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FSU Football at Louisville In-Depth Recap: What We Learned
Here’s the most in depth recap of FSU football and their latest game and what we learned from their loss over Louisville.
For just the 13th time in the history of the ACC, the conference had a football game featuring two member programs ranked in the top 10 nationally at kickoff. FSU football has been a part of nine of those games, including Saturday’s showdown against Louisville. The Seminoles’ 7-1 record in those games saw another loss added to it following the 63-20 defeat at the hands of the Cardinals – the first time in the 70 seasons of FSU football they have given up 60 points in a game.
Much like the opener against Ole Miss, the Seminoles fell behind big early…but unlike that win over the Rebels, FSU football was never able to contain Louisville and traveled home with their first loss of the 2016 season.
Here’s a look at what we learned from FSU football’s latest game against the Cardinals.
Sep 17, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals cornerback Jaire Alexander (10) recovers a fumble from Florida State Seminoles running back Dalvin Cook (4) during the second quarter at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
No. 1 – The offensive line needs to be embarrassed for the way they have played for a majority of the first three games this season. This was a unit that was supposed to be better in 2016 after an awful span for much of the last two years, but they have played like a group that, quite frankly, doesn’t care. I don’t know what will fix it, but something needs to be done now.
No. 2 – That being said, not all the blame can be taken off the shoulders of Deondre Francois. After the huge comeback win over Ole Miss, there may have been too much credit given to the quarterback considering how young he was and how he made it look so easy. There were multiple times he needed to get rid of the ball sooner or make smarter decisions when it came to reading defenses. Now, we get to see what he is made of the rest of the season.
No. 3 – Through the first three quarters of the game, Dalvin Cook had 54 yards on 16 carries. His backup, Jacques Patrick, had one carry…for 41 yards. A decent amount of that is getting no help from the offensive line (see No. 1 on this list), but Cook has to step up and be the leader and make plays. Otherwise, he is going to be labeled as a one hit wonder from last season and never get the credit he deserves as a great running back.
Sep 17, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; Louisville Cardinals quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) runs the ball against the Florida State Seminoles during the second quarter at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
No. 4 – On paper, people are going to say that the loss of Derwin James was the main reason that the defense for FSU played worse than it has since that Rose Bowl loss to Oregon. Even if James had been in the lineup, the rest of the defense – with the possible exception of DeMarcus Walker – quit on the rest of the team. Period, plain and simple. Guys like Derrick Nnadi, Jacob Pugh and others are good, but not good enough to play that horrible and expect to click once in a while.
No. 5 – The secondary, without James, is pretty much in shambles. Guys like Tarvarus McFadden, Marcus Lewis, A.J. Westbrook, and Trey Marshall…it was beyond embarrassing to watch them play at times during the game. We saw them give up big plays against Ole Miss and even blow some coverage’s against Charleston Southern – but Saturday’s may have been the worst performance by a unit in the history of FSU football.
No. 6 – Now that the Seminoles have dropped their first game of the season, we will get to see what the 2016 FSU football team is truly made of. With games in the next six weeks that include North Carolina, Miami and Clemson, the wheels can fall off the wagon real quick if the Seminoles are not careful. Maybe I’m just a person blinded by loyalty to my alma mater, but I do think Jimbo Fisher and his team will get this fixed in time to avoid that from taking place.
Sep 17, 2016; Louisville, KY, USA; A Louisville Cardinals fan holds up a modified Muhammad Ali photo during the first quarter against the Florida State Seminoles at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
Extra Point
So, for the second straight season the Seminoles will have to scoreboard watch the rest of the way and hope for help if they want to get back to the ACC Championship Game (wherever it will be played).
Not only does FSU football need to win out the rest of the way in ACC games (including contests against North Carolina, Miami, Clemson and N.C. State), but now needs Louisville to lose at least two games for the Seminoles to win the Atlantic Division.
The Cardinals have six games left in conference play: a road contest against Clemson in two weeks that just got huge, home games against Duke, N.C. State and Wake Forest to go along with road contests against Virginia and Boston College. It doesn’t look all that positive on paper, but stranger things have happened.
Going For Two
For the second time in as many weeks, fans of FSU football got their day started off earlier than many others as kickoff between the Seminoles and Cardinals took place at noon. There will be a repeat of that this coming week when FSU heads down to Tampa to take on South Florida at the same 12 PM kickoff.
For months now, I have made it very clear that the ACC needs to step their game up when it comes to how the league is broadcast. There is no reason that a game between top 10 teams should have been at noon while the afternoon game was Oregon/Nebraska and the night game was USC/Stanford – each one featuring a team not even ranked.
Yes, I know that the game time was made before the season…but this is where the ACC needs to show something and push for a switch. As for next week, the slate of night games is not spectacular enough that the Seminoles and Bulls shouldn’t be playing later on in the day.
FSU will likely get plenty of afternoon and evening games during this season (Clemson, Miami, Florida most likely), but the premier game in the ACC so far this season missed a prime chance to get great exposure for the league.
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