Nothing Doing for Offense in 27-2 Loss to Florida State
Saturday, November 28, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Tailback Dalvin Cook rushed for 183 yards and two touchdowns in 14th-ranked Florida State's 27-2 victory Saturday night over host and No. 10 Florida.
But that wasn't why the Gators lost. Not even close.
Actually, Cook was held to just 33 yards through three quarters, but by then the Seminoles had a two-score lead that seemed like twice that to the record crowd of 90,916, given the struggles — now four weeks going — of the Gators' offense.
Yet there was Cook, after FSU called a timeout with 28 seconds left, dashing through the middle of the UF defense for a 29-yard score that put the finishing touches on the rout. Cook totaled 150 yards in the fourth period. The Seminoles, though, really needed none of them.
Not when the Gators totaled just 262 yards of offense. Not with quarterback Treon Harris completing just 19 of 38 passes for 134 yards. Not when UF's longest pass completion of the night went for 15 yards. Not when UF failed to score on three trips inside the FSU 20-yard line. And not when the Florida kicker missed both of his field-goal attempts.
"Our defense was awesome," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. "The leverage on the ball, the pressure on the quarterback and controlling the line of scrimmage."
And now the Gators (10-2) get No. 2 Alabama (11-1) in next weekend's Southeastern Conference Championship Game at the Georgia Dome.
"Obviously, that was very disappointing," Florida coach Jim McElwain said. "They made plays and we didn't. Plain and simple. We had opportunities and didn't feel like we took advantage of them. That's something we've got to learn from."
FSU quarter Sean Maguire passed for 160 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown to third-team tight end Jeremy Kerr and Roberto Aguayo kicked a pair of field goals to stake the Seminoles (10-2) to a 13-0 lead in the late in the third quarter.
Florida, though, had a chance to cut the lead in half and make things interesting in the period. The Gators, behind junior tailback Kelvin Taylor and his season-high 136 yards, drove to the Seminoles' 6 and faced a third-and-4. But Harris, under pressure rolling out, chucked the ball out of bounds to save a sack and was called for intentional grounding. The penalty (and loss of down) set up a fourth-and-17 from the FSU 19, instead of a manageable fourth-and-goal at the 2, the Gators had no choice but to go for a 37-yard field goal.
On came Austin Hardin, who was 5-for-11 on field-goal tries for the season coming in.
It was blocked.
It was that kind of night.
"We weren't able to finish drives and weren't able to get things," Taylor said after the second-best rushing effort of his career. "We started with some good field-position at times, but just weren't able to put things together."
Yet the Gators still had a chance later in the quarter to make a game of it. True freshman defensive end CeCe Jefferson sacked Maguire deep in FSU territory and forced a fumble. The ball was batted and kicked about in a mad scramble between players for both teams. After it rolled in the zone and took a wild bounce, Maguire fell on it for a safety that made the score 13-2 and kept it at a two-possession lead for the Seminoles.
All the play did was help UF avert its first shutout since losing 16-0 at home against Auburn in 1988.
The game began as a punt fest, with UF punting on two of its first three possessions and FSU on each of its first three. The Gators had a good chance to get on the board first, when they started a drive at their own 46 and managed to move to the FSU 20 before facing a fourth-and-2.
Given its glaring field-goal problems with Hardin, UF opted to go for it, but the shotgun snap to Harris was low. Harris tried to field it and get up, but fell down instead, turning the ball over on downs.
The play summed up the night for Harris, who was sacked four times and off the target for most of the game.
"He could've played better, but so could some other guys and some could have played better around him," McElwain said. "He's our quarterback and he's got to get a little bit better this week ... And you know what? We've [all] got to get a little bit better."
After two more punts, the Seminoles benefited from a fair-catch interference call against gunner Chris Thompson. The penalty enabled FSU to start a drive at the UF 41 and with help from an offsides call the Seminoles eventually got a 45-yard field goal from Aguayo at the 12:11 mark of the second period.
The Gators punted away the next possession, with FSU starting at its 26. The Seminoles marched 74 yards on seven plays, with Cook dashing for 21 yards and Maguire hitting Kermit Whitfield for 45 more, but that drive came down to a fourth-and-goal play at the Florida 1. The Gators' defense got immediate pressure on a play-action fake, flushed Maguire to his right, all the way to sideline, where he fired across his body and stuck the pass into Kerr's hands -- just off the outstretched fingertips of UF cornerback Jaylen Tabor.
The catch was the first of Kerr's career.
Florida had a chance to get on the board at the end of the half, moving into FSU territory to the 34, but Hardin's 51-yard field goal attempt went wide left.
Aguayo, on the other hand, made good on his 51-yard attempt at the 5:21 mark of the third quarter, pushing the lead to 13-0 and setting the stage for those two frustrating Florida sequences, either of which would have made things more interesting for the home crowd.
"Our defense gave us an opportunity and we didn't take advantage of it," McElwain said.
Instead, Cook pounced on a frustrated defense that had held the Seminoles star — he had 1,475 yards and 16 touchdowns coming in — to just 33 yards on 13 carries through three periods.
He went for 150 on his 13 attempts in the final period, with touchdowns of 15 with just over six minutes to go and 29 after the late timeout.
"This is a tough one, but we have to put it behind us quickly," senior tight end Jake McGee said. "We can't dwell on this too long, as bad as it was. We just have to keep taking steps forward."
