Oh, so there is FSU running back Dalvin Cook. Finally, the nation can rediscover him.
Now, if the Seminoles can just locate their defense.
For the first time this season, Cook broke free Saturday afternoon, rambling for 267 yards — one more than he had against USF a year ago — and two touchdowns to lead FSU to a 55-35 victory over USF.
FSU has now surrendered 98 point in two games.
The Seminoles ran for 478 yards to remove any lingering frustrations from last week’s lopsided loss to Louisville.
“We didn’t play well,” said USF coach Willie Taggart. “We played sloppy in all phases. We didn’t play well fundamentally. We did a p— poor job fundamentally. It’s all on me. When you play sloppy against FSU, what you get is 55-35.”
The game started like a track meet. On the first play of the game, USF quarterback Quinton Flowers hit receiver Rodney Adams for an 84-yard touchdown. And on the second play, Cook broke loose for 75 yards. Twenty-nine seconds had elapsed.
USF took a 14-7 lead, but then FSU scored 38 straight points. It was enough to leave Taggart disappointed in his team’s defense.
“I’m very disappointed in our defense,” Taggart said. “When you give up a half a hundred. “I would have thought we would have played better. I would have thought we would have defended Cook better.”
Nose tackle Deadrin Senat said he would not have believed that USF would surrender 55: “Not with our defense. I thought it was going to be a great game. I thought we were going to win the game. They are an explosive team. Give them credit. We just did a poor, poor job of tackling.”
Besides Cook, Jacques Patrick rushed for 124 yards and quarterback Deondre Francis for 75. FSU gained 647 yards of total offense.
Flowers rushed for 159 yards for the Bulls, but despite his first completion going for 84 yards, he threw for only 160.
The Bulls scored three times in the final 18:22 of the game, which seemed to irk FSU coach Jimbo Fisher.
“We’ve got to learn to finish games and play 60 minutes,” FSU coach Fisher said. “That’s what we’re not doing, and we’re going to learn to do it.
“We’ve got to coach better, and we’ve got to play better.”
