The Seminoles might be 11-2, but it's in spite of E.J. Manuel |
The 12 Days of BCS will provide you with everything you need to know for the five BCS games starting on New Year's Day. Each day will be a different subject finishing on New Year's Eve.
It pains me to say this, but my Seminoles take the cake for the BCS' most overrated. The ACC is not as strong of a conference as it once was and the fact they couldn't run the table in it lessens their status among college football's elite. Even though they came up huge in the game against Clemson at home, it was their lone impressive win of the season. They played well in their loss to Florida, but it was clear as the game wore on that the SEC was the superior conference. FSU simply couldn't hang with the Gators for a full 60 minutes.
This team is monstrous defensively with athletes abound and an elite defensive line. But, unlike the great SEC defenses they don't have the same sort of consistent dominance. There are lapses in focuses against good teams and that's a problem, although it's still not enough to consider them any lower than a Top-5 defense.
Now here's where they suffer: offensively. E.J. Manuel is not a good quarterback, far from a leader and doesn't posses the intangibles to consistently lead an offense. Yes, he is very athletic and quite talented but he doesn't show the awareness that's needed for this team to run the table like they should have. With the electric running back Chris Thompson out with a knee injury, James Wilder Jr. and Devonta Freeman did a solid job filling in but they could not replace Thompson's break away abilities. Rashad Greene led the receiving corp, but he wasn't that explosive either. Yet, it all comes back to Manuel who threw far too many anti-clutch INTs all year that cost them two games they should have won. Yeah, he did make some plays, but not enough to live up to the hype he had this preseason.
Jimbo Fisher was whining about BCS rankings earlier in the season, then they lost to the Gators at home and all that talk was gone. They might be fortunate to play a team like Northern Illinois, but they need to watch out. You're not walking into the Orange Bowl unfocused and winning it too.
0 comments:
Post a Comment