[Game Thread] #4 LSU vs #15 Florida State - September 3, 2023 at 7:30 PM ET

Home Team	Away Team	Time	Broadcast	Venue	Notes
¹⁵ Florida State*	⁴ LSU	Sun 9/3, 7:30 PM ET	ABC	Camping World Stadium	*Played in Orlando, FL

Genuinely can't tell if this is a matchup of two good teams or two bad teams, like the signs point to both

I think it’s 2 good teams that have made a lot of mistakes tonight.

FSU red zone defense: elite

FSU pass defense: lol

Sark: We gotta play better to beat Alabama.

Me: No duh.

Me drinking burnt-orange kool-aid: Nah, we're gonna be wearing the icy white away unis, we'll be fine

We are so fucked in week 2...

Jesus, Brian Kelly is going to straight up murder his receiving corps after tonight.

Penalties are killing FSU, dropped passes are killing LSU

I’ve always thought announcers are a little too hard on receivers, possibly because there are so many old QBs in the booth.

There’s a lot of “maybe not a perfect ball but you have to catch that!” when the replay actually shows the ball on his wrong shoulder, or behind him while the route has him sprinting, or the poor kid is completely screened by a closing defender on an underthrown ball. A lot of times it was a miracle the receiver got a hand on it at all, but as soon as he does it becomes his fault.

And to that point, it’s maybe not the receivers Kelly will murder, but the entire defense. They’re cooked.

ngl this game is a mess

Oh fine, I'll watch it then.

Has anyone told LSU that to score points, they have to go towards the end zone?

But thats what the opponent will expect. Got to keep them guessing.
What a nice stop!
I respect the decision to go for it but oof that’s rough

First ranked vs ranked matchup of the year!

I’m excited for this game. I always am so football-starved by the time week 0 hits thay I dive in and end up watching a lot of blowouts since most teams schedule cupcakes for the first week (which is fine, that’s how it works). So I plan to really savor this game. But I’ve probably jinxed it and now it’ll also be a blowout.

Pretty awesome actually. Had no idea it was gonna be on but a great matchup for a Sunday night.
- Agreed, I’ve texted a few friends/family members to tell them to turn it on if they haven’t lol

hahaha "No YOU have the ball"

Football confirmed being a hot potato.

LSU is looking hefty early.

They’re acting like that interview was live but you could see refs hanging around on the field behind him lol. And a HC would never not be watching the game

These Ford commercials remind me of 30 Rock having Stacy Keach do commercials for aggressively terrible couches.

I'm still not used to seeing BK wearing LSU gear. But I'm not part of the Tiger fay-muh-lee so I don't see shots of him on the sideline that much

Kelly commited a cardinal sin of football, he forgot to make sure his d wasn't allergic to good tackles

I know there's plenty of evidence that these are both really good teams, but I'm getting big "Texas is back" vibes from it. I can't explain why.

If FSU can patch up their pass defense then they’re a playoff team

Looked like an incomplete forward pass to me. Not sure what Bill LeMonnier was on about

Yeah he was saying the hit caused his arm to go forward and I was like “the rule is just if his arm is going forward when the ball is released so the reasoning you’re giving just confirms it’s an incomplete pass” lol

That was a legitimately hilarious response from Sark

Those may or may not have been iffy calls, possibly

A lot of really iffy calls going exclusively in LSU's favor.

Haha, was that FSU's band playing "Neck" after that awesome catch?

Farmer fred going to make special teams run wind sprints

What's with all these on field interviews? I feel like we've gotten way more of them this season. They feel so tacky

It’s a growing trend, the XFL had soooo many of them. I hate it.

Special teams apparently give better that it receives

lmao, it's like they didn't learn anything

If at first you don't succeed, try try again, right?

FSU’s OL showed a lot of improvement last year but they’ve really struggled today. Could be that LSU’s D is just playing really well but I hope Travis isn’t running for his life all year like he used to have to do.

