On a night characterized by turnovers galore, Florida State’s football team had just enough other offense to take down Virginia Saturday, 34-20. Both teams scored three touchdowns following turnovers in Tallahassee, but the Seminoles pieced together another touchdown drive and two field goals to get the win.
The Cavaliers have lost four straight games to fall to 4-6 on the season. They need two victories in their final two games to reach bowl eligibility.
“Obviously, we are disappointed in a loss, particularly one [with] some errors that we had early on with three turnovers in the red zone area [that gave them good field position]. That’s a good football team as we all know,” Virginia coach Mike London said. He later added: “When you have red zone turnovers short field like that, I believe that almost all of touchdowns – the turnovers led to touchdowns. For both sides. Particularly for us down there in the low red zone areas … first play of the game – those are the things that hurt you tremendously.”
The entire first half saw both teams benefit from each other’s costly mistakes. As London noted, the Hoos had a miscue on the first offensive play of the game. Virginia running back Kevin Parks fumbled, his first fumble in 299 carries, and Florida State followed with a touchdown. Karlos Williams punched it in from two yards out for the 7-0 lead.
The Seminoles returned the favor later in the quarter when Jameis Winston threw two interceptions. Maurice Canady snagged his team-leading third interception to set up a nine-play touchdown march. UVa quarterback Greyson Lambert finished off the drive with a 16-yard pass to Andre Levrone that tied the score at 7-7. Just four plays later, Anthony Harris deflected a pass into the air and Eli Harold picked it off. This time, Lambert capped a seven-play drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Darius Jennings. The Hoos led 13-7 after Ian Frye bounced the extra point off the goal post.
Early in the second quarter, the tables turned again. This time, Lambert threw an interception when Terrance Smith jumped an out pattern at the Virginia six-yard line. That gift-wrapped the second touchdown of the night for Williams and FSU bounced back in front 14-13. Williams recorded 21 carries for 70 yards and two touchdowns in the contest.
On the ensuing drive, Lambert tried to throw a sideways pass to Taquan Mizzell, who bobbled and dropped the swing attempt. After an official review, it was ruled that the pass went backwards and was a fumble. On the next play, Winston connected with receiver Rashad Greene for the score. It was the third time in the game that a turnover set up FSU’s touchdown, resulting in a 21-13 lead.
Florida State orchestrated its only other touchdown drive of the game – Winston’s four-yard run wrapped up a 15-play, 80-yard march – before halftime to lead 28-13. Winston posted only 16 rushing yards in the game, but he went 22-of-35 passing for 261 yards and one touchdown as well.
Greene was Winston’s top target, hauling in nearly 60% of his team’s total completions. Greene finished with a career-high 13 receptions for 136 yards and a touchdown.
“I think he understands football. He can move. He plays different positions. He’s not playing one spot,” Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. “His ability and capacity to carry a lot of information, a volume of routes, not only mentally but physically, being able to do them. He’s a very unique guy. He’s a gamer. He’s a great competitor.”
The Cavaliers got back within one score midway through the third quarter. FSU’s Dalvin Cook fumbled at his team’s own 23-yard line and UVa’s Mike Moore recovered. On the next play, Lambert drilled a pass to Canaan Severin for a touchdown to make it 28-20. Lambert finished 20-of-35 passing for 220 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. Severin was the leading target with four catches for 56 yards and the touchdown, while Jennings added four catches for 47 yards and one touchdown.
Still, the Seminoles held the Hoos at bay with a pair of sustained drives (nine plays and eight plays, respectively) that produced field goals. Trailing 34-20, Virginia couldn’t cut it to one score in the fourth quarter despite getting the ball to the Florida State eight-yard line. UVa lost yardage on second and third down runs by Khalek Shepherd and David Watford before a receiver screen ended the drive on fourth down.
“It was pretty frustrating. We have to score, we’ve got to score points. We have to finish. I personally have to finish. From the kickoff to when the clock hits zero, that’s something that I’ve got to do,” Severin said. He later added: “It’s tough. We’ve got to score in the red zone. Like I’m saying, we’ve got to finish down the stretch, and personally I have to do better down the stretch.”
The Wahoos finished with only 37 rushing yards thanks in part to four FSU sacks, but the Seminoles also held Kevin Parks, Shepherd, and Mizzell to a combined 76 yards on 22 carries. The 37 rushing yards are the fewest allowed by the Noles this season.
“It was big just knowing that last game we didn’t really have our best game against the run and then this game we really enforced just stopping the run and just everybody doing their job, and it worked out,” FSU defensive back Tyler Hunter said. “It is big to just keep moving forward and stopping the run because we know Miami, with Duke Johnson, they like to run the ball so we just want to stop them from running.”
