TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -Two great quarterbacks. Two lousy defenses.
Looks like one long game when Florida State and North Carolina State meet on Saturday, right Coach?
“If you look at it on paper, it looks like a shootout,” Florida State’s Bobby Bowden said. “I’ve never liked to approach a season where the only way you’re going to win is outscoring people.”
Despite defenses that each give up around four touchdowns worth of points per game, neither the Seminoles nor Wolfpack have been outscored overall this season.
Mostly that’s due to Christian Ponder and Russell Wilson.
Ponder has thrown for 2,176 yards and 12 touchdowns for Florida State, which has won and lost mostly in high-scoring affairs this season. Wilson has 16 TD passes and 1,659 yards.
s a game in ACC play.
The same could be said of Wilson against the Seminoles’ abysmal pass defense, which has given up 18 touchdowns through the air this season.
The ACC’s all-conference quarterback last year, Wilson threw for 322 yards and four touchdowns when the Wolfpack (3-4, 0-3) handed 16th-ranked Pitt its only loss of the season, 38-31 last month.
“He reminds us of Charlie Ward,” Bowden said. “He scares you to death. He’ll keep us on needles and pins all day long.”
That’s kind of how the Seminoles (3-4, 1-3 ACC) have been all season. They won 54-28 at BYU and 30-27 at North Carolina, but lost a pair of wild affairs at home – 49-44 to Georgia Tech and 38-34 to Miami.
“The key is going to be ‘is our defense going to get better?”’ Bowden said.
The Wolfpack wonder the same thing.
Ponder, who in just the last two games has passed for 754 yards and eight touchdowns while completing almost 80 percent of his attempts, is likely to be throwing frequently against a secondary switching starters for the seventh time in eight games.
“We have to play better pass defense,” O’Brien said. “The best thing we can do is try not to give up the big play.”
Florida State and NC State have been evenly matched over the last dozen seasons with the Seminoles taking a 6-5 edge last year when Graham Gano’s four field goals helped them to a 26-17 win in Raleigh.
Two of the most memorable shootouts played in Tallahassee were against NC State.
The Seminoles defeated NC State 48-35 in 1997 despite five touchdown catches by the Wolfpack’s Torry Holt and in 2003 Florida State got past Philip Rivers’ team 50-44 in two overtimes.
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