Florida State Seminoles @ Virginia Cavaliers Football Recap

Florida State entered Saturday's game at Virginia with trepidation. The Cavaliers had posted an impressive performance against the top-15 Southern California Trojans in their only loss of the season. Also, the Seminoles didn't want to overlook a seemingly easy win in preparation for the FSU-Miami rivalry game the next weekend. Yet, while last year's games were overlooked, FSU coach Jimbo Fisher showed that each game this season will receive individual attention as the Noles routed the Cavaliers 34–14.

Both teams started slowly with the first score of the game coming off a Dustin Hopkins 37-yard field goal with 8:40 left in the first quarter, putting the Seminoles up 3-0. After the Cavs went three-and-out on their next possession, FSU running back Jermaine Thomas broke open the game for the Noles when he took a handoff from FSU quarterback Christian Ponder 70 yards for a touchdown, putting the Noles up 10-0. 

The story of the day for the Noles was their strong defense. In the first quarter, FSU held Virginia to three straight three-and-outs. In fact, the Cavaliers didn't complete a first down until less than 10 minutes were left in the second quarter (and that was on an FSU penalty). Meanwhile, the Noles scored two more touchdowns and another field goal to take a 27-0 lead at halftime. 

The Cavaliers came out strong in the second half, completing a 76-yard pass for a touchdown on their first possession. Yet despite the Hoos' early push to regain control of the game, the Noles' defense was too strong. Already posting a nation-leading number of sacks created, the Noles recorded six more sacks and two interceptions against the Cavaliers. They held UVA to just 3-of-13 third-down conversion and 17 total first downs on the day. A strong point this season, the Seminole rush defense gave up only 25 total rushing yards, an average of 1 yard per carry. 

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