FSU Looks To End Perfect Season With Demolition Of Gators
GAINESVILLE (CBSMiami) – The Florida State Seminoles are used to mismatches, just look at the squad's 80-14 demolition of Idaho last weekend. But no one could have guessed that heading into the annual Florida-Florida State matchup; the game would look like a complete mismatch.
On one side of the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium will be the second-ranked Florida State Seminoles. The Noles own the second-highest scoring offense in the country, averaging better than 55 points per game in 2013. FSU also has the second-best scoring defense allowing just 11.4 points per game.
On the other side of the field will be a very banged-up and demoralized Florida Gators team coming off a program-worst loss to the Football Championship Subdivision Georgia Southern Eagles. Florida's struggling offense is ranked 111th in the country, averaging just 19.9 points per game.
The game has all the makings of a historic beat down like the series has never seen before. The worst loss suffered by either team was a 49-0 demolition by Florida of the Seminoles a few years before Bobby Bowden arrived in Tallahassee.
Consider, Las Vegas hasn't put a line on the game for this weekend and the Florida Gators have scored a total of 26 touchdowns this season. Florida State has scored 27 touchdowns in the last three games.
It's hard to overstate FSU's dominance of every team that has appeared in their path. Outside of a 14 point victory over Boston College; no opponent has scored more than 17 points against the Noles and in the last three victories Florida State has outscored its opponents, 198-20.
The Seminoles have set the ACC single-season scoring record with 607 points. Florida State's streak of 11 consecutive games scoring 40 points or more ties Texas' 2005 single-season FBS record.
The odd part is that FSU doesn't rank in the top 10 in the nation in passing or rushing offense. But combined, FSU averaged 532.5 yards per game, or roughly 7.88 yards per play. Where FSU does the most damage is in big/explosive plays.
The Noles have 34 plays of 30 yards or more; 18 plays of 40 yards or more; and 9 plays of 50 yards or more in 2013. On the flip side, the Seminoles' defense has allowed just 15 plays or 30 yards or more and 5 plays of 40 yards or more this season.
And when FSU gets an opponent into a third down, the defense excels; allowing a third-down conversion on just 30.5 percent of all attempts this season.
The Florida defense, which is still rated as one of the better defenses in the Southeastern Conference, allowed 26 points in the loss to Georgia Southern last Saturday. The worst stat from the humiliating loss was the Eagles didn't complete a single pass in the game, yet still knocked off the Gators in Gainesville.
But, even though the game appears to be in the bag for the Noles; FSU players are not taking the Gators lightly on Saturday.
"Just because they lost to another team doesn't mean they're not going to come to play hard against us," Florida State running back Devonta Freeman said. "If we let up they might hit us in the mouth, but we ain't letting up. I know for a fact we ain't going to let up."
The pressure will actually all be on FSU which is playing for the school's first perfect regular season in more than a decade and a shot at the Bowl Championship Series national championship. Florida is simply playing for pride an hoping to close out the nightmare 2013 by derailing FSU's title hopes.
"At the end of the day they're still the University of Florida and they're going to come out and play us hard, probably harder than any other team that we play," Florida State nose guard Timmy Jernigan said. "Last year they were kind of up and down a lot throughout the season but they came here and they beat us so we definitely remember that."
FSU and Florida will kick-off on Saturday at noon on ESPN.
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