CVILLE RIGHT NOW<\/a>) \u2013 Virginia went to Tallahassee and turned in a performance disturbingly similar to its flop against West Virginia in Charlotte. The Cavaliers\u2019 defense had no answer for Florida State\u2019s quarterback and running back rushing assault.\u00a0<\/p>\nUVA\u2019s offense could not protect quarterback Beau Pribula or create space for its own running game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What went wrong?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s everything,\u201d Pribula said. \u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s everybody. Everybody has a hand in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Seminoles seemed to physically dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball on their way to a convincing 38-7 home win over Virginia.<\/p>\n
FSU quarterback Ashton Daniels ran for five touchdowns and 136 yards, running back Ousmane Kromah added 80 rushing yards, and the Seminoles sacked Pribula 10 times.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Virginia (3-2, 1-1 ACC) averaged less than a yard per rush attempt and Pribula went 14 for 32 for 168 yards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UVA started the game well, holding FSU to punts on its first three possessions. The Cavaliers took a 7-0 lead when Pribula connected with wide receiver Da\u2019Shawn Martin for a 13-yard touchdown with 6:04 left in the first quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But FSU (3-2, 1-1) outscored Virginia 17-0 in the second quarter, with Daniels running for the first two of his five scores. That started a string of 38 unanswered points for the Seminoles.<\/p>\n
UVA had no answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a great team,\u201d defensive end Fisher Camac said. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t play our best game today. Offense, defense, special teams. We just didn\u2019t play our best game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against WVU, on Sept. 19 in Charlotte, N.C., the Cavaliers suffered a 38-27 loss \u2013 in large part \u2013 because they could not contain Mountaineers quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. or running back Cam Cook. That duo combined for 246 rushing yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Saturday, it was more of the same against Daniels \u2013 a Stanford transfer \u2013 and Kromah. FSU\u2019s line opened holes and Virginia\u2019s defenders missed tackles.<\/p>\n
Daniels scored on runs of four and three yards in the second quarter, six and 81 yards in the third and from 1-yard out in the fourth.<\/p>\n
His fourth touchdown was an 81-yard burst through the middle of UVA\u2019s defense that put the Seminoles up 31-7 with 3:16 left in the third quarter, a big play where the Cavaliers\u2019 misfit their run defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But three of his shorter scoring runs came as the culmination of eight-play scoring drives, including a 98-yard march that produced FSU\u2019s first touchdown of the day. The Cavaliers have allowed nine rushing touchdowns this season. Eight of those have been scored by opposing quarterbacks.<\/p>\n
Virginia punted on five of its six first half possessions, then punted twice more and failed on fourth down four more times after the break.<\/p>\n
Florida State out-gained UVA 464-205.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers\u2019 offense couldn\u2019t stay on the field and Virginia\u2019s defense could not get off it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s got ownership in it, starting with me,\u201d coach Tony Elliott said after his program\u2019s most lopsided defeat since a 55-17 thrashing by Virginia Tech in 2023. \u201cI have to do a better job of making sure they\u2019re prepared and ready to play, make sure they fully understand the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the loss, Elliott expressed his confidence in his team\u2019s leadership and its ability to bounce back. Virginia hosts Syracuse on Saturday at Scott Stadium.<\/p>\n
Elliott said it would be up to himself and the coaching staff to use Sunday to dissect what went wrong and break that down for the players when they return to practice Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll be looking for answers,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because Saturday in Tallahassee raised a lot of questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cavaliers were, once again, doomed by their inability to defend a mobile quarterback. FSU’s Ashton Daniels ran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-418533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}