There hasn't been one single issue that has plagued the Florida State defense during its early struggles this season.

However, the case can certainly be made that a massive defensive issue has emerged and contributed in a major way to the Seminoles finding themselves in an 0-2 hole entering Saturday's home game vs. Memphis (Noon on ESPN).

Early this season, the FSU defense has struggled mightily to get off the field on third downs. Entering Week 3 of the season, the Seminoles are allowing the most third-down conversions of any Power Four team at 56%. Georgia Tech and Boston College converted a combined 14 of 25 third downs against the Seminoles, plummeting them to a tie for 128th nationally out of 134 FBS teams and nearly eight percentage points worse than the next-closest power conference team (Texas Tech at 48.3%).

Considering all FSU lost from last year's defense, it maybe shouldn't be a total surprise. And yet, it's hard not to be taken aback when you remember that the 2023 FSU defense allowed opponents to convert just 28.8% of their third downs, sixth-best nationally.

"They're all not the same, but the end result needs to be the same, which is getting the stop," FSU defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said Monday when reflecting on FSU's third-down defense woes.

Like the struggles on the defense as a whole, there hasn't been any one issue that has allowed opposing offenses to have so much third-down success against the Seminoles early this season. Part of it has been facing a pair of mobile quarterbacks, certainly, but other contributing factors have been the loss of a contained edge, the inability to get pressure on the quarterback in time or struggles to cover the same play, a wheel route, which BC ran multiple times on third down vs. FSU to massive success.

There is one common theme, though. The FSU defense has not done a good enough job of putting itself in advantageous third-down situations.

Of the 25 third downs the FSU defense has faced this season, only six have been third and eight yards or more. As you would probably expect given the difficulty, BC and GT converted just one of those third-and-longs.

The other 19 third downs, though, have been far more achievable for the opponent. Especially against Boston College, FSU didn't do well enough at keeping the Eagles behind the chains. BC converted 9 of 16 third downs (56.3%) against FSU in large part because it faced an average third-down distance of 5.2 yards and faced third and eight-plus yards just twice in 16 attempts.

On the other hand, FSU's offense converted just three of 14 third downs (21.4%) against BC's defense. Not by coincidence, FSU's average third-down distance to gain in the game was 9.5 yards.

"Our third-down defense, it hasn't been good enough. A lot of those situations have been in the mediums to shorts. And so, you go through it for the entire year and you're defending a lot more of the third and fours, threes, twos, ones, it's going to be hard," Fuller said. "You've got to get stops in those distances, but I think the first thing first is we've got to go play better on first and second down and create those longer situations so that we can really be the aggressor. No matter what happens, however it gets to be third down, obviously our goal is we've got to get off the field and we've got to do a better job. Whether that comes to trusting your fits, trusting your leverage or making the tackles, those are all things that are ingredients to playing better defense."

The effects of FSU's third-down defense struggles are felt all across the roster. Longer drives wear down the defense over the course of a game — FSU has faced five drives of six-plus minutes of game time in two games this season — and limit the FSU offense's chances to touch the ball. FSU got just seven possessions against GT.

Another significant area where it has had an effect, however, has been neutralizing FSU's pass rush, which was expected to be a strength of the team. Because of the limited opportunities FSU has had in third-and-long situations, it has limited the number of times that Patrick Payton and Marvin Jones Jr. have been able to pin their ears back with the knowledge that the opposing team is definitely going to pass the ball.

That has certainly contributed to the fact that FSU has just three sacks through two games this season and the defensive end room has just a half-sack from Sione Lolohea, meaning Payton and Jones are not yet on the board this season.

"We talked to them specifically about we've got to earn the right to rush the passer..." FSU head coach Mike Norvell said. "If everything is short-yardage or if it's a lot of short-yardage situations and they have that full menu (of plays) to be able to utilize, it makes it challenging to go and be as productive in the pass-rush game as you want to be. That's something that is big. We've got to be great in first and second down to force the longer-yardage situations and then we've got to be able to go attack and work to disrupt the quarterback."

The challenge will still be there Saturday against the visiting Memphis Tigers, who currently sit in a tie for 17th nationally in third-down conversion percentage at 55%. Memphis has converted over 54% of its third-down attempts in each of its first two games this season.

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