Another Seminoles Defensive Collapse Rears its Ugly Head

In the dictionary, next to the word inconsistent, there should be the team photo of the Florida State Seminoles. 

After taking an early 14-0 lead on the road against the Louisville Cardinals Friday night, Louisville shifted the momentum and the Seminoles’ defense was shell-shocked the rest of the game in what would become a 44-20 defeat.

That momentum shift occurred when Florida State failed to score on four downs from the Louisville 2-yard line. A missed opportunity for the Seminoles to go up by three scores. The ball went over on downs.

On the first Louisville play, running back Isaac Brown broke through the Seminoles’ defense for a 97-yard touchdown run down the left sideline in front of the Florida State bench.

From that moment on, the Louisville offense moved the ball up and down the field, seemingly at will.

The Cardinals scored 35 unanswered points until the middle of the fourth quarter, when Florida State managed to score its final touchdown.

When the gridiron cataclysm was over, the Florida State defense had given up 44 points, 537 yards of total offense, 397 yards rushing and six rushing touchdowns.

Brown alone rushed for 235 yards and two touchdowns, and averaged 13.8 yards per carry. He gashed the Florida State defense for explosive scoring runs of 97 and 68 yards. In addition, they gave up another scoring run that went for 44 yards.

Stop me if you have heard this one before.

The above carnage is a mirror image of the monumental collapse the Florida State defense suffered earlier this year on the road in Tuscaloosa against then 10th-ranked Alabama.

The Seminoles led 21-6 in the second quarter of that game, before giving up 220 yards rushing and 44 points in what would amount to a 50-36 loss for the Seminoles.

In two road losses this season, the Florida State defense has given up 1,104 yards of total offense, 94 points, and 644 rushing yards.

Last week, the Seminoles held Virginia to 37 yards rushing and recorded 10 sacks in a 38-7 victory. A bunch of road warriors this team is not.

Florida State coach Mike Norvell, in his post-game press conference, commented on the defensive collapse.

“Bad plays are going to happen from time to time, but freaking rise up, do your damn job, and go play the next play,” said Norvell. “And that's where they had 400 yards rushing tonight. That's awful. And you take, however many were on just explosive runs, sometimes we had player in position, in times that they did a good job, and we didn't execute the way that we needed to.”

Next week does not get any easier as Florida State will hit the road again to battle in-state rival Miami. The Hurricanes lead the nation in total offense with 554 yards per game. They are No. 2 nationally in scoring offense at 49.6 points per game.

With all the non-stop Norvell-speak of growth, improvement and execution, when will it manifest itself on the field for the Seminoles?

Once again, it is back to the drawing board this week for Norvell and Florida State. Instead of breaking the rock after a win, maybe the team should break the drawing board after a loss.