Florida State Seminoles Gift-Wrap Late Christmas Presents for Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl
The Florida State Seminoles went above and beyond to give the Oregon Ducks a good Christmas.
It may have been a week late, but they showered the Ducks with gifts. The Seminoles failed to convert on a 4th and 1 in the first half. Later in the half, Robert Aguayo missed a field goal.
Then came the disastrous second half. Dalvin Cook had two fumbles, Jameis Winston had an unforced fumble, then he threw an interception, and finally, Jesus Wilson fumbled the ball.
After all the turnovers and mistakes, Oregon should have won 59-20. And they did.
The third quarter into the early fourth quarter was the most shocking collection of plays ever regarding this Florida State team. The Seminoles, who usually become flawless by the time the second half rolls around, collapsed. They did something they haven’t done all year: they panicked.
That was never more true than when they had to use two timeouts on one drive in the third quarter before Winston had the hideous fumble that was returned for a touchdown.
By that point, there was no recovering. It was amazing to see, as if all of the good fortune that had been with Florida State turned around and collapsed on them in 20 minutes.
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With the First Pick
It was mistake after mistake, turnover after turnover, defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown.
Honestly, the mistakes in the first half were nothing to phase anybody. Florida State has done that all year. And giving up 59 points is not that crazy either when you consider what happened.
Oregon is pretty good at turning any minor thunderstorm into a deadly hurricane. And if you ever give them a foot on your throat, they’ll pounce harder than anybody.
So when Florida State’s offense kept turning the ball over in the second half, it was only natural that Oregon would keep scoring. You can’t really put that on the defense.
From a talent perspective, Florida State is still the better team. That is not going to change.
Consider that the Seminoles had 528 yards of total offense. That’s enough to win a game and certainly put up more than 20 points, assuming, of course, you don’t have 5 turnovers.
Yes, Oregon had 639, but lots of that came from them feeding off of the FSU turnovers. If they didn’t come, the Ducks would not have been on the field enough to rack up so many yards.
And because they came, we have to re-evaluate everything we have said about the intangibles of this football team. On the biggest stage in the first College Football Playoff game in history, Florida State crumbled when things got rough, and everybody collapsed.
They were not prepared for Oregon’s offense, and they panicked going against Oregon’s defense. It was the most uncharacteristic thing the Seminoles could have done, but they made the entire college football world happy since everybody has dedicated the season to hating them.
Now, Oregon is in the National Championship game. But they need to make sure they fill out their Thank-You notes to Florida State before they go on to Dallas.
Next: Oregon Ducks Ace Toughest Challenge with Physical Play vs. Florida State
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