re: NC State vs FSU. This, in a nutshell, is what concerns some UA fans

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There is this narrative that FSU's defense is so damn good that we didn't have time to pass the ball

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I mean, I don't know if that's because FSU's defense was so damn good, but we did not have time to throw the ball much. Watch the replay again if you don't believe that. Could we have schemed that a little better? Sure, but we didn't First game with no tape? Not sure about the offensive system and what our guys could do? Offensive line figuring things out? Maybe all of those, but the biggest issue against FSU was 100% pass protection/route selection.

Also - if you watched the NCSU-FSU game (I did, 90% of it), you will note that NC State's greatest success was quick throws to the flat and into space (which you noted, areas vacated by linebackers). Finley probably completed 1 ball deep down the field all day.

Of NC State's 230 yards, 85 of them came on 2 plays. A shovel pass to Samuels (a slot WR/RB who had 12 catches for 64 yards) for 14 yards and a 71 yard TD pass to a receiver that was a short throw (roughly 9 yards in the air) in which the DB dove for the break up and missed and then the WR juked Derwin James out of his shoes and went the distance.

So, 2 short easy throws that took advantage of FSU overplaying things. Outside of that, Finley was 20/30 for 145 yards (4.8 YPA). NC State's entire gameplan was throwing the ball into short zones across the middle and in the flats and FSU flat out missed tackles and overran things (things they did not do against us, I might add, why I don't know - that's a different discussion). Personally, I think we have opened things up quite a bit since then and am happy with the progress of the playcalling and offensive scheme. I was not thrilled after the FSU game. It felt like we left a lot of opportunities out there in terms of offensive game management by the coordinator. I have liked some of the stuff we have done since, though.

Let's put it this way, if Hurts had those numbers with the throws Finley made we'd be saying Hurts still can't throw the ball down the field.