Chasing Grothe: Post-Game 5

Last Saturday was pretty much what we were planning for. Florida State's defense was stout all game, limiting B.J. Daniels' ability to make big plays. But Daniels and his offense did OK against the #4 Seminoles, nearly matching them in first downs and having several chances to improve on the yardage they did get. The offensive line did much better than expected, and the defense helped put the ball back in Daniels's hands.

B.J.'s final stat line read like this: 17-for-33 passing for 143 yards and one interception, and another 72 rushing yards. Not up to quota. But that was expected. Going up against the fourth-ranked team in the country, you probably expect to keep the plays short and (hopefull) plentiful. B.J.'s 215 total yards registered less than 28 yards under the per-game required average, but it could have been much worse. Daniels was denied the long ball that he so relied on in previous games due to FSU's air-tight seals on the Bulls receivers in the deep patterns, but his mistakes were few (although damaging).

The numbers say B.J. has 1722 yards to go with seven games left and entering the Big East schedule. The two biggest challenges to his pursuit are the defenses of Louisville and Cincinnati, both of which are road games. Daniels will look to rack up some extra yardage and personally welcome back Temple to the Big East with some kind-of-rookie hazing. The Owls are currently allowing nearly 400 yards per game through three games against Villanova, Maryland, and Penn State. With Saturday's game factored in, Daniels will need 246 yards per game from here on to cross the finish line. Last week's game got me a little more optimistic, so I'm willing to start factoring in a bowl game again. With the extra game on the schedule, Daniels would need just 215.25 yards per game. If he only has six or even five games left in his career, he'd need 287 and 344.4 yards per game, respectively.