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Published Jan 13, 2020
Florida State Football Rewind: Grading the Defense
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Gene Williams  •  TheOsceola
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@WarchantGene

A bigger surprise than Florida State’s offensive struggles in 2019 was the underachieving play of the Seminoles' defense. Despite having the same coaches for a second straight season, FSU actually regressed defensively.

This past season, opponents both ran and passed for more yards compared to 2018, and the defensive grades from Pro Football Focus declined as well.

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*ALSO SEE: Florida State football Rewind: Grading the Offense

The Seminoles finished ranked No. 90 in total defense, giving up an average of 424.2 yards per game, up from 416.3 in 2018 and 331.1 in 2017. Opposing offenses also racked up more first downs (262 to 296), converted more third downs (36.5% to 40.4%) and scored more often in the red zone (82.8% to 85.9%). So it's not surprising that the average overall defensive grade from Pro Football Focus declined from 72.3 to 69.3.

Grading the Seminole defense - Pro Football Focus
Grade represents average PFF defensive grade for each game played that season.
YearGradeRunTackleP-rushCoverage

2019

69.3

74.3

63.5

69.0

63.9

2018

72.3

77.8

70.4

69.4

64.2

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