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Sims Not Only One To Blame

The Associated Press

Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder, left, is sacked by Georgia Tech's Vance Walker.

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By COREY CLARK

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 4, 2008

Jimbo Fisher's message was a simple one.

The last play for his Florida State offense on Saturday in Atlanta was not the sole reason the Seminoles lost to Georgia Tech. Junior Marcus Sims' fumble inside the Yellow Jackets' 3-yard line in the final minute was the most glaring miscue for the FSU offense in the 31-28 defeat, but it was far from the only game-changing mistake.

"We reinforced this," Fisher said. "We showed our guys [Monday], that no one player loses a game and no one play wins or loses a game. There are opportunities before that to be successful that we could have taken advantage of. We showed our guys that [Monday] and how different things fit.

"He's our teammate. He's one of us. And the guys did a great job of supporting him and telling him that. "It will be tough to swallow because he's a competitor."

Quarterback Christian Ponder, who was just a few feet from leading his second come-from-behind fourth-quarter win of the season, made sure to back Sims after the game on Saturday night.

And he did it again earlier this week – pointing to his own mistakes that led to the loss.

"I threw an interception they ended up scoring off of," Ponder said of a second-quarter pick that was returned to the FSU 4. "And there were a lot of other mistakes. So it's definitely not on [Sims] at all.
"There were a lot of things we could have done, a lot of effort things, a lot of execution things we could have done, to put us in a better position to win that ball game."

The fact that the Seminoles were 3 yards away from putting 35 points on the board against Georgia Tech (the most the Jackets had given up all season was 24 to Virginia) is certainly something for Fisher and his staff to be optimistic about.

But then they started looking at game film of Clemson. And even though the Tigers are just 4-4 on the year, they have an aggressive, talented defense that doesn't leave a ton of room for optimism.

"Overall talent, this is probably the best group we've played," Fisher said. "… That's what's got me worried. This is a great defensive football team."

Clemson hasn't allowed more than 21 points to an ACC opponent all season, despite being one of the worst teams in the country in turnover margin. The Tigers are allowing just 16.8 points per game.

FSU-BC AT NIGHT: Florida State will wear its black uniforms against Boston College in next week's game in Doak Campbell Stadium. The game has been set for an 8 p.m. kickoff on ABC.

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