Looks weird not having Allstate logo on the net. I'm not sure I like them having alcohol advertising instead.

What about crypto advertising? Didn't Cal have the FTX logo painted on their field?
- Yuck. Glad I missed that 🤮

Wow, FSU really made something out of nothing on 3rd and long aaaaand as I write that, what a run to the house!

Wilson is beast.

I think that’s the right call, but I was just thinking of a way to make it less subjective. Let me know what you guys think.

What if it was only a pass if it makes it past the line of scrimmage? That would mean that forward screens behind the line that are dropped would be fumbles, but it’d mean that stuff like this that I think most people think feel like fumbles wouldn’t get called passes because the hit caused the QB’s arm to go forward.

Interesting. Would that make multi-forward passes legal? Not full-blown like in the XFL, but if the first one is behind LOS then you could design some intriguing plays
- I thought of that. I guess I wouldn’t have too much of an issue with it since the first pass would still have to be behind the LOS so I don’t think it’d be much of a change since you can have the receiver/second passer just stand slightly further back right now and do the same thing. Probably a slight advantage but it also means you’re probably closer to defenders (since they might just think it’s a screen).

That was some backyard football shit

Well that’s schadenfreude blueballs for this Gator. After Week One, looks like college football has jumped the shark. Give me realignment rumors and NFL, please.

Well at least we know FSU's DBs can tackle (each other)

Their secondary is looking sus as hell. The DL seems really good though.

Do they just not practice special teams? Games are won and lost on special teams. Although as I write that, an interception makes this comment sort of irrelevant

It seems to be a trend in college where not much emphasis is put on special teams. They get a lot less practice time than NFL so I can get it to a certain extent but it’s still really important.

I think it was Iowa State that went multiple years in a row without a ST coach even though they had troubles with it every year.
- Yeah, Iowa State was egregious. It cost them multiple games, including a couple nailbiters against Iowa if I recall correctly.

Something tells me that's not how that play was drawn up. Impressive to make something out of nothing

Oh that's a peach

Now that's a familiar sight for these tigers

I disagree with that. I couldn’t hear a whistle so I wouldn’t doubt the players didn’t hear it. And they didn’t even tackle him, they were pushing him because they were waiting for the whistle and then he went down.

Refs looking the other way on that delay of game.

One of my favorite things is fans cheering for routine things that your team can’t get right for some reason lol.

Reminds me of last year when fans were counting down the play clock for the Denver Broncos because they kept getting so many delay of game penalties.

Obviously the catch and run was cool but what an effort by that defender to save the TD (well delay)

Is it just me or have there been a lot of late hit out of bounds calls this week? Maybe that's normal for week 1 but I don't remember so many in previous years

I don’t get what the announcers are saying, the defender didn’t even start the tackle until Travis was already on the ground. It was absolutely a late hit. If that’s allowed, why would a QB ever slide?

That 0/0 penalties for LSU is suspect as hell
The way I saw it, he slid into a defender which arrested his slide. The other defenders would not have hit him had the QB not suddenly stopped. Could've been called either way imo
- Maybe I need to watch it again but the guy I’m talking about was still fully upright when Travis hit the ground. Then he bent over and dove at him and hit him around the legs shortly after Travis slid into the other defender. If the slide hadn’t been interrupted, I think the defender would’ve hit him right in the head. But it’s hard to know for sure when you just get the one replay.

Tackling like FSU's on that last drive would make Alex Grinch proud

Man, as a UCF fan, I miss the hell out of Tatum Bethune

Maybe the Wingo ate your baby.

Did that make the LOS? I thought that looked like grounding.

shhh refs only call penalties on FSU tonight
- And the announcers didn’t even say anything. Honestly I’m thinking I might be misremembering the rule.
  
  Now that I think of it, he might’ve still been in the tackle box. I still would’ve liked to see it since he was scrambling but I feel better about it now.