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NC State Accepts Win from Florida State
- AlecLower
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
What is it with Florida State and the punting? The last time the Noles came to Raleigh, one of the biggest plays of the game was Florida State punter Alex Mastromanno punting the ball from beyond the line of scrimmage. That uniquely bizarre blunder resulted in a loss of down, which gave NC State the ball in the red zone. The Pack kicked a field goal and ended up winning by two.
I figured that was probably the weirdest punt I’d ever see, but Mike Norvell is not to be underestimated. His team never stops delivering the goofiest shit you’ve ever watched. Now, if I had a nickel for every time a bizarre punting or punt returning gaffe occurred during a night game in Carter-Finley against Mike Norvell’s Florida State Seminoles, I’d have four nickels!Â
I don’t know a better way to sum up the abject stupidity of this game. Florida State is always doing something weird. If you want to beat them, you just have to hold serve and they will eventually do something catastrophic. That’s all NC State did. The Pack was not particularly good in this game, but it did not implode. It never bailed out Florida State. The Noles are a time bomb and you just have to make sure you don’t blow up first.Â
Florida State was the better team on a down-to-down basis. It averaged a respectable 6.2 yards per play and it crossed the NC State 40 yard line on five of its eight real drives (last drive excluded). Meanwhile, the Pack averaged a rough 4.12 yards per play and crossed the Florida State 40 on three of its 11 real drives. The difference was State hitting the red paint on all three of those possessions. Norvell’s bumbling circus scored one touchdown, made one of three field goal attempts, and threw an interception. There’s your ball game.Â
State’s elimination of the explosive play forced Florida State to sustain drives, which it could not do. The five drives where the Noles crossed the 40 averaged 11 plays. There was no 80-yard pass or 60-yard run. Even plays that technically recorded as explosives per analytical websites were not back breakers. That was the biggest difference.
A lot of that is courtesy of Devon Marshall, who put on a clinic when it comes to playing through the hands of the receiver. It’s a common misconception in man coverage that the DB should always be turning and looking for the ball. If you want to see an example of an out-of-phase DB playing through the hands of the receiver, Marshall did a good job of it in this game. It also helps that Tommy Castellanos is very bad, throwing late and leaving things short all over the field.Â
The defense as a whole deserves credit, even if it wasn’t quite as dominant as the 11 points might make you think. They kept Florida State out of the end zone. Preventing the opponent from achieving the primary goal of football usually leads to a positive result. Not surprisingly, State went back to more quarters as a defense. It had been slowly progressing to more man coverage because it was struggling so much to manage the assignments of the quarters scheme. High volume man coverage is not a great option against a quarterback that runs like this.Â
In response, Florida State ran the mills concept a bunch. The classic quarters killer has been a huge problem for State this season, but it didn’t happen on Friday night. The corners offered more resistance manning up the deep post routes and State was also able to muddy the pocket on some of these plays, forcing Castellanos into improvisational mode. Below are three explosive play opportunities that State escaped.
FSU runs the mills concept here from a basic 2x2. For some reason, State is not interested in asking the safety to help on these post routes, even if the dig route is covered. This actually comes open, but State's pass rush is able to muddy the pocket and the play doesn't have enough time to develop.
FSU runs the mills concept from a stack. The safety bites down on the dig route and leaves the corner on the island. Marshall challenges the catch more than the other corners have been able to do when targeted with this concept.
FSU runs 4 verts here. Soares does well as the 3-up player to turn and run with the vertical from the inside receiver. Castellanos gets through this play well and throws the ball to #2 on the field side, which is where it should go. The problem is he's late and wild. State can thank its ends for that. Harsh forces him to climb the pocket while Slone wins inside and makes it impossible to climb the pocket. That causes a late throw with poor mechanics as Castellanos tries to be superman.
Offensively, State was a Toyota Sienna driving through a bog for the second straight week. There is very little that it did well in this game outside of converting fourth downs. Two of State’s three scoring drives featured a fourth down conversion. If it fails at either, it likely loses. Justin Joly’s catch makes him the offensive player of the game, and if it's not him, it's Will Wilson
I thought Roper called a solid game too, but there are just too many things being left on the field in the passing game. One of the biggest complaints with freshman CJ Bailey is that he would look at sufficient windows to throw the ball and not let it go. 11 games into the sophomore campaign and it doesn’t look like that’s gone. Bailey’s last two performances have been poor. He’s left explosive plays on the field and his lower body mechanics have not helped him be accurate.Â
State is going to run its middle read play, which is 3 routes. Two go routes on the outside and an option route in the middle. FSU rotates from the 1-high safety look to Tampa 2. The cover 2 corners funnel the go routes inside and the rotating safety kills the one-receiver side. Bailey comes back to the middle where the linebacker is running with the slot receiver and the safety has lost the boundary route. This ball should get ripped down the sideline for a big gainer.
State runs the screen and go for Justin Joly. I don't know why the ball doesn't get thrown. There are only two reads on this play and the first one is open.
This is a very nice route at the bottom from Noah Rogers. Bailey comes off this too fast. He wants it, but he turns to check it down for no real reason. Rogers wins and it's there, but a scramble drill commences instead.
Bailey's two best plays of the game where the touchdown to Joly and a boot flood play from earlier in that drive where he came back to the third read. The third read on that play is the cross coming from the backside and it's often behind the sprint out from the quarterback. You don't frequently see that play progress to that route but he did well with the awkward angle throw. It's not a highlight but I liked it.
The touchdown to Joly was a nice play from Roper and Bailey. FSU played cover 2 man with some match rules involved the play before, so State got Smothers on an angle route with two shallow sit routes to the side of his release. It's a pretty natural counter to man match rules on the back or man coverage that's aggressively trying to climb over rub routes. It also ran the deep out from what's called a nasty split for Joly, which created a ton of space into the boundary. Zone coverage shut down what State wanted to do with Smothers, but Bailey got back to the deep out and hit it.
I liked this from Roper too.
This is a tweak to a very common quick game concept called Snag Lion. Snag Lion is a split-field man zone read. The snag concept is a zone beater and the lion concept (double slants) is a man beater. State has run this plenty of times. Here, it runs it but turns the inside slant into a whip route and the outside slant into a double move.
It's harder for the quarterback when there's no run game. Smothers ripped off a 27-yard run to start the game but then averaged under three yards per touch the rest of the way. State is just not moving guys like it was a year ago up front. All of these things create some concerns about next week and the kind of rock fight that could commence. Games like Friday's get won and lost in the margins, and next Saturday is probably no different. UNC's offense is bad, and its defense isn't great but it's capable. State really needs an offensive performance that exceeds Friday's. I'd rather not live in the margins against the noxious entity coming here this week.