Defense a bright spot for struggling ’Noles
Check out three things we learned during Florida State’s 30-7 loss at Syracuse Saturday: as quarterback Deondre Francois was able to connect with Jacques Patrick, Nyqwan Murray (twice) and Keith Gavin for big plays.
FSU could not get the ball in the end zone on that drive, however, after Gavin failed to get out of bounds and the first-half clock expired.
The Seminoles could have scored on the drive, or at least been closer to doing so, if Francois had not been sacked for a loss of 8 yards after a big completion to Murray.
During FSU’s scoring drive in the fourth quarter, Francois hooked up with Gavin for a 39-yard gain — the Seminoles’ longest play of the day — to get FSU down to the 31. Francois then scrambled for a 21-yard gain to the 10 and five plays later, thanks to a fourth-down pass-interference call against Syracuse, Francois scored from 2 yards out. ACC standings for the first time since 2016 when the Seminoles opened the conference play with losses to Louisville and North Carolina.
Florida State, however, bounced back that year and ended up 10-3, with its only other loss coming at Clemson, which wound up edging Alabama for the national title that season.
The 2018 Seminoles, however, might be looking at a situation much like last year when they needed a victory in the last game of the season — a make-up game, against LouisianaMonroe — to clinch bowl eligibility before defeating Southern Miss in the Independence Bowl.
Florida State can fix errors, but first-year coach Willie Taggart and his staff have some hurdles to overcome and matching last season’s 7-6 record isn’t exactly progress by FSU standards.
If Taggart can’t quickly get the team back on track, FSU’s 36-year bowl streak could be in jeopardy.