Three takeaways from FSU football’s loss to Boise State

It was a tale of two halves from the Florida State offense.

The offense looked dominant in the first half and then nonexistent in the second as Boise State rallied from a 31-13 deficit to beat the Seminoles 36-31 in Doak Campbell Stadium Saturday.

Boise State took away FSU’s ability to throw the ball downfield and forced FSU to throw short passes that didn’t gain much. The offense also wasn’t able to run the ball.

The Seminoles gained 40 total yards in the third quarter and had four punts and a fumble. No drive was longer than 16 yards and three of the possessions were three-and-outs.

The fourth quarter wasn’t much better with two yards in the first 13 minutes of the quarter. Two of FSU’s three drives in the fourth quarter were three-and-outs.

The Seminoles finished with 68 total yards in the half on 29 plays. FSU averaged 1.5 yards per rush and 2.3 yards per play.

The offensive line wasn’t able to get a push and Blackman made a number of poor decisions. The play calling looked predictable and the Broncos were quick to the ball taking away any opportunities for FSU to make a play. Blackman went 9-for-16 in the second half for 49 yards.

The offense never found a rhythm and limped to the finish line.

First half offense flies

The offense was fun, fast, and efficient for the first 30 minutes. It looked like Lethal Simplicity had finally shown up.

The Seminoles put up 31 points in the first half, which is the most points they have scored in a half since FSU put up 35 points in the second half to beat Louisville 41-21 in 2015.

New FSU offensive coordinator Kendal Briles limited FSU’s weaknesses with his play calling and took advantage of the strengths.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback James Blackman lit up the scoreboard in the first half for 278 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. He finished the game with 327 yards.

His first touchdown pass went 75 yards after Tamorrion Terry caught the ball behind the line of scrimmage and raced down the sideline for the score on a read-option throw from Blackman. The next touchdown also came on a read-option where Blackman rolled out and hit tight end Gabe Nabers for a five-yard touchdown in the first quarter. 

He then hit Keyshawn Helton for a 58-yard touchdown pass that was mostly in the air in the second quarter He was efficient with his short passes and hit multiple balls to move the offense.

Running back Cam Akers carried the load on the ground for the Seminoles. He had 91 yards on seven carries in the first half including a 38-yard touchdown.

The FSU offensive line showed a lot of improvement from last season and did a good job of keeping Blackman off the turf for the most part. They opened up some holes for the running backs.

Briles did a good job of calling quick plays, which didn’t allow the Boise State defensive line much time to get to Blackman. But it was still significant improvement from the unit.

But the unit couldn’t put together a full game and fell apart in the second half.

Defense with a historically poor performance

The one constant from the game was FSU’s inability to slow down the Boise State offense.

The Boise State offense was consistently able to open up big holes in the running game and true freshman quarterback Hank Bachmeier made multiple big throws throughout the game.

The defense gave up 621 total yards, which is the most since giving up 639 yards to Oregon in the Rose Bowl in 2014.

The veteran Bronco offensive line was able to push the FSU defense around while run blocking.

The numbers weren’t particularly impressive for Boise State averaging just 3.8 yards per carry. But the Broncos put together 215 rushing yards on 56 carries and wore the defense down over time.

Boise State was also able to break off big run after big run against the defense. The Broncos had 21 chunk plays in the game with 10 runs of 10 yards or more and 11 passes of 15 yards or more.

The FSU defense just never found an answer and the Broncos wore the defense down by running 108 plays.

The defense spent 40:03 on the field and were completely wore down despite playing more than 30 players.

In the passing game, Boise State receivers were consistently running wide open and Bachmeier was able to get the ball to them, especially in the second half.

Bachmeier finished his first game as a college player 30-for-51 for 407 yards with one touchdown and one interception. 

The only thing that FSU did well on defense was force turnovers, but the defense couldn’t capitalize on the turnover it needed the most with a botched fumble recovery inside the five in the fourth quarter. The Broncos would take their first lead of the game two plays later.  

The Broncos converted eight of their eight red zone attempts into points. 

Reach Wayne McGahee III at [email protected].

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