At times Saturday, it seemed that Florida State did a better job than Duke at stopping the Seminoles’ drives.
FSU had four fumbles, losing all of them, in its 48-7 victory over Duke. There were three fumbles in the third quarter alone.
“That was total lack of focus,” FSU coach Jimbo Fisher said. “That’s my fault as a coach. We’re going to get it fixed.”
FSU led 31-7 going into the second half, so the lack of focus would appear to be a good reason for the mental lapses. But the Seminoles also had five fumbles (they lost two) in their 33-20 victory at Miami the previous week.
That’s nine fumbles (six of them lost) over two games after losing just four fumbles in the first seven games of the year.
Fisher said he doesn’t believe that nine straight games without a bye week has been the reason for the fumbling. But he realizes that players need a break, and Fisher gave them Sunday and Monday off. FSU next plays at Virginia Tech on Nov. 8 in a Thursday night matchup.
“Nine straight weeks is a long time,” Fisher said. “Plus your four weeks of (preseason) camp, that’s 12-13 weeks we’ve been grinding. They need to get away.”
Wilder update: Tailback James Wilder Jr. hurt his shoulder after catching a 17-yard fourth-quarter pass from Clint Trickett and came out of the game.
“It feels good, just bruised it up a little bit,” Wilder said. “I was trying to get back in the game, but we were already up with a big lead so they kept me out.”
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