TALLAHASSEE - If only Chris Rix played cornerback, you would not be able to stop talking about the pain and the punishment.
If only Wyatt Sexton were a defensive tackle, you would not forget the poise and the promise.
If only Bobby Bowden's son coached the linebackers, you would sing the praises of the plan and the performance.
Any other place, any other program, and you could not help notice the rebirth of the FSU defense.
This was their night, their game, their return to excellence. Say what you will about Sexton, the calm new quarterback, or about the electric eels that are the running backs. Around FSU, the fans love to talk about offense. Saturday night's 36-3 victory over Virginia, however, belonged to the defense.
There was something in the way they bruised, an old familiarity that has been missing too long from FSU's defense. This was the way they used to hunt, vicious and relentless. This is the way they used to hit, savage and merciless.
This was their night for answers, remember? This was Virginia, a team so explosive you got the idea they juggled nitroglycerin between plays. The Cavs blew into the Doak with statistics straight out of a pinball machine, leading the ACC in every imaginable category.
"I wasn't sure we could take the ball away from them," Bowden said. "I thought they would just take it and drive it."
Then there were the 'Noles, whose claim to fame was that they had played pretty good defense, well, most of the time. Except for the finish at Miami, that is. And the start against Syracuse. And the missed tackles against North Carolina. And so on.
Before Saturday night, no one had any idea how good the FSU defense was. There was plenty of speed, and there was sufficient strength. But there was also a lingering problem of wandering focus.
This answered all questions. The Cavs rushed for 20 yards, 255 yards fewer than their average. They scored three points, 39.6 fewer than their average. They gained 281 total yards, 212.2 fewer than their average. It was like watching someone turn a spigot and reducing Niagara Falls to a drip.
Virginia might as well have been a pickup team from the Virgin Islands. The Cavs ran 29 times for 20 yards. They were sacked five times. For most of the night, they were smothered.
For FSU, it has been a long time between smothers days. FSU has been in a three-year funk on defense. Oh, the Seminoles didn't take that much grief for it, not with fans infuriated by Chris Rix and confounded by Jeff Bowden and agitated by Xavier Beitia. FSU's program was born of a high-risk, fast-paced offense, and around Tallahassee, it is still the offense that draws most of the noise.
When is the last time FSU looked this good from start to finish on defense? Long enough that Bowden had to think about it for a long pause. Finally, he suggested a 20-3 win against North Carolina, late in the 1997 season.
It's odd. Certainly, FSU should know about good defense. This is the field that produced Derrick Brooks and Deion Sanders, Marvin Jones and Ron Simmons, Corey Simon and Peter Boulware, Terrell Buckley and Greg Spires and Sam Cowart and Andre Wadsworth and Reinard Wilson and the rest. The standards have been set.
People tend to forget just how good the defense was during FSU's great seasons, the national championships of '93 and '99. The defensive ends were relentless. The linebackers ran like wideouts. There was always a shutdown corner and a bruising safety. In those moments where the game rested on their shoulders, there was a swagger that assured everyone it was safe.
Lately, that hasn't been the same. Consider: During the '90s, FSU had eight different defensive players drafted in the first round by the NFL. In the five drafts since, it has had three, none in the last three.
"We ran out of players," Bowden said.
Now consider this: In '98, the Seminoles led the nation in defense. In 2000, they were sixth. The last three years, they've been 43rd, 61st and 26th. A team doesn't win championships from there.
Why the slide? Blame coaching. Blame recruiting. Blame Rix. For whatever reason, FSU hasn't been as fierce, as furious, as it used to be.
Against Virginia, they were. They filled holes and they shut off light. They harassed Marques Hagans and covered receivers. It was a performance that brought back memories. It was also one that delivered promises.
Here is the thing. For all the talk about Sexton and Rix, for all the hope carried by running backs Leon Washington and Lorenzo Booker, any chance of a special season lies with this defense. It has to be fierce enough, furious enough to buy time for the offense. On those nights the game is in the air to be won, it has to be good enough to take it.
"Eventually," defensive tackle Travis Johnson said, "we're going to be the No. 1 defense in the country."
On a night such as this, all things seemed possible. The defense was good enough to protect its end zone, its offense and its goals.
