What was the score of the florida state game

Early in the fourth quarter of Florida’s annual meeting with FSU on the gridiron, Dameon Pierce made one of the great plays in Gators history, driving his legs and diving into the end zone for a touchdown despite having his helmet peeled off by a defender in the middle of the play.

For his troubles, Pierce — and Florida — was penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct and “illegal participation,” or the euphemism for “We can’t let players just continue to play football without helmets because our sport needs the veneer of legitimacy against allegations that it is merely a vessel for brain trauma that helmets provide” that has been adopted in conjunction with the powers that be in the sport doing at least minimal things to help protect the long-term safety of the players who risk life and limb playing it.

Pierce would score at the end of the drive, punctuating a fine Senior Day for him and putting a bittersweet cap on a senior season that may always be remembered for what could have been for him and the Gators.

But Florida’s 24-21 win over FSU was far from secured.

Or, well: Florida had scored the game-winning touchdown. It just wouldn’t prove to be one until nearly an hour of real time had elapsed, taking with it a mere 12:36 of game clock.

The Seminoles scored twice in that span, shortening Florida’s lead from 24-7 to the final margin, but never held the ball with a chance to tie after Anthony Richardson’s touchdown throw to Justin Shorter in the third quarter. And over the course of the game, both teams took turns trying to lose the ball — and their minds — over and over.

Emory Jones, in what could be his final start or action at home for Florida, threw a touchdown pass to Kemore Gamble on the game’s first drive and followed it up with three interceptions in the first half, including one in the FSU end zone just before halftime.

Jordan Travis, FSU’s dynamic QB, tossed a pick of his own, and also had the ball squirt out of his hands — if, fortuitously, directly into a teammate’s mitts — on the Seminoles’ final scoring drive, though he threw for 202 yards and a score and ran for another 102 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Backup McKenzie Milton, pressed into service by an early injury to Travis, threw a pick on one of his two passes — Jones threw one of his three on the game’s next play — while FSU’s Ontaria Wilson muffed a punt that Florida recovered, the latter despite also making a tremendous one-handed catch mere minutes prior.

And both teams combined for a staggering 22 penalties for 216 yards, with offsetting personal fouls — and thus no penalty yardage — also being assessed on multiple occasions. Pair those penalties with an overmatched officiating crew’s reliance on replay despite an inability to discern anything from it in under three minutes, and the men in stripes did much to drain any joy out of watching this contest.

Case in point: FSU’s final TD drive — a 16-play, 96-yard death march — managed to drain just 3:06 of game clock, but took more than 23 minutes of actual time as recorded by humans in the real world to play out, with six penalties being assessed and three separate plays meriting replay reviews. The last one was the first of the day to overturn a call, and rewarded the Seminoles with a touchdown on a throw to Wilson that caught with the ball over the plane of the end zone despite Wilson landing outside of it on the play.

But even on a day that saw as much bad football as a football game can produce, the Seminoles’ onside kick attempt will go down in the annals of futility.

Ryan Fitzgerald’s attempt to hit the extreme top of the ball to get it bounding in his preferred direction backfired, with the FSU kicker instead just grazing the ball lightly enough for it to fall off of its tee and barely travel. He would be flagged for illegal touching, and Florida would take over and be able to kneel out the clock as a result.

The Gators have now won three straight against the Seminoles — and will go more than four full years between defeats — and 6-6 in 2021, which should qualify them for a bowl game.

Whether they actually go to one while their coaching situation is in flux remains to be seen, but I say they should — if only to see if a football game can possibly be less exhausting than this one ended up being.

The Syracuse Orange football team battled throughout the afternoon vs. the Florida State Seminoles, but it just wasn’t enough. Syracuse lost by a score of 33-30 at Doak Campbell Stadium, and falls to 3-2 on the year.

Early on, Syracuse just had nothing happening on offense, but hung around because the defense was capable enough — a feeling most SU fans are probably familiar with by now. FSU went up 3-0 in the first quarter, then 9-0 following a missed extra point in the second. The Orange offense finally got going once they rolled Garrett Shrader out of the pocket, though, and it was a different enough look to get the QB into the end zone twice to go up 13-9.

However, Florida State punched it in for a 16-13 lead, and some questionable time management by the Orange kept it their going into the half. The ‘Noles pushed it to 23-13, then Syracuse narrowed things to three once again. You’ll sense as a theme with scores of 23-20, then 30-20, 30-27 and then 30-30 as Syracuse finally tied the game again with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Florida State had the final possession of regulation and in a little over a minute, managed to march into field goal range via some big Jordan Travis runs. Ryan Fitzgerald knocked in the game-winning field goal as time expired.

Despite FSU bottling up the Syracuse offense early, Shrader’s running ability did help open things up in the latter half of the second. He finished with 137 yards on the ground on 16 carries, including a 55-yard score — one of three rushing TDs for him on the day. Despite his own slow start, Sean Tucker wound up with 24 carries for 102 yards, which was his fourth 100-yard game this year.

Without Taj Harris on the field, Shrader was forced to get other receivers involved. And though the passing game was hot-and-cold, he did figure some things out with a variety of targets, completing 13-of-22 throws for 150 yards, a TD and a pick (an end zone heave on the last play of the first half). Courtney Jackson had five catches for 55 yards, and Anthony Queeley had two for 50 and a fourth-quarter touchdown. Damien Alford caught two for 29 yards, while Sharod Johnson, Devaughn Coooper and Abdul Adams each recorded a grab as well.

Syracuse forced two turnovers on the game, turning them into three points. On the first go-around, Cooper Lutz recovered a muffed FSU punt return, then the Orange were stonewalled at the goal line. On the next opportunity, a phenomenal Duce Chestnut interception resulted in a game-tying Andre Szmyt field goal after the offense stalled out inside the 10.

Defensively, Marlowe Waxe led the team with 10 tackles, and Mikel Jones and Stefon Thompson had nine tackles apiece. When QB Jordan Travis was on, he was on, as evidenced by the fourth quarter. But SU contained him at various points, recording five tackles for losses, including three sacks. Wax, Terry Lockett and Kingsley Jonathan wound up with the sacks, while Josh Black tacked on 1.5 tackles for loss and Aman Greenwood had half of one.

So this was a very winnable game that unfortunately just didn’t work out for the Orange. You can knock early play-calling quite a bit, though I’d argue that a bunch of the later decisions largely redeem it — save the idea to take a goal line snap in shotgun formation (since Shrader came up inches short). SU’s 3-2 on the year and 0-1 in the ACC. A bowl isn’t impossible, but it certainly get a lot tougher when you drop a game to a previously 0-4 Florida State squad.

We’ll be talking more about the game today and tomorrow.

Florida State Seminoles

2021 record: 5-7 Overall (4-4 ACC)

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