OUCH! There isn’t much else to say about that game. The Deacs showed up to Tallahassee riding high on confidence after a huge 28-27 win over North Carolina in week two, but confidence was not enough. I hate being negative in my blog because I have been there as a player (’10 vs Stanford when we lost 68-24).
I know what it feels like to lose like this. It’s absolutely miserable especially when you get flat out beat. As a player the only thing you want to do is get home and get ready for the next game. You want to show the fans that this was a one-time deal and the next game can’t come fast enough.
That’s enough with the emotional side of it, let’s analyze this game. Here it goes:
OFFENSE
- We found out what happens when Campanaro can’t get the ball. Camp has been the lifeline of the offense this season, but yesterday he had only two catches for 8 yards and the offense struggled. He had a couple of drops early on, but for the most part he just wasn’t open. Sherman Ragland had a huge 41-yard catch in the third quarter but by then the game was over.
- Josh Harris had a nice 34-yard run yesterday, but other than that the running game continued to struggle (43 yards rushing). The O-line was not able to get enough movement up front to open up creases. The Deacs had some opportunities to break through on outside zones, but an FSU defender was able to beat his blocker and make the tackle.
- The key to outside zone is winning inside. If the tackle loses his block outside its okay as long as the center and guard can reach their defenders quickly to open up a crease. Unfortunately the zone plays seemed to wash down the line of scrimmage leaving the running back nowhere to go.
- Pass protection was below average all day. Last season I blocked both Bjoern Werner and Cornelius Carradine and know how much talent those two have, but the line needed to slow them down a little more than they did. Jimbo Fisher’s staff game-planned the Deacs well. Werner is their best defender and FSU used him in a very clever manner. In most 3rd down situations they moved Werner into position for him to have a personnel mismatch. Typically Werner lines up across from the right tackle with his hand in the dirt, but on many 3rd downs they rushed him from a stand-up position and took advantage of his matchup with Wake Forest running backs. Carradine can thank Werner for at least one sack yesterday. Again, I thought this was a brilliant strategy by the Noles. Werner is too big and too good for a running back to block. In 2009, Georgia Tech employed this same strategy against the Deacs with their All-American defensive end Derrick Morgan.
DEFENSE
- The Deacs really missed NG Nikita Whitlock. Going into the game I thought FSU center Bryan Stork would struggle against Whitlock because of his lateral quickness. With Whitlock out, Stork was able to take advantage of an inexperienced true freshman Tylor Harris. I’ll give Harris some credit, he played much better than many true freshman would have (3 tackles and 1 fumble recovery), but he has a different style of play than Whitlock. Harris is a big and powerful defender whereas Whitlock is very quick side-to-side. Stork capitalized on this difference yesterday. The Noles ran a ton of outside zone in the game and, as I mentioned earlier, zone is successful when the interior lineman reach their defenders. For the majority of the game Stork was able to reach Harris and Florida State’s running game flourished.
- The running success cannot be attributed solely to Harris getting reached. There were many times that the Deacon defenders over pursued the run and were burned by the cut-back run. Early on in the game, FSU was having success on the edges (74 and 80-yard runs by RB Chris Thompson). As soon as the Deacs adjusted to that they were burned by cut-back runs. When teams are having success outside, the natural tendency is to run, run, run to cover the outside run, but if you don’t have your backside defenders playing their gaps you become susceptible to cut-back runs up the middle.
- Missed tackles hurt the Deacs again this week. I think the Deacs were a little bit better than the Carolina game, but there were still too many missed tackles out there. The biggest miss of all came on FSU RB Chris Thompson’s 80-yard scamper which could have been stopped for a short gain.
- I thought DE Kris Redding had a pretty good game. He was one of the bright spots of this game for me. Redding was able sack QB E.J. Manuel twice, one resulted in a fumble and a recovery by Tylor Harris. There wasn’t much to get excited about during the game, but I think Redding showed he can play at a high level. He came into this game off the bench after seeing DE Hasan Hazime take his spot in the starting lineup. That may have lit a fire in Redding, let’s hope that fire stays lit.
SPECIAL TEAMS
- The kick-off return unit needs to improve. I give all the credit in the world to those guys for doing that job (it’s truly a selfless unit and can be a very unpleasant job). They have to block guys running at them with a 40-yard head start. It’s tough. That being said, the Deacs have to be able to get the ball outside of their own 20-yard line. Hopkins only kicked two in the end zone, but the Deacs couldn’t get anything going on their returns. Wake’s average starting position was on their own 19-yard line, but their average start in the 1st quarter was on their own 12-yard line. It’s tough to go 88 yards against anyone, let alone Florida State.
- The punt team spent too much time on the field. This was a result of a lackluster offense, but punting the ball 13 times puts you at risk for big returns. Alex Kinal averaged 40 yards per punt, but his hang time just wasn’t there. That was the main reason for the huge 60-yard return in the first quarter. Kinal’s strength is the hang time that allows the Deacon coverage team to swarm the returner.
The Deacs must improve from Saturday’s effort. The running game has to get better, if Wake can’t run the ball teams are going to blitz Tanner all game. Defensively, it all starts with the tackling. It doesn’t matter what opposing offenses throw at you as long as you wrap up and tackle. When you don’t do that consistently you will lose.
