Florida State Blocked An Extra Point After A Last Second LSU Touchdown To Beat The Tigers By One

For a game that featured a 7-3 score at halftime, Florida State-LSU managed to fire off some high-grade fireworks in the fourth quarter.

The Seminoles took full control in the third quarter, jumping out to a 17-3 advantage before LSU started to find a little offensive success of their own by going tempo. Still, Florida State answered LSU’s first TD of the game with one of their own to go back up 24-10 early in the fourth, and LSU couldn’t cut into the lead until there were just over four minutes left in the game.

The Tigers would finally get a second half stop on defense, forcing a punt with just under three minutes to play, but for the second time on the night, they muffed the punt, giving Florida State the ball inside the 10.

The Seminoles seemed caught between wanting to score and wanting to burn clock, so after LSU somewhat bizarrely chose not to call timeout after a first down run, they did after stopping the ‘Noles on the one on second down. From there, Florida State decided to call a toss play that they fumbled, with LSU recovering on their own one yard line, still down just seven.

The Tigers would march 96 yards to the Florida State 3-yard line in the next 1:18, with their final play being delayed by a lengthy review over whether their receiver’s knee hit in bounds before he went out (it did), but because it was a first down they still were able to run a play on the whistle. However, Florida State decided to call a timeout after seeing LSU’s alignment and let them go to whatever they wanted in the playbook, and the result was a Tigers touchdown as time expired. All that was left was an extra point to force overtime, when for the second time in the game, Florida State caved in the LSU line and blocked the kick to preserve the win.

It was truly one of the most absurd endings to a game you will ever see, from the second muffed punt of the game to the fumble to the 99-yard drive to a second blocked kick in a game to end it. Aside from getting blown out, you’d be hard pressed to draw up a worse debut for Brian Kelly at LSU, as special teams execution is typically attributed to coaching first. For Mike Norvell and FSU, it’s a huge win and they’ll feel pretty good about their offense, particularly quarterback Jordan Travis, while acknowledging that their late game defense leaves something to be desired.