Florida State proved their progress against Wake Forest was a mirage in clumsy loss to Clemson, but the blame should go beyond just one man
There was plenty of blame to go around for FSU’s sloppy loss at Clemson, but a couple of moments helped cause the outcome.
The Florida State Seminoles gave their fans a hint of hope that they can still play good football. As it turns out, that shred of hope was misplaced after all.
One week after throttling Wake Forest 42-7 in Tallahassee, the Seminoles looked to build on that on Saturday night in Clemson, where Duke had just come in and won 46-45 the week before. The stage was set for FSU to pick up a much-needed ACC road win – something they haven’t had since 2023 – while also building momentum towards a strong finish.
Instead, the Noles stumbled, fumbled, and bumbled their way through a 24-10 loss to the Tigers that effectively wiped away the limited progress they’d showed a week prior.
FSU looked against Clemson like the same mistake-prone team that dropped four straight games
Florida State’s problems really started late in the first quarter, when they literally handed a present to the Tigers that would come back to bite them. After a Thomas Castellanos run of 24 yards to set up first-and-goal, he fumbled the handoff exchange with Samuel Singleton, Jr. two plays later and it fell to the turf and was recovered by Clemson. Instead of a chance to draw even early on, FSU left points on the field.
Early in the second quarter facing fourth-and-two from their own 39-yard line, Mike Norvell rolled the dice and went for it. Castellanos lobbed a ball to a completely wide-open Randy Pittman, Jr. streaking down the sideline, putting the ball right on his hands. Instead, he bobbled and dropped it. Predictably, Clemson cashed in two plays later on a 34-yard touchdown pass to go up 15-0, when the score should have been far, far closer.
While there were plenty of other moments, those two really set the tone for the day and put FSU in a hole they never could dig themselves out of.
While many will blame Norvell, the players deserve to shoulder a significant portion of the blame on Saturday
It’s easy to blame a head coach or coaching staff after a loss, and they always should absorb plenty of the blame. But sometimes it’s on the players even more so to execute. Had they done that on Saturday night, particularly in the aforementioned situations, we very well could be talking about a different ballgame on Sunday morning. Players have to catch the ball that falls in their hands. They have to ensure proper delivery to their teammates. FSU also had 13 missed tackles to Clemson’s 6, per Pro Football Focus. Coaches can hammer about fundamentals until they’re blue in the face, but the players have to execute.
That clearly didn’t happen, and while fans will point the finger at Norvell, many more fingers should be pointed at the ones on the field, because there were far too many moments that were squarely in their hands that cost the Seminoles on Saturday night.
