- I feel like a broken record, but that is a game that Florida State would have lost in recent years. Virginia Tech is 0-5 on the road and 4-1 at home. That one is Florida State.
- EJ Manuel made some very good throws tonight. Good balls that kept the chains moving and extended drives. He also made some poor ones, and continues to kill drives with some sacks that are absolutely on him and not the offensive line (not all, but several). If he played better, the game could have been over much earlier. If he plays worse, FSU doesn't win. FSU could do a whole lot worse at QB.
- Manuel showed a lot of physical toughness staying in the game. He took some big shots.
- Virginia Tech's defensive gameplan was extremely aggressive. Crazy aggressive. They blitzed so much. Wow. In turn, Florida State's offensive game plan was very aggressive. That was a fascinating chess match to watch all night between two really good coaches in Foster and Fisher.
- Stupid NCAA stats mark sacks as rushing yards. Dumb. FSU's true rushing in this game was 19 carries for 31, not 25 for -15.
- FSU's true yards/attempt in the passing game? 6.0 per pass, not 8.0. Sacks are pass plays.
- Virginia Tech was clearly going to take away the run by loading the box and simply having more players than FSU could block. Virginia Tech put the game on EJ Manuel, and FSU was smart not to keep banging its head against the wall by running. The ratio? 47 called passes to 19 called runs.
- 4.7 yards/play is really bad. FSU has to hit the open throws, and there were many. Give credit to VT's defense, but that's also on Florida State.
- Great drives to end the first half (TD) and the game (TD).
- Great run by James Wilder Jr., a kid who is clearly still injured, on 4th down. Mans game, ... (you know the rest).
- I wrote on Tuesday that the scary thing about VT is that it has talent. It hadn't been physically whipped all year. It had been the victim of serious mental errors. And as often happens against Florida State, they came out extremely focused. I think teams realize they'll get their doors blown off by FSU if they don't.
- Also, Logan Thomas has a cannon and some of those throws are NFL money balls. Some of those big plays were well covered by the defense and Thomas just made big, big throws.
- Florida State's defense did not have its best performance of the year. It allowed too many receivers to run free and did not disrupt their timing enough. Tyler Hunter was repeatedly beat in the slot.
- FSU should not have allowed two touchdowns to VT. Better secondary play has this thing won early in the fourth.
- Excellent rush discipline by Florida State. Logan Thomas never got running. The Virginia Tech run game never got going.
- FSU cannot continue to drop punts. Confounding.
- Big, big kicks by Dustin Hopkins.
- FSU is 16-2 in its last 18 games and the two losses are by one point a piece.
I have to turn in my rental around one today, and will have more later. Until then, give me your thoughts.