Second viewing thougths and grade report: Florida State

I should have watched GameDay back instead of watching the game again. When I watch the game back I look for the smoking gun or weak link that caused problems. In this game there weren’t many. Most of the issues and Florida State's comeback were due to schemes and coaching. Regardless, many of our players are performing very well.


Offense: B

Last week wasn’t a fluke -- Dave Shinskie can be a very good QB at this level. Teams will continue to adjust and he may have some setbacks down the road, but clearly he has a very strong and accurate arm, he’s surprisingly nimble and can take a hit. What I appreciate about Shinskie are his fundamentals. When things break down we’ve seen many BC QBs throw it without being set or fling something into a bad spot. Shinskie is doing a great job setting himself before throws. His deep balls are pretty accurate (the only one that was really off was a deep go to Larmond). He hit the quick outs too. He’s making fewer mistakes each week. The next step for him is to work through all his progressions. Right now he is locking into his first and second read. Balls are not even being thrown at guys like Flutie, Megwa or Lee etc. But other than that, there is not much to complain about. Let’s hope he is over his road jitters as we head to Lane Stadium.

One of the reasons that Shinskie has looked so good is because of the play of the offensive line. Yesterday was another domination of the Florida State defense. The pass protection was excellent throughout. The left side was particularly strong and opened up many of the spots for Harris. Claiborne bounced back from a couple of his rough outings and looked especially good moving around. Lapham had a really strong day too. I also have to give credit to the line and coaching. At the beginning of the year they looked inept pulling and trapping and I wondered why we used it so much. Yesterday they we’re much more smooth in their movements and looked coordinated and well coached.

Larmond looks special. When was the last time we had a WR would could run away from FSU guys like that? Gunnell put together a solid outing and does a good job finding the soft spots in zones and getting right where he needs to be for the first down. Jarvis had a nice catch.

The Tight Ends did not catch a pass, but I was very happy with their blocking. We ran an off tackle run after TE motion with much success yesterday. The TEs also blocked well for Harris on the first TD.

Harris really saved the day yesterday but not for what you think. After the goalline stand, Shinskie hit Larmond for a 62-yarder on 3rd and 9. Watch the play again and you will see that Harris did a great job on blitz pick up and stopped two guys coming through. We scored on that drive and that pass was a statement. That pass doesn’t happen without Harris. Harris obviously did a great job with his patience and his cuts and showed good burst. His TD run to give us back the lead was the perfect combination of vision, speed, balance and smarts as he stayed in bounds and got to the endzone. Haden looked okay but didn’t get many touches. He also dropped a swing pass that he should have pulled in. Jeff Smith is not a natural (I’ll get to that in the special teams area) but he is explosive in space. The wheel route TD was great design because a LB on Smith in space is advantage BC.

There is already a debate on if we went too conservative in the second half or if we just got unlucky. Let me give my answer: we went too conservative. What frustrates me is that Tranq called a good first half. We kept them off balance. We gave Shinskie some easy early throws and then started to air it out. We saw their struggles last week and used the wildcat early. Finding successful plays for guys like Smith, hitting Larmond deep, moving the ball…it was all working. Then we start the second half with seven straight runs. 11 of our first 13 plays in the second half were runs. What did we get for those drives? 57 yards and just under seven minutes of time of possession. We also lost momentum and let FSU back in the game. Play calling is an art, not a science. You need to plan and design well before the game. You need to adjust to their adjustments and most importantly you need to keep the other team off balance. If we run on first and second down over and over we take all the guess work out of third down and make completing passes that much more difficult. Once FSU tied the game, we started passing on the early downs again. Of course we scored again! Based on what the announcers said, Spaz is letting his coordinators call the game and not interfering. I don’t know if that is true or not, but Spaz as head coach should now be telling Tranq – “don’t let up, Gary!” Going conservative too early is asking for trouble and it undermined a great first half of offense.

Defense: B-

The defensive line continues to shut down the run well (they also got a little help from the slick turf). Giles and Scafe both looked good inside. Rossi also deserves mention as he has been much more disruptive to the opponents than people probably realize. Ramsey got plenty of snaps but wasn’t as impactful. Albright was great. He got doubled often yet still made a difference. His sack on Ponder was a huge play (obviously). When he went down, our ability to get to Ponder fell off. Newman had a solid day. Ramella struggled especially on when FSU went with the end around plays.

McLaughlin played well and didn’t get as exposed as last week. Kuechly made some big plays and showed good speed. LeGrande also made some big plays. Morrissey continues to play well. DiSanzo’s playing time was cut a bit with Kuechly moving over but he still played well.

It is too bad Fletcher lost his man on FSU’s two-point conversion because other than that he had a good day. Davis played well. Johnson looked good filling in for Rollins. Bowman made some big hits but was still exploited a bit in pass coverage.

Like the offense, the first half defense was much better than the second. Part of it was the absence of Albright. Part was trying to protect from the big play. But unsettling was our inability to get to Ponder. We brought five guys often...especially in the fourth quarter and still couldn't provide much pressure. That is design. The blitzers are starting too far off the line or running into traffic or just too slow. It is troubling and we need to find some solutions that work. The corner blitzes have worked in previous seasons. Why not use them now? The defense has done enough but is still allowing a ton of yardage and not even breathing on the opposing QB. That cannot last forever if BC wants to keep winning.

Special Teams: C+

Jeff Smith is not a natural return man. Great speed, yes, but still lacking instincts. He runs into traffic over and over and slows his feet almost assuring that he will not break a big run. He is also still careless. The fumble was troubling, but then his "meh" reaction made it worse.

Gunnell didn't get to do much with his punt returns.

I understand the short kicks and they worked for the most part, but it still seems a little too conservative. Why continue to hand them good field position? Why not mix it up?

Quigley's punts were effective.


Overall: B

A win is a win and that is what matters most. The initial gameplan worked well. Spaz had the guys ready and Shinskie and the offense look like a different team than the one that laid an egg in Clemson. My concern remains game management. Spaz has seen more football than most. Does he not have faith in this team to keep pressing when up? I understand minimizing risk but there is a different sort of risk in sitting on your own score or shrinking your playbook. If we keep playing close games we are going to end up on the wrong end of one soon. But 4-1 is ahead of my expectations and Spaz deserves credit. Let's build on this.