Wake Forest vs. Florida State: Game Grades, Analysis for the Seminoles

Another week, another win for the No. 1 Florida State football team. But just as it has been all season, it wasn't always easy for the reigning national champions.

FSU’s 43-3 triumph over Wake Forest Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee, Florida, was another example of a talented team unable to string together a completely dominant performance in all phases—offense, defense and special teams—at the same time.

A week ago in the come-from-behind victory at North Carolina State, the offense set the tone, while the defense struggled. This week against the Demon Deacons (2-4, 0-2 ACC), the offense struggled, while the defense did its job. Sooner or later, FSU (5-0, 3-0) will need to put together a complete game if it wants to remain in the College Football Playoff picture.

But, hey, the Seminoles are still undefeated for a reason; they make plays when they have to and have done a terrific job of dealing with myriad injury issues so far this season—a trend that continued against the Demon Deacons.

Position Unit	First-Half Grade	Final Grade
Pass Offense	B-	B-
Run Offense	B-	B
Pass Defense	A	A+
Run Defense	A	A+
Special Teams	A	A+
Coaching	B	A

As for this week’s grades, I thought the FSU defense did a great job of bouncing back from some subpar tackling in the opening quarter. Wake Forest is so bad offensively that the only knock on the ‘Noles defense would have been its inability to bring ball-carriers to the turf, but Florida State fixed that early.

FSU also survived without starting linebacker Terrance Smith and starting defensive tackle Derrick Mitchell Jr.

Offensively, FSU was out of sync all day in the passing game, as Jameis Winston wasn’t his typical super-accurate self. It didn't help that star Rashad Greene left the game in the first half with concussion-like symptoms. Luckily for the ‘Noles, though, rookie receivers Travis Rudolph and Ermon Lane showed tremendous progress, and that is reflected in the grades as listed below.

Pass Offense

Winston threw for 297 yards in this contest, so his statistics won’t give anyone pause when glancing at the box score, but he was off all game.

Wake Forest deserves a ton of credit for playing good defense, but Winston missed throws that he almost always makes. Even before Greene left the game for good in the opening half, Winston’s typically accurate passes were just a hair off. He finished 23-of-39.

It also didn’t help that starting center Austin Barron broke his hand during the game. His replacement, Ryan Hoefeld, snapped the ball high to Winston several times. The timing was thrown off on those snaps, and the passing game felt the effects.

True freshmen Lane and Rudolph had impressive showings in the contest, and the "B-minus" grade takes into account the importance of their successful, increased roles without Greene in the lineup.

Jeff Gammons/Getty Images

Run Offense

FSU racked up 171 yards on the ground—its second-most of the season—but 56 of those came in garbage time on a long Mario Pender run.

I gave Florida State a “B” for the running game because it was average against Wake Forest—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing for a team that was desperate in the first few weeks of the season to have anything positive happen in the ground frame.

But FSU has to keep improving. Take away the 56-yard run, and the Seminoles’ yards-per-carry average dips from 4.5 to 3.5 for the game. FSU coach Jimbo Fisher wants better production than that.

Pass Defense

The Seminoles were dominant defending the pass, allowing Wake Forest to throw for just 86 yards and a ridiculously low 3.9 yards per completion. FSU also hauled in its second interception of the season on P.J. Williams’ takeaway.

What else can you say except that deserves an “A-plus” grade?

Run Defense

If the pass defense gets an “A-plus,” then the run defense has to get an equally impressive grade.

FSU held Wake Forest to just one yard per carry and 40 total rushing yards in the victory. Equally impressive is the fact that throughout much of the game, three true freshmen were playing on the defensive line (Lorenzo Featherston, Demarcus Christmas and Derrick Nnadi) and another (Jacob Pugh) was rushing the passer.

Not much analysis is needed for that type of performance.

USA TODAY Sports

Special Teams

FSU gets an “A-plus” for good reason: The best kicker in the country looked like the best kicker in the country.

Roberto Aguayo drained five field goals as he continues to be automatic each and every game.

Coaching

Fisher is the master of halftime adjustments, and Saturday was no different. FSU struggled in the first half despite taking a lead into the break but came out in the second half and ran away with the victory.

Brandon Mellor is a Florida State writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of Seminoles.com. All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Follow @BrandonMellor on Twitter.