The early portions of the Florida State football team's first preseason scrimmage Saturday night were business as usual for the defense. Unfortunately for the Seminoles' offensive players, that means things were status quo for them as well.

After watching the defense control much of the action during the first week of fall camp, offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham was none too pleased to see his first-team offense generate just three points on five first-half drives combined.

He said penalties killed a couple of drives, and a turnover doomed another. There also were some costly tackles for loss.

"We didn't execute," Dillingham said. "It wasn't that we weren't being productive. We'd have productive plays, but we would then have a false start or an illegal formation, or we would take a sack. We would take those negatives and set us back."

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But just when it looked like the Seminoles' offense would take an "L" for the scrimmage, quarterbacks Jordan Travis and McKenzie Milton, running back Jashaun Corbin, receiver Keyshawn Helton and a few others flipped the script in the second half.

In their last five drives, Dillingham said, the first-team offense scored four touchdowns.

"The only time we didn't score was we had a penalty," Dillingham said.

Added head coach Mike Norvell: "The offense rebounded as the scrimmage went on and really finished up well. There were some explosive plays ... Malik McClain had a couple of big plays. Keyshawn Helton had a big play down the field. I thought both Jordan and McKenzie had some explosives that were great to see."

Saturday's slow start was not surprising.

For most of the first week of preseason, FSU's offense has had a difficult time getting plays started because of mismatches on the line of scrimmage. They have busted a few nice runs in 11-on-11 drills, but they've produced very few big plays in the passing game.

That apparently changed during Saturday's scrimmage, which was closed to the media.

Dillingham credited the offensive line with doing "a nice job" of creating running lanes and providing pass protection, and Norvell echoed those comments.

"I think those guys are getting more confident in what they're being asked to do," Norvell said. "The beginning of fall camp, it's a challenge."

That's probably the case in most years, but particularly in this one as the Seminoles have been working in some new faces (redshirt freshman Zane Herring and Notre Dame transfer Dillan Gibbons at guard) and having tackles Darius Washington and Robert Scott flip the positions they played one year ago.