{"id":17088,"date":"2023-09-19T02:04:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T07:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=17088"},"modified":"2023-09-19T02:04:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T07:04:47","slug":"florida-state-seeks-solutions-for-pass-coverage-breakdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/florida-state-seeks-solutions-for-pass-coverage-breakdowns\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida State seeks solutions for pass coverage breakdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The very first pass of the game went for 35 yards. And there was nobody within 15 yards of the Boston College receiver when he caught it. <\/p>\n

The biggest play of the game, in Florida State head coach Mike Norvell\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> eyes, came in the third quarter when Boston College completed a 52-yard pass to a receiver wide open in the middle of the field. On thirrd-and-17. <\/p>\n

The Florida State defense also allowed a 28-yard completion on a third-and-20 late in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n

The Seminoles still got the win. They hung on for a 31-29 victory, thanks in large part to a sack after that 28-yard pass, which forced a punt. <\/p>\n

But still, the breakdowns Norvell saw on Saturday clearly irked him, and he made that known on Monday during his weekly press conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s shown up too much in the first three games,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s definitely being addressed. It\u2019s something that we\u2019ve got to understand \u2014 what people are going to try to do against us for how we play and what we do. But they (opponents) have done a good job with some of the misdirection, and our eyes have not been right a few times and allowed guys to get space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norvell specifically brought up that third-and-17 pass that changed the game and almost led to a devastating loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen guys checked immediately to the coverage and the defensive play and structure we wanted to run. And 10 guys got it, one guy didn\u2019t,\u201d Norvell said. \u201cAnd it just happened to be where the ball was thrown. \u2026 We\u2019ve all got to be on the same page in those adjustments. It\u2019s something we look at as coaches, we look at as players, and we all take ownership in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Florida State had one of the best pass defenses in the country statistically. <\/p>\n

The Seminoles allowed just 165.4 yards through the air per game, which was the fourth-best mark in the nation, and they did a fantastic job of limiting big plays. Opposing offenses had just 31 completions of 20-plus yards all season. That was 13th best in the country. <\/p>\n

So far in 2023, Florida State is currently 110th in the country in passing defense, allowing 268.3 yards per game. And even if you take out the garbage-time 75-yard touchdown they allowed late in the fourth quarter against LSU, the Seminoles would still be just 98th in the nation in that category. <\/p>\n

So far in 2023, Florida State\u2019s defense has already allowed 12 pass plays of 20-plus yards or more, including six on Saturday against a Boston College quarterback who was making just his second career start. <\/p>\n

The Seminoles rank 102nd in the country in that stat and are on pace to allow 48 such completions this year. <\/p>\n

Making matters more concerning is that on many of those plays \u2014 the first snap of the game against LSU, the second against Boston College, the aforementioned third-and-17 breakdown \u2014 the receivers have been wide, wide, wide open. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe finally gained control of the game,\u201d Fuller said of that particular bust. \u201cIt was third-and-forever. When you have game plans and you have situations, sometimes it doesn\u2019t come up until those moments. And unfortunately, that\u2019s just the lesson learned of being dialed in throughout the game when it comes up. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd defense is like that sometimes. If 10 guys execute and one guy does the wrong thing, and the ball finds that place, it becomes a big issue. It\u2019s another lesson learned that it takes 11 to operate as one. Especially on defense. If the ball doesn\u2019t find the mistake, then people don\u2019t see it. But if it finds it, it becomes very glaring and obvious. That\u2019s a harder way to learn the lesson, but it\u2019s a lesson that needed to be learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because, as Fuller and everyone else knows, if the defense gives up those kind of wide-open throws to Clemson, and plays that poorly on third down, the Seminoles aren\u2019t going to be undefeated leaving Death Valley on Saturday afternoon. <\/p>\n

The pass defense \u2014 and particularly communication between defensive backs \u2014 wasn\u2019t much of a problem at all in 2022. So far, albeit through just three games (all wins), that\u2019s been a major one for the Florida State defense in 2023. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of it has been we\u2019ve played some mobile quarterbacks,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cAnd probably having (bad) eyes and trying to help out in places you shouldn\u2019t help out, and then you lose leverage and now you\u2019re in a chase race. And so, there hasn\u2019t been one individual, per se, or one group. You\u2019re constantly trying to build it to where you have options to play multiple things and take away things that people are doing. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, I think, our guys want to play really well. So, we\u2019ve had some really poor eyes. Especially in some of these scramble situations that we\u2019ve got to tie up and fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State football fans on the Tribal Council.<\/strong><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Florida State seeks solutions for pass coverage breakdowns<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The very first pass of the game went for 35 yards. And there was nobody…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}