Florida State defeats Louisville 41-21

The Florida State Seminoles Football team defeated Louisville for the 14th time in 16 games by a final score of 41-21.

After a hot start against Miami last week, Florida State took a turn in the opposite direction against Louisville. The quarter began with an out of bounds kick off by Roberto Aguayo and ended with the Noles trailing 7-3 for the second time this season. After explosive showings in the first quarter of the past two games by Dalvin Cook, he was held to two rushes for six yards in 16 total plays.

Somehow, the Noles did not improve their offensive abilities in the second quarter, scoring three more points and only managing to gain 65 yards all quarter. Everett Golson headed into halftime 13-20 with 150 yards.

Nile Lawrence-Stample and Jacob Pugh had great first halves on the Florida State defense. NLS collected a sack, deflected pass, and a tackle for loss within four plays of each other while Pugh had two sacks and five tackles. The Florida State defense was the main reason that FSU was in the game at halftime, holding Louisville's Lamar Jackson to 10 rushing yards on 11 attempts. However, Louisville's defense was just as good, holding the Noles to zero rushing yards at halftime.

The Noles got the ball first in the second half and capitalized with Dalvin Cook having another incredible 54-yard rushing touchdown breaking five tackles along the way. After Louisville countered with a touchdown of their own, Everett Golson had a big play of his own, throwing a 70 yard touchdown pass to Kermit Whitfield to put the Noles back on top 20-14. Derwin James came up with a huge fumble when he made a sack, giving Florida State the ball at the UL 36 yard line which would result in a 14-yard Dalvin Cook touchdown run, putting him over the century mark for the fourth time this season. That would be the point where Florida State took over. They would force a turnover on the first play of Louisville's next drive as former walk-on Javien Elliot intercepted a pass. Everyone on the Seminoles defense was getting involved in one way or another.

Early in the fourth quarter, Everett Golson connected with Travis Rudolph on a 13-yard touchdown pass giving the Noles a 20 point lead. The teams traded meaningless touchdowns before the game clock hit all zeros. For the sixth consecutive game, Florida State did not have an offensive turnover.

Despite not getting the ball much at all in the first half, Dalvin Cook finished strong with 22 carries for 163 yards with two touchdowns. 372 of the 510 total yards of offense were by air from Everett Golson who went 25-37 with 372 yards and three touchdowns. Golson finally had a strong second half which was a major key to the Florida State victory. Kermit Whitfield led receivers with 9 receptions for 172 yards and a touchdown.

Defensively the high run threat quarterback Lamar Jackson turned was well contained, only allowing him to rush for 32 yards on 18 attempts. In the second half, Florida State would force two huge turnovers and held Louisville to 14 points in the last three quarters. Jacob Pugh led the way with seven tackles while DeMarcus Walker added a sack and pass break up.

Florida State will travel to Atlanta next week to take on Georgia Tech.