FSU Destroys Duke, BCS Title Game Bound

FSU won the ACC and reached the BCS Championship Game. (Credit Opertinicy)

Well, it was close for a quarter. After holding Jameis Winston and the high-powered Seminoles scoreless through one period of play, the Blue Devils defense cracked. Florida State scored 17 points in the 2nd quarter and 21 in the 3rd, posting a 38-0 lead heading into the 4th quarter. Only a garbage-time touchdown kept Duke from being shut out, and the #1-ranked Seminoles won the ACC Championship 45-7.

Winston didn’t have his greatest game of the season, to be fair, with 2 interceptions against his 3 touchdowns. The Heisman Trophy frontrunner finished the night with 330 yards passing and 59 rushing, adding a 4th TD on the ground. The Seminoles defense was the real story of the night, holding Duke to 140 yards passing with 2 picks, and just 3.2 yards per carry (and 99 yards total on the ground).

With the win, Florida State secured its place in the 2014 BCS Championship game. They head into the national championship game with the nation’s #2 scoring offense and #1 scoring defense, winning each of their 13 games by an average score of 53 to 10.7. Most impressive was the way Florida State performed against ranked opponents.

In their four games vs. opponents ranked at the time (Maryland, Clemson, Miami and Duke), Florida State outscored their opponents 200-35, for an average game score of 50 to 8.75. Only one team (Boston College) scored over 17 points against the Seminoles; 7 of FSU’s 13 opponents were held to 7 points or less. And only the Florida Gators held FSU’s offense to less than 41 points.

Florida State will now wait to see if they play Ohio State (who trails Michigan State 27-24 in the Big Ten title game as of this article) or Auburn in the BCS Championship.

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