Sports

After Early Fireworks, FSU Dominates USF 55-35

IMG_4107EThe #13 Florida State Seminoles came to Tampa after a historic and humiliating loss to Louisville. They were mad as hell. The USF Bull came off of a solid defeat in Syracuse and were looking to show that whey were an emerging program.

The Noles erased the memory of that Louisville loss with a 55-35 drubbing of the Bulls. This was the Bulls’ first loss of the season. The game started with fireworks, not in the sky, but on the field.

The Raymond James Stadium crowd of 61,000 exploded when USF QB Quinton Flowers delivered a pass to Rodney Adams on the first play from scrimmage for an 84 yard touchdown. 7-0 USF in the first 17 seconds.

11594561FSU responded with their first play from scrimmage, a 75 yard run by Dalvin Cook. It was the perfect answer. Both teams had strong drives to trade touchdowns after that, including FSU’s Cook scoring his second touchdown in less that 5 minutes.

Then the Noles woke up, taking the score to 45-15 before USF scored again. Cook wound up with a mammoth 267 yards vs USF, and the Seminoles ripped off 478 yards total rushing. Quarterback Deondre Francois chipped in another 75 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

IMG_3919But FSU Coach Jimbo Fisher was not totally pleased by his teams play. Even when the game seemed out of reach, USF quarterback Quinton Flowers found the gaps in FSU’s defense that led to three second-half touchdowns for the Bulls. Fisher was displeased his players took the foot off the gas pedal.

The Seminoles gave up 450 yards of total offense at a rate of 8.1 yards per play during the game.

“We have to coach better, and we have to play better,” Fisher said. “We have to practice better, and we have to prepare better.”

USF coach Willie Taggart sounded dejected after the game.

IMG_4013E“Tough loss. We didn’t play well, played sloppy in all places. We didn’t play very well fundamentally. We did a piss poor job tackling once again and it’s all on me. We need to do a better job coaching our coaches and coaching our players. We have to play better. I said earlier in the week, our best is good enough and we didn’t play our best ball game today and when you don’t against a team like that and their exposure, 55­35 is what you get.”

FSU QB Deondre Francois was 11/19 for 169 yards passing and 2 touchdowns, 1 rushing. USF QB Quinton Flowers was 5/14 for 160 yards passing 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. FSU Running back Dalvin Cook had 28 carries fir 267 yards and 2 Touchdowns as well as 4 catches for 62 yards.

USF Next travels to Cincinnati on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.

FSU returns to Tallahassee for their home opener against North Carolina.

 

 

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