{"id":2900,"date":"2016-10-28T18:01:46","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T22:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=2900"},"modified":"2016-10-28T18:01:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T22:01:46","slug":"clemson-vs-florida-state-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2016\/10\/28\/clemson-vs-florida-state-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Clemson vs Florida State Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third ranked\u00a0Clemson Tigers (7-0, 4-0)<\/strong> will face their toughest road test of the season on\u00a0Saturday<\/strong> when they travel to Tallahassee to take on the 12th ranked Florida State Seminoles (5-2, 2-2)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Last Week<\/h3>\n

Both teams head into Saturday’s match up coming off a bye week. Likewise, Florida State and Clemson both defeated conference opponents the last time they took the field. \u00a0Clemson needed overtime to take down\u00a0North Carolina State<\/strong> 24-17. Florida State held off\u00a0Wake Forest<\/strong> 17-6 in a defensive struggle.<\/p>\n

Clemson vs Florida State Preview<\/h2>\n

Clemson Wins If…<\/h3>\n

Offensively,\u00a0Deshaun<\/strong> Watson\u00a0<\/strong>needs to take advantage of the Florida State secondary.\u00a0The Seminoles have struggled with blown coverages this year. That problem only gets worse with\u00a0Derwin James<\/strong> and\u00a0Nate Andrews\u00a0<\/strong>sidelined due to injury. The combination of\u00a0Mike Williams<\/strong> over the top and\u00a0Hunter Renfrow<\/strong> underneath should put even more pressure on the Seminole \u00a0secondary.<\/p>\n

On defense, the key to a Tigers victory is neutralizing\u00a0Dalvin Cook<\/strong>. While Florida State’s offense sputtered against\u00a0Miami\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Wake Forest<\/strong>, Cook shined. If Clemson’s front seven bests the Seminole offensive line that has been average at best this year, then the Tigers can emerge with their first victory in Tallahassee in five tries.<\/p>\n

Florida State Wins If…<\/h3>\n

Florida State needs production offensive line and receiving core.\u00a0Auden Tate<\/strong> has emerged as a redzone threat as of late but Florida State has to move the ball to get there. Getting the ball to Cook is a given, but if he has no room to run and\u00a0Deondre Francois\u00a0<\/strong>is constantly on his back then it will be a long night for the Seminoles.<\/p>\n

The Seminoles’ defense on the other hand, has to first avoid the slow start. Their last six quarters against Miami and Wake Forest were stellar. They need to ride that same momentum into Saturday. Secondly they need to capitalize on mistakes.\u00a0Deshaun Watson has struggled with accuracy this year.\u00a0Tavarus McFadden\u00a0<\/strong>has been a ball hawk at times. However, he was also responsible for some of the major blunders that crushed Florida State’s defense against\u00a0Louisville<\/strong> and\u00a0North Carolina<\/strong>. A mistake free game from him could seal the win for Florida State.<\/p>\n

Prediction<\/h3>\n

Florida State and Clemson usually provide thrilling games against each other. This year should be no different. Florida State should keep it close, but Deshaun Watson will have his best game of the season in a narrow win.<\/p>\n

Clemson – 38 Florida State – 34<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third ranked\u00a0Clemson Tigers (7-0, 4-0) will face their toughest road test of the season on\u00a0Saturday when they travel to Tallahassee to take on the 12th ranked Florida State Seminoles (5-2, 2-2). Last Week Both teams head into Saturday’s match up coming off a bye week. Likewise, Florida State and Clemson both defeated conference opponents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":767,"featured_media":3101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[102,79,293,292,87,884],"class_list":["post-2900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","tag-acc","tag-college-football","tag-dalvin-cook","tag-deondre-francois","tag-deshaun-watson","tag-tavarus-mcfadden"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/767"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}