I try to be as objective as possible. Some fans don’t like objectivity, and that’s fine.
These r the facts: we are on a 3 game win streak by a grand total of 8 points. Prior to that, we were on a two game losing streak by a total of 5 points. All ACC opponents.
The point? We were a play or two away from being on a 5 game win streak & a play or two away from being a 5 game losing streak. We’re an average team that’s struggling w/ average teams. On paper, beating a 7-2 Pitt team (#25) & a 7-2 NCSt team (#21) looks absolutely fantastic, but y r they considered average, despite their record & top 25 rankings? B/c 7 of Pitt’s wins came against teams w/ a combined record 25-38, while NCSt’s 7 wins came against teams w/ a combined 26-37 meaning, they’ve played bad teams, and their 7 wins is as legit as Tommy “Machine” Gunn being heavyweight champion.
We’re going against a below avg. FSU team, which has improved from last yr on def (Total D in 2020: 107th vs 2021: 69th-better than us), but make no mistake bout it, their O has taken a step back: (Total O in 2020: 62nd vs 2021: 85th). The only skew to this is, FSU can run the ball a bit….40th in the nation. The silver lining is our rush defense has improved, we’re now 47th.
We “should” beat them handily in this game. FSU is pretty much one dimensional, but we’ve shown a propensity all yr to make blowout games on paper, one possession games where the other team has the ball to win (see App St & GT). The GT game showed we can’t expect a blowout. We played a one dimensional team, w/ a far porous defense than FSU, and it took a glance knee on the ground & hella penalties to beat them by 3.
I expect a W, but I’m not sure what we saw last season will be the same results. We may get another nail biter.
. Both sides have players. I would take Johnson, Corbin, Gainer, maybe their 2nd RB
