PASADENA, Calif. -- The turnovers started mounting, and Florida State looked like a team uncharacteristically out of control.
For so long, we had grown accustomed to the Seminoles showing poise and precision in the second half, shrugging their shoulders at any deficit that came their way. But against Oregon in the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual on Thursday, Florida State had a litany of errors that ultimately became its undoing.
Five turnovers -- including four in the game-changing third quarter.
A sideline spat between Jameis Winston and coach Jimbo Fisher after a critical fourth-down fumble, in which Fisher could be seen telling his quarterback to calm down or head to the bench.
And an ugly ending beyond the 59-20 score, when many Florida State players walked off the field without the customary postgame handshake.
Florida State, so resilient in close victories, lost its will to fight. There was no protocol for anyone to follow, not after 29 straight wins. Not after the Seminoles had been able to overcome their mistakes so many times in 2014. The new year and high-powered Ducks presented new problems Florida State simply could not handle.
“It hurts badder than whatever you can imagine,” said Winston, the first time in his collegiate career he had to answer questions about losing. “No one likes to lose, man. Losing is really not in my vocabulary, but we fell short.”
The game started slipping away on the first drive of the third quarter, when Dalvin Cook fumbled on a promising drive with the Seminoles down 18-13.
Oregon turned that mistake into a touchdown.
Cook fumbled again later in the quarter.
Oregon turned that mistake into a touchdown. All of a sudden, the Ducks had a 19-point lead late in the third quarter. Even with its reputation as a second-half team, Florida State never had to overcome a deficit that large with so little time left on the clock.
On its ensuing drive, Winston fumbled trying to make a play on fourth down, scrambling in the pocket before running backward and falling, the ball coming out of his hand. Quarterback and coach had an animated discussion on the sideline that Fisher explained away, saying Winston always gets animated.
There was reason to after that particular play. Oregon turned that mistake into a touchdown.
So the third quarter ended in this way: Four Florida State turnovers, and Oregon outscoring the Seminoles 27-7, running roughshod over a defense that forgot how to tackle and looked as if it wanted to scream, "No mas!"
“When turnovers come, they change momentum,” Fisher said. "Once it got up to 45, we really started pressing and didn't let the ball stay in our hands."
Especially for a player like Cook, so spectacular for large stretches of the game. He showed his dazzling burst and ability to truck through defenders on one play after another, averaging more than 7 yards per carry in the first half.
With Oregon blanketing top pass catchers Rashad Greene and Nick O'Leary, the Seminoles turned to Cook for a little help. But his two fumbles ended up being disastrous. Simply put, there was no way Florida State could win with five turnovers and nothing from Greene and O'Leary. Then there is this: The Seminoles tied a school record for points allowed.
“It got away from us. It started with me,” Cook said. “I made some mistakes and I put our defense in a bad situation. Those are mistakes I can’t make. I can’t blame it on anything but myself. It’s on me. I made the mistakes.”
He was not the only one. In attempting to explain the defeat, Winston pointed squarely at all the collective mistakes.
“If everybody in this room just want to be real with themselves, this game could have went either way,” Winston said. “We just turned the ball over a lot. We beat ourselves.”
Winston participated in the postgame handshake, but many of his teammates started edging toward the locker room before the clock hit zero. Fisher said he was unaware of what happened, but it was not a good look for the Seminoles, who appeared ungracious in defeat.
The postgame locker room was quiet. Karlos Williams exited with red eyes and politely declined to answer questions. Greene, so clutch for so long, had six catches for 59 yards -- a non-factor even with top Oregon cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu out with a knee injury. O’Leary, who tweaked his hamstring during pregame warmups, had one catch for 4 yards.
They were left to explain what seemed inexplicable -- the undefeated Seminoles playing their worst game with the most on the line.
“Everybody is upset,” O’Leary said. “It’s my last game and a lot of us are seniors. It’s not a good way to go out.”
