Florida State continues to live on the edge with 20-17 win against Boston College
At what point do we call Florida State seems to have a flair for the dramatic because it's gotten into the habits of making things far more interesting than they should be against weaker opponents.
And Saturday’s 20-17 win against Boston College was yet another example.
Florida State and Boston College were tied late in the fourth quarter when the Eagles put together a stellar drive that put them in field goal range. However, Joey Launceford missed the 43-yarder that would have given Boston College the lead with 4:37 remaining.
Florida State got the ball back, went down the field and the ever-steady Roberto Aguayo knocked in a 26-yard field goal as time expired.
If it feels like you’ve seen this scenario involving Florida State before, well, you have; maybe with a different play and a different margin, but always with the same outcome — a Florida State win.
The Boston College win marked the sixth time the Seminoles either had to rally from a deficit or a tie to seal a victory. And most of those rallies have come in the second half.
Florida State trailed by a touchdown at halftime against Clemson; it trailed 31-21 in the third quarter against N.C. State; it trailed 27-24 in the fourth quarter against Notre Dame; it trailed 24-7 in the third quarter against Louisville; it trailed 23-17 heading into the fourth quarter against Miami.
And Florida State players, coaches and its fans call all of these come-from-behind wins gritty and gutty, but a better term might be lazy or even bored. There’s no doubt Florida State was better than the teams it’s played; if it wasn’t it wouldn’t have won the games. At no point this season has there been any serious thought that a team that had the lead on Florida State was actually going to pull it out simply because of the talent discrepancy between the Seminoles and everyone else.
That’s not a knock on those teams, it’s just fact.
Florida State ran through its schedule last season and the only time it really felt a bit of drama (yeah, we’re not counting last year’s BC game for reasons stated above) was in the national title game against Auburn.
In that game, Auburn actually took a 21-3 lead in the second quarter and led 31-27 with 1:19 remaining. The Seminoles scored a touchdown with 13 seconds remaining and they’ve been living on the edge ever since.
You can liken this year’s Seminoles to a bored cat playing with a mouse. The cat’s eventually going to eat the mouse, there’s no doubt about that, but why not have a little fun with it before the meal?
The bottom line is these aren’t good wins. These aren’t the wins of a No. 3-ranked team. The nation’s No. 3 team should be drubbing (now) 6-5 Boston College. It should be playing backups in the fourth quarter against N.C. State.
The old adage that any win is a good win doesn’t apply to the reigning national champion with the nation’s longest winning streak. No, that team is held to a higher standard and when it continues to fail to live up to that standard, it shouldn’t be rewarded for it.
And the College Football Playoff committee sees that. The committee keeps telling Florida State it won’t be rewarded for these close wins by continually promoting teams ahead of it in the national rankings.
Florida State has been flirting with disaster all season, and eventually, the Seminoles are going to run into a mouse that gets away.
For more Florida State news, visit Warchant.com.
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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday
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