The Deacs return to action this Saturday for Homecoming against Army. Kickoff is at 12:30. Be sure to get there early and get loud in the stands. The players love it when the crowd is into the game, it really his a huge confidence boost.
-Go Deacs!
Michael Hoag
Michael,
Great analysis, sad but all true. To your point regarding the kick return team, I think that FSU was intentionally not kicking touchbacks thinking they could pin us deeper by forcing us to return the kick, than if they kicked it into the endzone and having the ball come out to the 25 yard line. I’m sure the FSU kicker has plenty of leg to put into the endzone. Did you think that as well? If that was what they were doing, talk about not having any respect for our return game!!!
Thanks. I absolutely hate writing about our losses, it’s tough. Regarding the kicking game, I’m not really sure if that was their tactic but it very well could have been. The wind was blowing pretty good down there so that may have been a factor, but the kick it short strategy is something that our radio crew has discussed. If you can force the team to return it every time and you have confidence in your kickoff team then I think it is a great strategy. If that was indeed what they were doing to us, then it worked out in their favor. I don’t think you will ever see a coach admit to using that strategy though. It has always been tough for us to return it against the Noles because they always have such great speed on their kickoff unit. FSU and Clemson always field the fastest kickoff units in our league. Thanks for reading!
Great analysis, Michael. Regarding the kicking, that is indeed what FSU has decided to do with the new kickoff rule. Their kicker has talked about it in interviews. He was initially upset because he used to pride himself in getting touchbacks consistently. Now, however, the coaches have him focusing on hangtime, since the coverage team now has a 5 yard headstart with the new placement, allowing a great advantage if you have a kicker who is actually able to place his kickoffs. You’ll notice once the game was out of hand he started kicking them out of the back of the endzone to limit injury risk. Anyway, good luck to the Deacs the rest of the season!
This was absolutely the strategy. Dustin Hopkins has one of the strongest legs in the country. If he wanted to (which he did one time I believe), he could put it out of the endzone, and probably into the front row. You may remember that during the 80 yard run from Thompson there was a 15 yard penalty for side line interference, and FSU was forced to kick the ball from the 20 instead of the 35. That kick went inside the 5.
This is a tactic FSU will surely use throughout the season given the ridiculous talent on special teams and the ability of Hopkins to kick it high and near the goal line. It’ll be interesting to see if FSU does this against Clemson and given Watkins big play ability.
Thanks for reading! It is absolutely an advantage for the Seminoles. They have the fastest kickoff cover team in the ACC. I noticed during the game that the kickoff team was hitting the 20 yard line as our returner was catching the football. It’s a definite advantage for your team. I’m interested to see how it works against Clemson as well.
Are there personnel changes that we can make to aid our kick-off return efficiency, or in your opinion do we have our best options on the field? And, what are your thoughts on the 3-4 defensive alignment? Shouldn’t the 3-4 minimize the ability to cut back on running plays?
Not sure why, but each season we seem to have one huge blow-game against us. Hopefully this will not erode our confidence but instead fuel a more intense determination to improve.
Thanks for your candor in analysis…that could not be comfortable for you. It is, however, greatly appreciated.
Gary,
As far as personnel is concerned, I don’t think there is much you can do in terms of changing it up. Kickoff return is all about effort. You have to do everything you can to stay in front of your man and block him. It really is a tough job, I’ve seen my fair share of guys getting crushed in my playing days. The biggest thing for that team is putting 11 guys out there who are fearless.
I like our 3-4 alignment because of the ability of Whitlock to disrupt lineman. He helps that 3-4 a ton the way our coaching staff uses it. It also allows us to vary our blitzes and come from a multitude of directions. The hard part about run defense with the 3-4 is the uncovered guards. Without defensive tackles covering up your guards they have a free release to your linebackers. So if the guards can block your two inside backers it creates that cut-back ability. There are definitely positives and negatives to both the 3-4 and the 4-3.
It is hard for me to do the analysis when we lose. As I mentioned in the post, I’m doing my best to point out the flaws without being incredibly negative. I know from a player’s perspective how tough it can be if you see things written about you in a negative light. My goal is to give the readers an honest opinion, but I never want to bash a player because I know how tough it is to play this game.
Thank you, Michael. Personally I think you are doing an excellent job of giving honest, fair and yet “gentle” analysis.
I have no idea as to the “personality” of the team. But hopefully we are resilient and tough minded. I am not sure that Army is the team you want to be too emotionally high against due to their disciplined and unrelenting style of play. Honestly I would like to see more emotion from our guys; yet, you cannot lose focus on your assignments against the academies.
Thanks again for your writing.
I’m not sure what the personality is yet either. It’s too early to determine that because this is our first bump in the road. How the team responds this week and the following weeks will tell me a lot. I do think this team has a bit of an attitude, however, and that’s what you need to win games. Bud Noel and Nikita Whitlock are the two guys on the team with the most confidence if you ask me. I’d love to see some more players get that same mindset. A lot of that comes with experience though.