Florida State’s 1st 3 games have gone almost as horribly as possible

Oh no, Noles.

Well, Willie Taggart’s first season as Florida State’s head coach isn’t exactly going very well. The Noles dropped to 1-2 on the season in Week 3, with a 30-7 loss on the road to Syracuse.

The Orange win snaps a 10-game losing streak to the Noles dating back to 1978, and it marks the first win over FSU since 1966. After losing to Virginia Tech Week 1 and needing the fourth quarter to beat Samford last week, it’s been a slow start for FSU this year.

On Saturday, the Noles’ offense looked pretty inept. Some numbers!

• 1-for-14 on 3rd down
• 63 rushing yards on 22 attempts
• 11 total 1st downs
• Quarterback Deondre Francois was sacked four times.

The Noles also had a whopping 11 penalties for 90 yards on the day.

Until Florida State’s touchdown with six minutes left in the fourth, the Noles were on pace to have their second shutout loss since Wake Forest beat the Noles 30-0 in 2006.

This clearly isn’t the way that Taggart’s Gulf Coast offense has expected to look. One of the biggest problems for the Noles has been its offense in the red zone:

-Against Virginia Tech, FSU generated four scoring opportunities and scored three points.

-Against Samford, FSU generated eight scoring opportunities and scored 29 points.

That’s 32 points in 12 opps, or 2.67 points per chance. Gross. The only saving grace is that the defense is only allowing 3.07 points per opp.

The problems are comprehensive.

Back in 2016, when Francois led the Noles to a No. 3 ranking in Off. S&P+ and a 36-point scoring average (with lots of help from running back Dalvin Cook), FSU enjoyed a 49 percent success rate inside the 20 (19th overall), a 54 percent success rate inside the 10 (37th), and committed zero red zone turnovers.

This time: 38 percent inside the 20 (83rd), 36 percent inside the 10 (105th), and a 9.1 percent turnover rate inside the 10 (123rd). Their success rate on first-and-goal: 25 percent (106th).

FSU’s also already missed three field goals of 42 yards or shorter.

Slow starts on offense, and not being able to force third downs are further contributing factors to the Noles’ 2018 so far.

FSU still has notable games remaining against Clemson, Louisville, Miami, and Notre Dame on its schedule. It might not be a pretty season, but let’s keep in mind FSU went 6-6 in the regular season last year, and Taggart inherited a lot of those same guys.

Speaking of Taggart, his programs have historically never started hot:

In his first two head coaching gigs at Western Kentucky and South Florida, his first-year teams had a combined four wins. It wasn’t until two years after his hiring that he led the Hilltoppers to their first back-to-back winning FBS seasons, followed by USF’s first 10-win season in school history in 2016.

His lone season at Oregon last season before accepting the FSU job was an average 7-6 one, marred by QB injury.

We’ll see how the rest of the season goes, but it’s looking like it might be a long year for Florida State fans.