Seminoles take down Demon Deacons

It was the day Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said "everyone was waiting for."

Florida State's defense had to be waiting for a chance to shine after surrendering 41 points last week at North Carolina State.

The unit rebounded in a huge way against Wake Forest, keeping the Demon Deacons out of the end zone and allowing the Atlantic Coast Conference's lowest-ranked offense to 126 total yards in a 43-3 win before a Doak Campbell Stadium crowd of 82,327.

Most of those yards came against the Seminoles' second-team defense, which started rotating in after the game was put away in the third quarter by a defensive touchdown. Wake Forest never threatened to score after the first quarter in No. 1 Florida State's 21st consecutive win to extend its school record.

"The defense got some turnovers, which we've been waiting on," Fisher said. "You know, everybody's been asking that question so you can quit asking that question now. It was their day."

Wake Forest actually spent most of the game with negative net rushing yards thanks to the devastating combination of true freshman Lorenzo Featherston and junior Mario Edwards, Jr. on the defensive line. Edwards, who is used to playing defensive end, spent much of the game on the inside, where he recorded five tackles (three for losses), a sack and a forced fumble.

Featherston worked the defensive end position and picked up seven tackles, 2.5 for losses.

"I've been comfortable inside," Edwards said. "Just for a long time I didn't really want to do it. After just buying into and playing inside — I'm enjoying playing in there."

The win was Florida State's (5-0, 3-0 in the ACC) third straight over Wake Forest (2-4, 0-2) and the 50th of Fisher's career.

Junior linebacker Reggie Northrup – who put the game out of reach in the third quarter with a forced fumble, which he then recovered for his first career touchdown – said the defense went through extra preparation this week after the team counted 33 missed tackles against North Carolina State. Northrup led the FSU defense with eight tackles.

""We did pursuit drills, we did tackling drills, one-on-one open field tackling drills," he said. "They really emphasized tackling and getting low and wrapping up the whole week. It was a grind this week and they were hard on us. It was for the better — we had a sloppy week last week."

Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said FSU's defense, which entered ranked 13th in the ACC (403.2 yards per game), prevented his offense from creating space.

"Guys miss tackles in space and we never created space," he said. "I think in the second half everything got bottled up that they didn't have to make big space tackles."

The defense finally clicked on a day where Heisman trophy winner Jameis Winston was average — by his standards — and the offense had to settle for five Roberto Aguayo field goals.

Winston finished the day midway through the third quarter with 297 yards on 23-for-39 passing with a touchdown and an interception. He also had a touchdown run late in the second quarter.

Winston's lone touchdown pass came with 9:10 left in the game on a 59-yard completion to freshman wideout Travis Rudolph. Fisher said — and Winston agreed — the offense was out of rhythm.

"I've got to get us going," Winston said.

"I've got to get us scoring fast. But at the end of the day, that's what we've got that defense for. Sometimes they've got to have our backs, sometimes we've got to have their back. But at the end of the day when Florida State starts playing Florida State football and defense and offense are on the same cylinders, we're going to be fun to watch."

Florida State also had two first-quarter turnovers. Karlos Williams fumbled and set up Wake Forest with the chance to score its first points at Doak since 2008. The fumble led to a 32-yard field goal from Mike Weaver and the Demon Deacons' only lead of the game.

"Offensively, (we) had some turnovers early, which were inexcusable," Fisher said. "The deflected the ball (on Winston's interception) the fumbled one and got out of sync."

But the Florida State defense created turnovers of its own, including an interception by cornerback P.J. Williams in the third quarter that he returned to the Wake 9-yard line — setting up a touchdown run by sophomore Mario Pender.

"We definitely got better this week," Williams said.

"We made sure we tackled better. We ran to the ball. Everybody ran to the ball. We got the plays that came to us and we got some turnovers. We definitely made a lot of good plays."

The Seminoles are at Syracuse on Saturday. The Orange (2-3, 0-1) lost at home to Louisville on Friday.