After building big lead, Florida State offense limps to finish at Boston College

Heading into Saturday’s game at Boston College, the No. 3 Florida State football team had scored at least 35 points in eight straight games. It was the longest active streak in the nation.

Well, the Seminoles didn’t get to the magic 35 number against the Eagles, and it almost cost them dearly. But 31 points ended up being good enough for a two-point win over the upset-minded hosts in Chestnut Hill, Mass., and the Seminoles now have the country’s second-longest streak of scoring at least 31 or more.

“We had a couple of things that cost us,” Florida State head coach Mike Norvell said of his team’s offensive performance, which was the worst of the Seminoles’ nine-game winning streak, dating back to last season. “Mistakes that were made with the turnover. We had the penalty. A couple of things that were going to be big plays. And we’ve just got to make sure we get that cleaned up.”

Early in the third quarter, it looked like it was going to be a typical high-scoring performance by the Seminoles.

After senior quarterback Jordan Travis, who was injured late in the first half but stayed in the game, led back-to-back touchdown drives to open the second half, Florida State had 31 points and the Boston College defense looked like it was flat out of answers.

The Seminoles had scored on five of six possessions at that point and were also enjoying a 28-0 run.

But here’s how the rest of the Florida State possessions looked the rest of the way:

Three-and-out, fumbled kickoff, fumble that was returned for a touchdown, punt after one first down, three-and-out, and then what would have been another three-and-out with the game on the line, but Boston College grabbed Lawrance Toafili’s facemask on third down and the penalty wrapped up the win for the Seminoles.

As Boston College mounted its second-half comeback, Florida State’s typically potent offense just could not regain its footing.

“You’ve got to give them credit for their plan, how they tried to do different things in the box,” Norvell said. “Ultimately, I thought we had some opportunities. We’ve got to make sure we capitalize on those. We’ll get a better sense of (what went wrong in the second half) after we get a chance to watch it.”

There was the critical offensive pass interference penalty on Keon Coleman that took away a critical fourth-down conversion on a pass to tight end Kyle Morlock. There was a third-down attempt to Johnny Wilson that was thrown 25 yards downfield even though it was only a thirrd-and-3.

And, of course, there was the Toafili fumble that completely flipped the game and got Boston College right back into it.

Florida State ran for just 128 yards on 34 carries. That’s 3.8 yards per rush.

Take away the three kneel-down plays at the end by Travis, who lost yardage on each one, and one by Tate Rodemaker at the end of the first half, the Seminoles ran for 145 yards on 30 carries. That’s still just 4.8 yards per carry. Against a defense that allowed 264 yards and 6.8 yards per carry to Holy Cross the week before.

Trey Benson finished with 68 yards on 14 carries. But in the second half, when the Seminoles were trying to regain control and stop the momentum, Benson managed just eight yards on six attempts.

And to make matters worse for the offense, Coleman had zero catches. And just two targets. None after halftime.

The only time he touched the ball in the final two quarters was on an end-around on third-and-3 when he picked up two yards. He was then called for offensive pass interference on the very next play.

Still. Florida State did score 31 points on the road. And the Seminoles did win the game. But it was obvious Norvell expects a lot more.

“There were some good things that were done,” Norvell said, alluding to Johnny Wilson’s 100-yard game and Jaheim Bell adding 76 yards and a score. “But we obviously made some critical mistakes that we can’t have that allowed that game to be a one-score game at the end.”

Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State football fans on the Tribal Council.

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