Florida State seals comeback win over Miami with blocked extra point
There aren’t many sure things in college football. And until Saturday night, extra points from Miami kicker Michael Badgley seemed like a sure thing.
Until they weren’t.
The 10th-ranked Hurricanes scored what looked like the game-tying touchdown on a beautiful toss from Brad Kaaya to Stacy Coley with 1:38 to go, until Badgley’s extra point was blocked by Florida State’s DeMarcus Walker.
Before the extra point, Badgley had connected on 72 consecutive PATs. Instead, Walker pushed his way through the line and got his left hand on the ball, allowing the No. 23 Seminoles to hold on and win, 20-19.
It took a second-half comeback for the Seminoles to extend their winning streak over Miami to seven and knock the Hurricanes from the ranks of the unbeaten.
Miami — its defense especially — controlled things early with FSU’s only first-half points coming on a 31-yard Ricky Aguayo field goal with six seconds left in the second quarter. Before Aguayo got FSU on the board, Miami stormed out to a 13-0 lead thanks to two Badgley field goals, one from 37 and another from 51 yards, and a gorgeous 21-yard touchdown pass from Kaaya to Coley.
But the second half swung in the Seminoles’ favor.
Miami’s first second-half drive ended with a Kaaya interception in the end zone. Florida State quickly capitalized off the turnover, marching 80 yards in six plays to cut the lead to 13-10 on a 59-yard wheel route touchdown pass from Deondre Francois to Dalvin Cook, who also had 150 rushing yards.
With momentum on its side, FSU forced a three-and-out on Miami’s next drive before taking its first lead. This time the Noles went 60 yards on seven plays with Francois, who played through a shoulder injury that briefly knocked him out in the first half, finishing off the drive with a 20-yard touchdown toss to Kermit Whitfield.
That score gave the Seminoles a 17-13 lead, which grew to 20-13 with another Aguayo field goal on their next drive.
But Miami was still in striking distance and finally got a stop with just over three minutes to play. The Hurricanes quickly moved deep into FSU territory thanks to an explosive punt return from Braxton Berrios. Berrios almost took it the distance, but was tripped up at the 16 by punter Logan Tyler.
Four plays later, on fourth-and-5 from the FSU 11, Kaaya found Coley for a touchdown on a beautiful pitch-and-catch with 1:38 to go.
From there it looked like things could be headed to overtime, but Walker’s great individual effort on the blocked PAT changed things, keeping FSU’s lead at 20-19.
Instead of going for an onside kick, Miami kicked deep. The move didn’t pay off when Florida State picked up first downs on two of the first three plays of the ensuing drive, including one on a nice designed run by Francois.
With Miami out of timeouts, Florida State took a knee and sealed a dramatic win.
The win is a big one for the Seminoles (4-2, 1-2 ACC), who were coming off a last-second loss to North Carolina and got blown out 63-20 in their ACC opener at Louisville last month. Above all, it’s a morale booster after those two losses and it keeps the winning streak over the rival Hurricanes alive. FSU is still looking up at a number of teams in the ACC Atlantic.
Miami was 4-0 entering this game, but hadn’t beaten any team of note. A victory over the Seminoles would have given the Hurricanes a big win, not only in the state of Florida, but in the College Football Playoff picture. The ACC Coastal picture is crowded, and Miami’s divisional fate will likely be decided over its next two games: versus North Carolina and at Virginia Tech.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
