Florida State escapes with 45-44 win over ULM in overtime: Instant Analysis

Florida State's disappointing start to the 2019 season continued Saturday with a 45-44 overtime victory against major underdog Louisiana-Monroe.

The Seminoles were 23.5-point favorites coming into the game and led by 17 points at halftime. But just like one week earlier, when they blew an 18-point lead against Boise State, Florida State stumbled throughout the second half.

FSU pulled out the victory when ULM missed an extra point in overtime, which would have sent the game to double-overtime. With the win, FSU improves to 1-1 on the season entering next Saturday's game at Virginia.

In this Instant Analysis piece, we look at some of the key areas that led to another disappointing effort in Willie Taggart's second season as head coach.

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It was eerily similar to the first game of the season for the Florida State offense. Start hot. Then go colder than a ice box.

On Saturday, Florida State scored touchdowns on its first three drives of the game. James Blackman threw the ball well, Cam Akers ran hard, receivers made plays, and the Seminoles just completely torched the Louisiana-Monroe defense. To the tune of 21 points and 190 yards on three possessions.

Then the spiral started. Three and out. Three and out. Field goal right before the half -- thanks to a pass interference on third down.

Then the second half started like this: Punt, punt, pick-six and then a fumble. Incredibly, it was a worse third quarter than the one they had the week before against Boise State.

The pick-six came on a miscommunication between James Blackman and Tamorrion Terry -- the wide receiver ran a deep route and Blackman thought he was stopping. And the fumble came when senior receiver Keith Gavin tried to bull through four tacklers and was stripped from behind -- on a play that wouldn't have counted anyway because FSU was called for illegal motion.

The Seminoles were also called for ineligible man downfield late in the first half on a play that took a touchdown away from Terry.

Florida State, thanks to those mistakes, saw a 24-7 lead at halftime turn into a 24-21 lead heading into the fourth quarter. This on the heels of performance against Boise State in which the Seminoles scored 31 points on their first six possessions and then didn't score a single point in their final nine.

On Saturday, FSU scored touchdowns on the first three drives and then managed just three points over the next seven.

While the results weren't a whole lot better, Florida State's coaches did try some new approaches on defense Saturday against ULM.

One week after surrendering 38 first downs and 621 yards of total offense, the Seminoles ran some different schemes, play-calls and even adjusted coaching responsibilities.

The biggest adjustment came on the defensive front, where the Seminoles appeared to play many more snaps with a 4-3 look than they did the week before. FSU spent a great deal of time during the spring and preseason installing a new 3-4 front, but the Seminoles struggled in all phases defensively during their season-opening loss to Boise State.

On Saturday, the Seminoles used both fronts early but then switched primarily to the 4-3.

Another change came on third downs, where Florida State played much more aggressively than the week before. FSU head coach Willie Taggart said during the week that he wanted to see the defense bring more pressure on obvious passing downs, and the Seminoles did just that. In the end, they got better results -- with ULM converting 6 of 15 third-down attempts -- but the Seminoles recorded just one sack on Warhawks QB Caleb Evans.

Another change came within the defensive coaching game-day responsibilities. Defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett, who called plays from the sideline last week, moved back up to the coaches' box on Saturday. The Seminoles didn't have any full-time defensive coaches up in the box in the season-opening loss to Boise State.

In the end, none of it seemed to matter as the Warhawks scored 31 second-half points and finished with 44 for the game. They racked up 419 yards of total offense.

One of the things Willie Taggart said he wanted to see more of this week was Cam Akers, and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles clearly got the message.

Akers, who rushed for 116 yards on 15 carries last Saturday, delivered the most dominant performance of his career against ULM.

He carried the ball 36 times for 193 yards and two touchdowns, and he caught five passes for 55 more. One of his fourth-quarter receptions was enormous, as he caught a short pass from Blackman and raced through the ULM defense for a 44-yard touchdown.

The play gave the Seminoles a 38-35 advantage with 6:09 remaining.

Akers then scored on a four-yard touchdown plunge in overtime to give the Seminoles a 45-38 advantage. The junior's 36 rushing attempts were the most ever by a Seminole.

Sophomore quarterback James Blackman wasn't perfect in last week's season opener by any stretch, but he at least avoided throwing any costly interceptions.

That was not the case against ULM.

First, Blackman threw a pick-six to give the Warhawks a third-quarter touchdown that cut the Seminoles' lead to 24-14. (It was unclear if the blame for that miscue fell on Blackman or receiver Tamorrion Terry, as they clearly had a miscommunication on the route.)

Then in the fourth quarter, Blackman threw another interception that set up ULM's go-ahead touchdown, which gave the visitors a 35-31 lead.

Blackman finished the night with 282 yards and three touchdowns on 30-of-40 passing.

After a relatively clean game in the season-opener penalty wise, that issue reared its ugly head again in a big way for FSU on Saturday.

Florida State led the nation in penalties in 2018 but had just five against Boise State. The Seminoles made up for it against Louisiana-Monroe with 11 for 108 yards. They had multiple pre-snap infractions on offense, two unsportsmanlike penalties on special teams and then critical pass-interference ones as well.

After extending the lead to 10 points early in the fourth quarter, freshman Brendan Gant was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty on a kickoff that resulted in a touchback. This came two quarters after another freshman -- Akeem Dent -- tackled a punt returner who called for a fair catch.

The offense struggled with penalties as well. An illegal man downfield call on Ryan Roberts wiped a TD away from Tamorrion Terry in the first half, and an offsides call on FSU in the fourth quarter wiped away another TD (though the Seminoles scored two plays later anyway).

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