Column: Florida State’s defense finally delivers with dominant showing in Virginia win
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Two weeks ago, on the road against Alabama, Florida State trailed 43-36 midway through the fourth quarter. Alabama was backed up on its own 10-yard line, and if the Noles could get a stop, they would have a chance to do the unthinkable.
The Crimson Tide marched down the field for a 9-play, 90-yard touchdown drive, with 80 of those yards coming on the ground. A week later, Central Arkansas dominated time of possession, owning the ball for 40 minutes and running 75 plays. Even in a win, FSU’s defensive performance, especially up front, was so lethargic that defensive coordinator Tony White told the Tallahassee media he apologized to Florida State’s offense for not giving them more opportunities after the Central Arkansas game. Nothing pointed to a defensive turnaround, and some argued the Seminole front seven was the team’s most disappointing unit through four weeks.
Then, Saturday happened.
In the most thorough display of White’s defense in 17 games, the Noles mauled Virginia’s offense and held them to seven points, 2.8 yards per play, and 3/19 on “cash downs”, including a 4th-down stop in the second quarter by Chris Jones with the score still 17-7. UVA scored a touchdown on its second drive, then did not score for the final 49 minutes. The Cavaliers had four drives that finished with negative yards and five three-and-outs. Florida State’s success came from annihilating the veteran UVA offensive line, racking up 10 sacks — the most from FSU’s defense since 1989. Nine different players recorded a sack, headlined by Rylan Kennedy with two. In case more information was needed to prove how the Noles lived in Virginia’s backfield, FSU put up 12 tackles for loss after coming into the day with only 24 on the season. It was about as perfect a performance as a defense could put together, and even more impressive against a team that hasn’t scored fewer than 27 points before Saturday.
“I believe this can be a really good and dominant football team,” head coach Mike Norvell told the local Tallahassee media postgame. “I thought our defense came out today with an attitude and a mentality. Tony (White) and his staff did a great job putting guys in position. The message of the week was go do your job. We went into today with 11 guys out there – offense, defense, special teams – everyone of us will do our job. Our staff, everybody focused on their responsibility. We thought some great things could occur, and they did that.”
Personnel choices drove part of the turnaround. Kevin Wynn, who seemed ready for more game action, got the first start in his young career and made the most of it. The sophomore picked up three tackles, one sack, and one tackle for loss as he overpowered Virginia’s offensive line. Early in the year, the Seminole defense kept trying to use smaller, athletic interior defensive linemen and got gashed. White finally figured out that playing his 317-pound nose tackle made more sense than 270- to 280-pound tweeners and was rewarded for it. Wynn swallowed up UVA’s rushing attack and paved the way for the rest of Florida State’s defense to swarm in the backfield.
“I thought Tony did a really nice job of adapting the plan, as he’s continuing to be around this team and this defensive front. I thought some guys definitely grew up, that was an experienced and good offensive line that they went against and definitely performed at an elite level.”
Along those lines, it finally seemed like White had figured out his best 11 players and rode with them. Linebackers Chris Jones and Mikai Gbayor played over 40 snaps each, partly because of linebacker injuries and partly because they kept making plays. The duo tied for the team lead in tackles on Saturday with six each, while combining for 2.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss. In the secondary, Quindarrius Jones and Ja’Bril Rawls each played over 50 snaps and earned over a 75.0 tackling grade from PFF, as they were physical in the run game and blanketed UVA’s receivers in the passing game. All told, nine players played over 40 snaps, and 14 played 30 or more, as White tightened his bench and rode with the hot hands. As the year goes on, the lack of depth could be an issue, but in a vacuum on Saturday, the snap counts were the right decision.
“You looked out there and saw a four-seam unit. It’s not just a d-line; it’s linebackers and safeties that joined
in tonight. You felt the way that they attacked and played off of each other. There have been issues in the early part of the season. Guys are doing the work.”
The obvious questions after breaking down this performance are: first, why did this take so long, and second, can this continue? It is impossible to know. Florida State has been unable to build any sort of momentum over the last 29 games and will face a much better offense in Louisville this week. But, for a moment, White and his defensive staff quieted everyone around the program as they created a game plan that their players could execute, and his players delivered.
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