In front of ESPN cameras and the largest crowd to attend a sporting event in the state of Virginia (61,383), the Virginia defense played bend-but-don't-break football for three quarters before being crushed by its own offense and the Florida State defense as Virginia (3-4, 2-3 ACC) lost, 43-7.
The Virginia defense made several big plays in the first half, but the Cavaliers' offense could not capitalize on their opportunistic style. After causing a Nick Maddox fumble on the Seminoles' opening drive, the Cavaliers went three-and-out and punted the ball away.
Florida State (4-2, 3-1) missed a field goal on its next drive, but once again, Virginia could not gain any momentum and promptly punted the ball back to Florida State after three plays.
"We could have played a lot better offensively," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "We had some plays to make, and we left some plays on the field. We hung in there on defense, but I don't think we played particularly well on offense at anytime."
The Cavaliers' defense continued to play well in the first half and intercepted two passes from the Seminoles' freshman quarterback Chris Rix in the second quarter. But Virginia still could not capitalize and went three-and-out after both pickoffs.
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Virginia's offense continued to sputter the entire game. The Cavaliers mustered only 34 yards rushing on 19 carries and managed to convert only 12 first downs. Virginia's inefficiency forced the Cavalier defense to spend far too much time on the field to continue to be effective.
With nearly a two-to-one advantage in time of possession - 38:21 versus 21:39 - the Seminole offense continued to punish the Cavalier defense with a relentless ground game. Florida State ran the ball an astounding 58 times to rack up 303 rushing yards. An enormous offensive line that averages over 300 pounds opened up cavernous gaps for talented running backs Greg Jones (107 rushing yards), Eric Shelton (95 rushing yards) and Nick Maddox (76 rushing yards).
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"They certainly look like an NFL team on the field at all positions," Groh said. "It was pretty apparent from the outset that the core of their plan was to take the big people and try to overrun the little people. Pretty good idea."
Although the Cavaliers kept the game close at halftime, 10-7, the Florida State offense continued to wear down the Cavalier defenders in the second half while the Seminole defense continued to stymie Virginia's offense.
After an interception that led to a Florida State touchdown drive earlier in the third quarter, Virginia sophomore quarterback Matt Schaub threw another interception that was returned 80 yards by Seminole safety Abdual Howard for a touchdown to put the game out of reach, 26-7.
"We hammered it across to our defense all week," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. "We needed to do something in the third quarter, and they did that and did a pretty good job. The interception wrapped it up for us"
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