For Florida State, it was the story of two halves. In the first, they were opportunistic, scoring touchdowns off a missed field goal, fumble and interception. In the second half, they were relentless, scoring on every possession until their last, when they ran the clock out on a hapless Terrapin team.
For the Terps, it was the same ol’ dance for sixty minutes, turnovers and sacks stonewalling an offense that on the opening drive seemed to be getting on track before a couple cute plays resulted in a punt.
The Noles didn’t really dominate a single statistic other than sacks (six to zero) and the final 37-3 score. They were simply better in the rest. Florida State finished with more first downs, rushing and passing yards, total plays, completions, completion percentage, touchdowns, field goals, average gain per play, interceptions, fumble recoveries and possession time. It’s hard to win the game without winning at least a few of those stats.
Florida State might have had the game in hand at halftime, but it was in the second half that they jammed in the stake. After holding the ball for 15:55 in the first half, they kept it for 20:07 in the second, giving the Terps only 9:53 to comeback in what began as a three-score and turned into a five-score game.
Florida State also didn’t lose one of its three fumbles and scored on all five of its red zone chances. “Thorough” would be an accurate way to describe the Terps’ defeat Saturday night. On more than one occasion this season, the Terps have dominated the box score only to walk away with a narrow victory. On Saturday, the Noles ruled the box score and it showed in the final.
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What a tough loss. I dont think it was a question of effort, I think that the Noles just had the better coaching and the better players and it showed. Its hard to admit that but its true. Hopefully we can better gameplan and well come out and beat BC on saturday.
this was the first time i’ve ever left a umd football game early….just embarassing