Florida St. Beats BYU at Their Own Game In Early Season Upset

(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

If I was sad on Saturday night when I saw the score of the game, I was downright depressed this morning when I watched it on my DVR.  It gave me way too many terrible memories of the three losses from last year.

Give Florida State all the credit they deserve, they straight up owned BYU.  They executed in every facet of the game, and BYU didn't.  Both of their lines played well and dominated their BYU counterparts.  What had been the strength of the first two games completely disappeared on Saturday.

The defense as a whole got exposed for every weakness that they had, and refused to fight back.  They were on the field for a really long time, but even early in the game they didn't slow FSU down. 

FSU had the ball twice as long as BYU did, and I find it ironic that the exact same stat occurred in the Oklahoma game, only in BYU's favor.  Possession is a huge part of BYU's success and the lack of it led directly to BYU's failure. 

One of my friends said BYU played pretty good in the first half, but I don't know which game he was watching.  Florida St. simply dominated from the opening kickoff.  They spread the ball around, ran the ball, passed the ball, and did it all with ease.  FSU scored on every single possession until late in the third quarter!  Playing like that will never win you a game.

Just as with their wins in the last two weeks, BYU's demise came from their lines.  Both last year and this year, BYU's offensive line has not been phenomenal.  They have played well enough to let Max make throws, but in a lot of ways played with Bronco's defensive mentality of bend and not break.  In all of their last four losses, there has been one scary trend. 

BYU's offensive line plays good enough early for Max to make some throws and maybe score once or twice.  However, the defensive line gets no pressure on the opposing quarterback allowing him to pick apart our less than stellar secondary, and they score with ease.  Because of this Hall feels like he needs to make impossible throws and forces everything resulting in numerous easy picks for the other team. 

In the big games BYU has won, the score has remained close which allows Hall to stay within the gameplan including allowing Harvey Unga to run.  He averaged almost ten yards per carry, but couldn't get the ball in the fourth quarter because Max had already thrown the game away with the help of no defense.

If the defense and Max want all the credit for the huge win against Oklahoma, they have to take responsibility for the losses that come as a result of their poor play.  I never really thought Max would be a great NFL quarterback because he tends to force the ball and make poor decisions when he is losing.  At this point, I am just hoping he won't implode in the other two big games this season.

I personally believe that their is no silver lining in losing, because winning is why you go out to play once you get to this level.  If you don't win then whatever good was there makes no difference because it is the outcome that matters.

It was nice to see Unga back to his usual self plowing some people over.  Max also made a couple of very nice throws, and the defense made a couple of great plays, but that's all it was, a few individual plays that will never add up to a win. 

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