUNCE-BACK spot against the defense of MEMPHIS? Worst performance yet from a group that was supposed to be talented and versatile. In terms of yardage differential, this was the worst of the three for FSU, even though it was at home against an opponent from a non-major conference.
Should mention, those final scores were market misses by 13.5, 21.5, and 14.5 points. How long will it take for the market to “catch down” to these performances?
Yards-per-Play: Georgia Tech 6.5, Florida State 5.0
Yards-per-Play: Boston College 5.4, Florida State 5.1
Yards-per-play: Memphis 4.7, Florida State 4.3
At least the defense is showing improvement. Gotta notice the good things that are happening under the darkening storm clouds. That will create an opportunity to win grinders if the offense can ever get anything figured out. Can’t call this a clone of the first two games because it was much more of a defensive struggle, even though Memphis isn’t supposed to play defensive struggles (Over/Under was 54.5).
Third Downs: Georgia Tech 5/9 (56%), Florida State 5/12 (42%)
Third Downs: Boston College 9/16 (56%), Florida State 3/14 (21%)
Third Downs: Memphis 7/17 (41%), Florida State 2/12 (17%)
Oh my god. That’s 5 of 26 on third down tries against BC and Memphis in Tallahassee. Reflects either a complete misunderstanding of what’s most important in the modern game, or a lack of execution almost unheard of for such hyped projected powers. At least the defense did a better job this week of getting the opponent off the field. You may have to be a stat nit to think this way…but losing THIRD DOWNS to that degree three games in a row might be more surprising than losing the three scoreboard decisions outright. These weren’t fluky TO-based losses. It’s like FSU’s offense doesn’t even know how to play checkers.
Rushing Yards: Georgia Tech 190, Florida State 98
Rushing Yards: Boston College 263, Florida State 21
Rushing Yards: Memphis 65, Florida State 37
What? Only 37 rushing yards against Memphis? North Alabama rushed for 67 yards in a 40-0 loss to Memphis. Troy rushed for 101 in a 38-17 loss to Memphis last week. Sure…Memphis may be showing that it’s a force to be reckoned with. But, FSU’s athletes shouldn’t grade out worse than Troy and North Alabama in a rushing comparison. (Again, props to the FSU defense here…very strong bounce back from the BC emasculation.)
Passing Stats: Georgia Tech 11-16-0-146, Florida State 19-27-0-193
Passing Stats: Boston College 10-16-0-106, Florida State 21-42-1-272
Passing Stats: Memphis 26-40-1-272, Florida State 16-36-1-201
So, FSU threw 20 incomplete passes (including a pick) while chasing the whole game against a mid-major defense. We knew the transfer QB had a low ceiling based on his prior performances. Summer hype is still inexplicable in retrospect. He’s kind of melting down before our eyes with Saturday’s performance.
Turnovers: Georgia Tech 0, Florida State 0
Turnovers: Boston College 0, Florida State 1
Turnovers: Memphis 1, Florida State 3
First sloppy game of the season for FSU. And, at least the defense forced its first TO of the year. Still way too soft, even if the yardage numbers today showed clear improvement. It looks like FSU’s QB is going to need field position help to get much on the board…and FSU’s defense doesn’t seem equipped to provide that help.
Length of TD Drives: Georgia Tech 79-75-89, Florida State 75-84
Length of TD Drives: Boston College 71-68-7-75, Florida State 72
Length of TD Drives: Memphis 65-75, Florida State 75
To turn college football into old-school ice hockey for a moment, FSU has lost “TD drives of 60+ yards or more per game) by counts of 3-2, 3-1, and 2-1 as clear market favorites. Probably the shortest way to express what’s wrong with the team. Offense can’t drive the field for TDs, while the defense isn’t capable of shutdowns.
TD/Drive Ratio: Georgia Tech 3/7, Florida State 2/7
TD/Drive Ratio: Boston College 3/10, Florida State 1/11
TD/Drive Ratio: Memphis 2/11, Florida State 1/11
Two straight weeks of 1 for 11. Goodness.
I’m not planning on doing this every week. Tried it out last week because the BC loss was such a clone of the Georgia Tech loss. Not quite true with Memphis…but worse in many ways because the offense floundered even more. Though, if FSU keeps losing, I might just do this until it wins a game.
Box scores tell stories, good and bad. Media hypes things, and is prone to ignore bad stories rather than tell them. At some point, the networks will have to do some introspection about their own misreads…and tell this story themselves.
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