For a third straight year, Florida State trailed North Carolina State by double-digits and for the fourth straight year, it came away with a victory over the Wolfpack.
Quarterback Deondre Francois’ 19-yard touchdown pass to Travis Rudolph with just more than three minutes to play served as the game-winner Saturday night as FSU rallied past N.C. State 24-20 at Carter-Finley Stadium. With the win, the Seminoles are likely to land in a bowl game for a 35th straight season.
Francois finished with 330 yards passing for the Seminoles (6-3, 3-3 ACC) on a night where running back Dalvin Cook was held to just 65 yards rushing and a touchdown. It marked the first time in six games that Cook had been held to fewer than 100 yards on the ground. Nyqwan Murray was again Francois’ go-to receiver with nine catches for a game-high 153 yards receiving.
Prior to Francois’ touchdown pass to Rudolph, FSU never led. N.C. State drew first blood on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Finely to Bra’Lon Cherry in the first quarter on a 3rd-and-15. The Wolfpack (4-5, 1-4 ACC) had success on third down for most of the night, finishing 8-for-16. A missed field goal early and an interception by FSU cornerback Tarvarus McFadden — his nation-leading seventh of the year — thwarted a pair of first half scoring opportunities.
After the teams traded field goals, FSU found the end zone for the first time late in the first half on a 2-yard touchdown run by Jacques Patrick. Patrick’s run tied the game 10-10, but the Wolfpack were able to take a 13-10 halftime lead on a 39-yard field goal by Connor Haskins with six seconds remaining in the first half.
N.C. State extended its lead to 20-10 with a 23-yard touchdown run by Jaylen Samuels with 3:05 to play in the third quarter. The Seminoles answered with a 7-play, 70-yard drive capped with a 10-yard Cook touchdown run on the final play of the quarter.
That score remained until Francois found Rudolph to cap a 5-play, 83-yard drive. On the play prior, Francois fired an errant pass into the end zone, but N.C. State safety Shawn Boone dropped a sure interception and allowed the FSU drive to continue.
The Wolfpack reached FSU territory on the ensuing drive thanks to a 12-yard scramble by Finley that was aided by a Brian Burns targeting penalty and a pair of completions for first downs from Finley to Nyheim Hines. N.C. State got as far as the FSU 24-yard-line, but turned the ball over on downs after three incomplete pass sandwiched around an FSU tackle for loss on running back Matt Dayes.
Dayes finished the night with a game-high 104 yards rushing on 23 carries. Finley passed for 304 yards while Hines led N.C. State receivers with 11 grabs for 124 yards. The Wolfpack took the loss despite more yardage than FSU 469-393 and more first downs with 31 to the Seminoles’ 20.
For the FSU defense, DeMarcus Walker finished with a pair of sacks to move into the top 10 all-time at Florida State in that category. Walker was one of four players in the game to finish with 10 total tackles.
The Seminoles will return home to face Boston College on Friday night. N.C. State will head north to face Syracuse on Saturday.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
You must be logged in to post a comment Login