TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - It's now probably safe for the Iron Dukes to cancel that charter to the Fiesta Bowl.
It is also probably safe to shrug off Florida State's loss last week as a fluke and not the end of a college football dynasty, as the 11th-ranked Seminoles (2-1, 1-1 in the ACC) bounced back with a vengeance, trouncing the Blue Devils, 62-13, at Doak S. Campbell Stadium Saturday night. With the loss, Duke (2-1, 0-1) set an ACC record with its 19th-consecutive conference loss.
After 23 minutes of shockingly competitive football, the Seminoles and tainted spaghetti took over. Florida State used its incredible quickness to blow past the Blue Devils, who were slower than usual as a result of food poisoning obtained at a team meal.
"We were beaten by a better football team tonight, there's no question about that," Duke coach Fred Goldsmith said. "Florida State, you've got to give them credit. They blocked, they threw, they caught, they played hard defense. The speed of the game was an awful lot."
More impressive than their speed on the field was the mind-boggling speed at which the Seminoles scored. Their seven touchdown drives took an average length of 1:26. All total, Florida State had six plays from scrimmage go for more than 30 yards and averaged 20 yards per completion. The Seminoles managed 427 yards compared to Duke's 165.
"It was a reverse of last week," Goldsmith said, referring to his team's 44-10 win over Northwestern. "We were just soundly defeated, badly."
Although Duke led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, FSU ended a streak of four consecutive scoreless quarters, its first such streak since 1988, and busted the game wide open with 52 points in the second and third quarters.
Sims Lenhardt's career-long 51-yard field goal midway through the second quarter tied the game at 10, but on the ensuing kickoff, the Seminoles turned the game completely around.
Florida State blockers formed a perfect wedge and Laveranues Coles sprinted down the field for a 97-yard touchdown return. Coles went the distance untouched and the only man he needed to juke was Lenhardt, a task that proved to be pretty easy.
"Duke really caught us at a bad time," FSU coach Bobby Bowden said. "You never know how you're going to respond, but we responded the way I wanted.... We struggled early. I thought Coles' touchdown, though, was the turning point of the game."
The very next play, Richmond Flowers took the kickoff headed toward Scottie Montgomery-who was also set up deep for the return-proceeded to run up the field 12 yards, stop, then cut right. As Flowers ran right, Todd Frier hit him and forced a fumble which the Seminoles picked up on the Duke 16 yard line.
Three plays later, quarterback Chris Weinke threw a screen pass to Travis Minor, who ran 17 yards into the endzone, making the score 24-10. Duke linebacker Ryan Stallmeyer had a chance to bring down Minor before the first down marker, but he missed the tackle. As he watched Minor waltz into the endzone, Stallmeyer pounded his fists into the ground. The emotional outburst was symbolic of an opportunity that slipped away, not just on that play, but for the whole game.
"I thought we had the best chance to beat them that we've had since I've been here," Goldsmith said. "I thought we were competing quite well. And then it all caved in."
The score remained 24-10 at halftime, but FSU opened the second half with four touchdowns on all four third-quarter possessions. All in all, after Lenhardt's game-tying field goal, the Seminoles scored 42 unanswered points.
That alone would make any Blue Devil sick to his stomach, but apparently the spaghetti sauce eaten during the team's pregame meal had similar affects. About a dozen players and several coaches, including Goldsmith, came down with food poisoning. The meal was eaten at 3:15 that afternoon, and it wasn't until right before opening kickoff that Duke realized there was a problem.
The starting defensive front missed all of the second quarter and most of the third because of the poisoning. Goldsmith was so weak he needed to take a knee, something he rarely does, for most of the second half. Eric Scanlon, Chris Combs and Brian McCormack had to be treated with IV fluids during the second quarter.
"We were just flat spent," Goldsmith, noticeably ill, said at his post-game press conference. "The kids fought their guts out. We had a bunch come down with food poisoning-players and coaches. There were some-I don't even know how they went, but they gutted it out. They kept going in and out, and it just killed us."
After the first quarter, the weakened defensive line was unable to put any pressure on Weinke and struggled to stop the run while matched up against FSU's quicker and larger offensive line.
Weinke, who threw a record six interceptions last week, was no golden boy, finishing 11-of-19 for 241 yards and three touchdowns, but had the time to wait for his speedy receivers to get open-which they often did as the defensive backfield suffered through its worst outing of the year.
Duke's Spencer Romine, on the other hand, was constantly pressured. He was sacked twice in his two-and-a-half quarters of play and finished 4-of-13 with two interceptions and just 41 yards.
Romine's first interception came three minutes into the second quarter on a pass intended for Letavious Wilks. Under pressure, Romine threw a floater to the left that was picked off by rover Sean Key. On the very next play, Weinke found Peter Warrick deep in the endzone streaking past cornerback Lamar Grant. That made the score 10-7 and was Florida State's first lead of the game.
Duke took the early advantage when Darius Clark blocked a Keith Cottrell punt and the Blue Devils recovered it on FSU's seven yard line. On third and goal, Wilks scored a touchdown up the middle, giving Duke the early edge.
Note: The game's attendance was 80,032, the seventh-largest crowd in the stadium's history. It was Florida State's first home game of the season.
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