CANES vs VT By the Numbers

With FSU out of the way, the focus now turns to Saturday Night at 7 p.m. on ESPN vs Virginia Tech, which is also coming off a loss to Boston College at home. Here's the breakdown by the numbers:

Total O vs Total D

CANES Total O vs VT Total D

458.1 ypg (38th) vs 253.2 ypg allowed (3rd) 

VT Total O vs CANES Total D

348.1 (101st) vs 364.1 ypg allowed (31st)

Scoring O vs Scoring D

CANES Scoring O vs VT Scoring D

36.4 ppg (32nd) vs. 16.9 ppg allowed (8th)

VT Scoring O vs CANES Scoring D

22.1 ppg (100th) vs 20.6 ppg allowed (25th)

Rushing O vs Rushing D

CANES Rush O vs VT Rush D

198.3 ypg (34th) vs 102.7 ypg allowed (9th)

VT Rush O vs CANES Rush D

116.8 ypg (107th) vs 148 ypg (48th)

Passing O vs. Passing D 

CANES Pass O vs VT Pass D

259.9 ypg (43rd) vs 150.6 ypg allowed (Leads Nation)

VT Pass O vs CANES Pass D

231.2 ypg (65th) vs. 216.1 ypg allowed (36th) 

Red Zone O vs Red Zone D 

CANES RZ O vs VT RZ D

.769 (95th) vs. .824 (60th)

VT RZ O vs CANES RZ D

.679 (118th) vs. .808 (T-51st)

Pass Efficiency vs Pass Efficiency D

CANES PE vs VT PE Def.

152.43 (20th) vs. 90.72 (2nd)

VT PE vs CANES PE Def. 

117.47 (91st) vs. 111.55 (19th)

Sacks vs Sacks Allowed

CANES Sacks vs VT Sacks Allowed

23-134 [2.88 pg] (T-21st) vs. 16-114 [1.78 pg] (T-57th)

VT Sacks vs CANES Sacks Allowed

28-171 [3.11 pg] (11th) vs. 8-81 [1 pg] (T-16th)

3rd Down O vs 3rd Down D

CANES 3rd Down O vs VT 3rd Down D

39-96 [41%] (66th) vs. 37-128 [29%] (5th)

VT 3rd Down O vs CANES 3rd Down D

46-140 [33%] (106th) vs. 45-123 [37%] (44th)

Make no mistake, we'd better get the bad taste of the FSU loss out of our mouths very quickly, because come Saturday Night, we're going to face a VT team that is very very good defensively, and you can make the case that they're even better than FSU defensively in some areas. With a Bud Foster Coached team, we know what we're facing here. We'd better give VT our full attention this week because this is going to be, IMO, a very low scoring game on Saturday Night at home. Let's get back on the winning track and GO CANES. 

Report Card @FSU

Going into last night's game, we were a 21 point underdog. Most of the experts predicted an FSU blowout and that's eventually what happened. I thought we had a pretty good chance to win up there, but tip your hat to FSU, they made the adjustments and we didn't, and in the 2nd half, they took over and we had no answers for it. We did get banged up, with the biggest one being Duke with a severe ankle injury and according to his mom, is done for the year, which is a very tough blow. Which means, guys like Dallas Crawford, Eduardo Clements, and Freshman Gus Edwards are going to have to step up and carry the load going forward. Going in, here were my keys to a CANES victory at Doak and the end results from last night:

