Florida State comes from behind to defeat Notre Dame

In what was a tale of two halves for Notre Dame, was a great come-from-behind victory for the Florida State Seminoles. It was 14-0 at one point for the Irish, but they couldn’t hold on, as the Seminoles scored 18 unanswered points in the second half to win the game 18-14.

First Half-

As I predicted, it was a low scoring first half. Both defenses played great, but the Irish got lucky when Manti Te’o had a forced fumble that was picked up by Zeke Motta for a 29 yard touchdown. Florida State punted 6 out of 8 possessions in the first half and the other 2 possessions were the fumble return and a failed 4th down conversion.

For FSU’s defense, they were just as strong. Notre Dame punted 4 out of the 7 possessions and the other possessions were the interception thrown by Tommy Rees, a field goal missed, and a kneel-down for the end of the half. Each Notre Dame Possession didn’t surpass 10 yards of total offense.

Second Half-

For Notre Dame’s offense, it started out great. They drove the ball 62 yards and ended with a Michael Floyd 5 yard touchdown pass. At that time, it was 14-0. Florida State then had 4 straight offensive possessions where it ended in points. The first one was a field goal, the next one was a touchdown, followed by another touchdown, and lastly another field goal. Mix in a few missed 2-point conversions, and you have your 18-14 score.

Notre Dame’s defense received no help from their offense whatsoever. Quarterbacks Tommy Rees and Andrew Hendrix each showed no signs of improvement, as they each had a costly interceptions (2 by Rees and 1 by Hendrix) that either saved the Seminoles from giving up two touchdowns or put them in prime position to get points.

Turnovers, the story of the 2011 Notre Dame Football season.