It wasn’t until week four, one-third of the way into the regular season that the Florida State Seminoles finally woke up and realized that they are, in fact, the Florida State Seminoles…well, sort of; kind of.
It’s unfortunate for the Northern Illinois Huskies that they just happened to be the opponent when it occurred. Of course, there is still lots of room for improvement, but FSU’s 37-19 win over NIU showed a lot of progress for the Noles. It also consisted of many missed opportunities for the Huskies.
The final margin on the scoreboard doesn’t accurately convey how one-sided this affair really was, at least in some respect. It was certainly the kind of game that the wagering industry adores. The spread shifted two and a half points as kick-off approached, and as the day unfolded, the point differentials and probability of outcomes varied like a game of judi poker online terbaru. To really get a read on a wild game like this, you have to go inside the numbers further. The disparities in total yardage, 473-221, time of possession 37:27-22:33 and first downs 23-13, tell a greater story.
Yet, NIU, thanks to winning the turnover margin 4-0, still had their chance to get back into/and perhaps even tie this thing midway through the fourth quarter. Just inside 11 minutes to go, NIU thought that they had a touchdown pass that would have narrowed the deficit down to three.
However, Huskies receiver Jauan Wesley was ruled to have stepped out of bounds before the catch and then on fourth down, Andrew Gantz missed a 33-yard field goal.
Two plays later, Florida State Seminoles quarterback Deondre Francois through a deep route to receiver Tamorrion Terry for 78 yards and a touchdown and suddenly, the score was now 30-13 with 10:13 to play. For Terry, it was his third TD grab out of just eight catches on the season.
“We’re obviously disappointed with the outcome of the game,” said NIU Head Coach Rod Carey.
“We got it to the fourth quarter and I think we had our opportunities at the end with a missed field goal and a missed two-point conversion. We were in a fight, we kept on swinging but we didn’t land enough punches. You can’t fault our effort.”
Carey later added: “there are no moral victories, either you win or you lose.”
While the Huskies struggled to carpe diem, the Florida State Seminoles kept leaving the door wide open for the visitors to walk through it. FSU showed almost no killer instinct today, often looking like a team that was playing not lose instead of one that was trying to win for most of the second half.
Although they made some strides, they have a lot of messes still to clean up.
Said Florida State Seminoles Head Coach Willie Taggart: “We were better, but we’re still not where we need to be to be a good football team”
“Those mistakes we made, we can’t do that against a good football team…those little things that kills you…we still haven’t played a whole clean game.”
Added Francois, who finished 23-31 for 352 yards, two touchdowns and one interception: “Yeah we won, but there were a lot of mistakes and we need to fix those mistakes.”
It’s a shame more people weren’t on hand to see this one. The official attendance claims a figure that indicates a 82% full stadium, but anyone who was there will tell you that percentage is bogus. There were lot of empty seats at Doak Campbell Stadium all day.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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