Florida State loses to Louisville, now 0-4: Three takeaways

Florida State looked like there was going to be an explosion.

That may make what followed even more heartbreaking.

After the Seminoles were 31: 7 behind Louisville in the last minutes of the first half on their home field, they flipped a switch.

The unstoppable defense began to seal everything off. The missing running game found life.

But it was just a little too little, too late.

The Seminoles rattled off 16 points in a row, turning what was once the worst 24-point deficit of the season into a game with a score. It had a two minute ride that started within its own 10 yard line but showed a sign of life and crossed midfield.

In the end, however, the remarkable comeback was not to be.

Big run:See Florida state Jashaun Corbin run 75 yards for a touchdown against Louisville

The promising drive came to an abrupt halt when a downfield throw from FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton was picked up by Louisville’s Kei’Trel Clark.

The sales were the first of the FSU’s game and the last dagger to deny a notable comeback. The Seminoles (0-4, 0-2 in ACC) fell 31:23 against Louisville in front of 50,964 spectators at Doak Campbell Stadium.

For the first time since 1974 the Seminoles are 0-4.

After an exceptionally slow start from the Seminoles, they overtook Louisville 453 to 395.

Milton threw 248 yards, by far the most of an FSU quarterback this season, but his interception could be the permanent picture of the loss.

Another slow defensive start conjures doom

In the early weeks of the season, the FSU’s defense was good enough to get past the slow starts of the offensive.

In the first two first half of the season, the Seminoles allowed a total of 24 points, which means that the offensive only got 28 points in the first half.

In the past two weeks, however, the defense did not have the same early success.

The game on Saturday was the second week in a row that the Seminoles allowed at least 28 points and over 300 yards of attack in the first half.

The Cardinals scored one goal in their first five offensive possession and quickly accumulated 31 points. A big reason for this was the fact that they converted on nine of their first 10 thirds downs. All of these tags were on the third and at least four yards and three of them were third and eight or longer.

That inability played a significant role as FSU’s opponents played 52 first-half games on offense for the second straight week.

Despite this discrepancy, which should lead to a tired defense in the second half, the FSU defense had failed after half time.

The Seminoles limited Louisville to 79 yards and only two first downs after halftime. With all of the FSU’s troubles in the first half, they looked like the new unit and gave the offensive a chance which they took to turn what once looked like a blowout into a competitive game.

But in the end the damage was done. The FSU’s offensive, as it is currently structured, is not designed to overcome major deficits.

Quarterback stability helps some on the offensive

The FSU had no choice but to rely on Milton on quarterback Saturday.

While Jordan Travis was dressed in full uniform, he wore a sturdy brace on his right knee and clearly had difficulty moving during the pre-game warm-up exercises.

This meant that the FSU had to completely rely on a quarterback against Louisville for the first time this season.

It was another slow start for Milton, who only had 56 yards of passing two minutes from time in the first half. But then he rattled off the most formidable drive of his FSU career, throwing arrows at all of his guns while completing the two-minute drill.

On that trip, he completed four out of five passes for 80 yards and topped it off with a truly impressive 23-yard shot at Andrew Perchment.

Parchment became a popular destination on Milton’s Saturday. He had five catches for 86 yards and his second touchdown of the season after receiving just 37 yards in FSU’s first three games that season.

At halftime, Milton’s 165 passing yards were already a season high. He finished with 248 yards on 24 of 39 passes.

He had a couple of premature failures. His fall from tight end Camren McDonald in fourth and fourth place just above midfield in the first quarter was an unrecoverable ball for an open receiver at the worst possible moment.

He had a few more misses and never got the deep passing game going, a certain restriction on his arm. But it was the Seminoles’ most competent passing game so far.

While Milton isn’t a statue at the quarterback, he’s not nearly as mobile as Travis. Not having Travis available limits something the FSU wants to do offensively. It also enabled Louisville to fire Milton six times, most of the layoffs the FSU has allowed this season.

That being said, the coaching staff’s compulsion to rely on one option can be expected to bring much-needed stability to the missing position.

Early deficit, fast drives limit the FSU run game

After a poor performance last week, the Seminoles’ running game against the Cardinals was back in full swing.

The FSU’s surge in the second half resulted in them storming 190 of their 205 yards after half. This was largely anchored by two long runs by Jashaun Corbin that went 107 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown in the second game of the third quarter.

It is the third time in four games this season that FSU has run over 200 yards. Corbin and Treshaun Ward carried the ball together 21 times, and DJ Williams had the first four carries of his FSU career.

The FSU running backs averaged 225 yards averaging nine yards per carry, led by a career high of 159 yards from Corbin.

And if the game hadn’t gone the way it did at the FSU at an early stage with a large deficit, the Seminoles could have relied more on the running game.

But since the FSU gave their opponents their first goal for the fourth time in as many games this season, again failed to score on the first two drives and fell behind by a large margin, they had to rely more on the passing game than they wanted.

Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.

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The post Florida State loses to Louisville, now 0-4: Three takeaways first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

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