1. No Turnovers - Absolutely under no circumstances can we turn the ball over because that's asking for big trouble in a hostile environment like we're going to face. FSU is 11th in the country in Turnover Margin at +8 (1.1 per game). Ball security is going to be critical in this game. Stephen Morris cannot have a 4 INT game up there like he did in Chapel Hill and expect to win. That cannot happen. Most of their turnovers they force is via the Pick. (End Result: Even in TO margin, and FSU 10 pts off 2 INTs, not going to beat a great team like FSU when you don't win the TO battle for 4 quarters and we did not last night in the 2nd half). Grade: F
2. Morris has to be at a minimum 65% completion rate - Morris' completion rate this year is 60% (.599). He needs to manage the game properly and on occasion, take shots downfield when they are there. He's going to be facing the best pass defense in the country in FSU, which allows just 153.7 ypg passing on the season. FSU opp pass completion rate is 52%. Their opponents pass efficiency rate is 95.92, which is 5th in the country. He must make very good decisions on Saturday Night. (End Result: 16-28 (57%), 192 yards, 2 TD, 2 INTs, Sacked Twice) - Grade: D
3. Run the football effectively - If there's a weakness in the FSU defense, its vs the Run, which is 29th in the country allowing 135.7 ypg on the season. The magic number, IMO, is 175 yards rushing combined from Duke, Dallas, Clements, et al. I feel if we're close to that or exceed it, I think we have a very good chance to leave Doak a winner. No fumbles at all. I go back to ball security because at times this year, it has been an issue and up there, we cannot have fumbles lost here by the backs in this game. We have to do what BC did on the ground and they were very effective at it too. (End Result: 29 carries, 115 yards combined and like BC, in the 2nd half, we could not run the ball effectively, especially after Duke got hurt) - Grade: D
4. TDs, not FGs - FSU's RZ Defense isn't as good as in years past (this year, they are tied for 33rd with Wisconsin in that department with opponents converting 76.5% of the time. We have to finish drives with TDs, not FGs. We cannot leave any important points on the field in a game like this. (End result: Matty misses a FG, left at least 3 on that first drive and against a great team like the Noles, you cannot leave any points on the field when you have a chance to cash in). - Grade: F 
5. Pressure Winston - Our defense is 11th in the nation in Sacks, averaging 3.14 per game. Its going to be imperative to get to Winston early and we must rattle him early and often because if we give him time to throw, he's going to pick us apart. You can force Winston into mistakes. Make him have to beat our defense throwing. That's a risk because FSU is 11th in the country in Passing offense, averaging 341.4 ypg. They're 3rd in the nation in yards per completion averaging 16.83 ypc. Our Defense is 10th in the country in Pass Efficiency with a 104.77 rate. (End Result: Winston 21-29, 325 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs (both turned into 14 points for us), 6 carries, 27 yards, sacked once. The D was picked apart by Winston of the game but especially in the 2nd half, where Winston was 12-14, 161 yards. When you allow a great player like that to take over a game, our D had no answers in the 2nd half for him). - Grade: D
6. Stop FSU on 3rd Downs - FSU hasn't been in many 3rd down situations this year, in fact, they have the fewest attempts in the country (69), but when they are in these situations, they convert 52% of the time. The last two weeks vs Carolina and Wake, our defense has allowed opponents to convert 13 out of 31 attempts (42%). Its vital, the D makes stops on 3rd downs and gets off the field. We have to make FSU have to convert the long yardage situations on 3rd down. (End Result: Here's where I give FSU credit, on 3rd and long situations, they made the plays. They were overall 11-15 (73%) on 3rd downs. Against a great team like this, you have to get the D off the field in these situations and we could not make the big plays on 3rd down to get the D off the field, after the Deon pick). - Grade: F
7. Field position - This is a battle we have GOT to win. FSU starts their drives on average from their own 31. Their opponents have started their drives from an average of their own 26. We cannot expect our offense to have to go 80+ yards per drive. We have to have short fields to work with. Make FSU have to go 80+ yards per drive and not allow the big play. FSU's PR Defense is next to last in the country with opponents allowing 26 ypr on Punts, while our PR Defense is 101st allowing 11.5 ypr. On KRs, they are 28th allowing 740 yards in Kick Return Yards. We lead the nation in KR yardage averaging almost 30 yards a return (29.62). FSU is 17th averaging 25.13 per return. Our KR Defense is tied with UCLA for 22nd allowing 466 yards in Kick Returns. FSU is 29th in PR yards averaging 11.8 per return, while we're tied with W. Michigan for 62nd averaging 8.1 ypr. We have to play a clean game here and no penalties because in a game like this, field position is going to be crucial. (End Result: This is more of a wash from a field position standpoint. Tip my hat, we made them had to go 80+ yards on a few drives there, and they got the job done. Matty misses a FG, We made FSU just punt only once, and that's not acceptable at all. Patty had one of three punts be a touchback and another inside the 20. We did what we had to do here for the most part, but again, tip your hat to the Noles, they made the most of the poor field position they started with). - Grade: C-

Those were my keys to a CANES win up in Tallahassee, but unfortunately, that did not happen. Way too many mistakes with poor tackling and where FSU really did the damage was in the running game. 4 of their TDs were on the ground, and this was another key coming in, we had to stop the run first, and we did not do that at all. Very poor performance by the D and last night, the D broke. We allowed 192 yards rushing and 4 TDs, and 517 overall. Not going to beat a great team like FSU when you allow that many yards, especially in big spots. 20 points allowed in the 2nd half, not going to get it done. Defense Grade: F

For the O, in the 2nd half, we had six drives. They ended as follows: Punt, Pick, Downs, Pick, Downs, End of Game. Against a great team like FSU is, you have to try and get points whatever way possible. Tip your hat to FSU's D coordinator Pruitt. He made the adjustments in the 2nd half, and Coley didn't. I like Coley, but in the 2nd half last night, Pruitt outcoached Coley badly. Grade: D (only because of the good 1st half).

Bottom line, we need to shake this off, and get ready for VT at home on Saturday. We have to learn from last night and if there was anything we did learn after last night, its that to beat a great team like FSU, you have to be efficient for 4 quarters, not 2 like we were last night. We'll see the Noles again in Charlotte in 5 weeks and we'll have to play a whole lot better, especially in the 2nd half, if we're going to beat a great team like this. We let it get away from us, hopefully, we learn from this loss, and I'm very confident we will and hopefully, the next time we play FSU in Charlotte, the result will be much different and in our favor.

Win or Lose, I will always stand with the []_[]. See you next week and as always, GO CANES!