There’s an old saying, ‘A win is a win.’ It applies for Florida State after Thursday’s 26-17 win over North Carolina State.
FSU’s defense was absent for most of the game, giving up a season-high 157 yards rushing to the worst running team in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Wolfpack, which appeared dead some two weeks ago, again came out of the bye week and played FSU tough.
I thought this would have been a blowout, and it could have been worse, but N.C. State was competitive as they usually are, or at leats have been over the past seven years or so.
However, a good sign was FSU’s offense answering with key drives under the guidance of Christian Ponder. He took a step toward being the passer FSU needs for a balanced offense and hooked up with Bay graduate Bert Reed for a 17-yarder for what amounted to the winning score.
And man, Reed did a great job of getting into the end zone.
Ponder then led a more than four-minute drive for one of two final Graham Gano field goals. This wasn’t a pretty win as a whole, but FSU’s offense moved the ball well and really was in control of the game. This wasn’t a game, even with a 10-0 deficit early, where you felt FSU couldn’t score when it wanted to, and it proved that with the long drives and time of possession edge.
Defensively this was a step back. N.C. State had big plays and moved the ball better than they had all season. FSU’s defense should be the strong suit, and the Seminoles better shore things up going into the difficult part of the schedule.
The 5-1 record is a bonus, but FSU has yet to defeat a team with a winning record.
Standout player: Ponder finished with 254 yards and a TD and added 29 yards on the ground. This was a better performance, but FSU needs to stretch the field beyond the bubble screens. It could have done so on Thursday, but Corey Surrency dropped some passes and was lost on a fade pattern in the end zone.
Inside the boxscore: FSU was again steller on third downs, finishing 10 of 17. … FSU’s defense did do something good, holding N.C. State to one conversion in nine third-down attempts. … Gano was 4 for 4 on field goals with a long of 53 to cap the scoring. … Reed was credited with two punt returns and almost gave the game away with an early muff.
Next up: The true test of the season against Virginia Tech at home. The Seminoles have an extra few days to prepare and they need it.
Check out the season schedule, with stats from each game.
There’s no doubt that the difference between FSU and BCS prominence once again is in the defense. Bobby Bowden isn’t helping things either …of course, as a Gator fan, I love Bobby Bowden. Good article …
True, it was an unimpressive win against a mediocre team, BUT…
NC State came out fired up and went up by 10, after that the Seminoles put it to them. The defense didn’t play well, but the offense held the ball so much that it didn’t really matter. QB Chris Ponder continues to get better, and is turning out to be a real heady player. While most of his passes were screens and jump balls, he did make some decent throws. NC State was watching for his scrambles, but he did pick up several key first downs at crucial spots to keep the Wolfpack off the field.
Bert Reed had two pretty receptions, and scored the winning TD, but his biggest play of the night was that recovery of his own fumble at the 7 when the Noles were down 10-3. He looked like a lilliputian among the giants on that play, but his quick hands secured the ball. Whew!
Bobby Bowden gave the best interview of the year at halftime, chatting up the pretty girl reporter. She caught him right after he gave the officials the dickens for calling five holding calls on his o-line in the first half, and when the girl asked him what he intended to do about
those penalties, he said “Pray that they don’t do it no more”. Those prayers must have worked because they quit with the holding penalties. But whether the prayers worked on the players or the refs is debatable.
Another ACC game, another day of cursing ACC referees. The worst call went against NC State in the second half; some little bitty guy laid a lick on Ponder when he put his head down to run over him and got hit with an unnecessary roughness call. Pure crap.
Antone (A-Train) Smith hit double figures in touchdowns for the year and has a shot to beat Greg Allen’s 1982 season record of 20.
Wonderpig,
I’m not disputing that it was good the Seminoles rallied on the road against a team that’s always up for them. I’m a tad concerned about the defense, which was supposed to be a strong suit. The unit has given up more yards and big plays as each week goes by and you can’t do that against the better teams.
The rest of the schedule remains the same now as it did in the preseason. It’s going to be difficult and this will be the sign if FSU is truly back to where Bobby Bowden and the Seminole faithful wants it to be.
The Seminoles defense is the third best in the nation in yards given up per game, a stat which is sort of deceiving because not only haven’t they played a top notch offense yet, 1/3 of that total is against those two I-AA teams (combined record of 3-13). They play good in spurts, but they have yet to put a complete game together defensively. Not to mention their aggravating habit of giving up big yardage on gadget plays.
Funny that they are halfway through the season and nobody, including themselves, know how good they are. But I can say with some assurance that they are not “truly back”. They might could get to the ACC championship game, and perhaps even win it, but it’s going to be a struggle every step of the way.
Good thing next weeks game is in Tallahassee instead of Blacksburg, they can use all the help they can get against VPI.
Wonderpig,
I agree. They don’t know how good, or for that matter, how bad they will be. This is the first true test of many more to come. You look at the rest of the schedule and Georgia Tech and Maryland will be tough games, especially on the road. Clemson should be easier than thought before the season started and Boston College will be a bit more difficult. Then you have chores against Virginia Tech and Florida.
We’ll learn a lot in the next month. We’ll see what Ponder does against real defenses. We’ll see if the running game can keep going and we’ll see if the defense can tighten up.