Seminole defensive end Brian Burns on rebounding from loss to Miami

It’s funny how the final numbers on the scoreboard can change everything. If Florida State had managed to hold on, blowing a 20 point lead wouldn’t be the sole focus of the questions the players received post-game. It would be about how FSU gutted it out, or was resilient.

But they did blow it. And Brian Burns, the junior defensive end out of Ft. Lauderdale, fielded his share of questions about it. Not that he necessarily deserved to - Burns played well all night, and forced a fumble of Miami Hurricane quarterback N’Kosi Perry in the first half as FSU built a 27-7 lead.

The rest of the defense was also solid in the first half, and they executed well. That’s not a surprise. What was a surprise was the offense also executed well in the first half. But they couldn’t hold it together for the whole game. The wheels came off of the offense in the second half, and the defense was repeatedly put in poor situations with awful field position inside their own 20-yard line. They gave up touchdowns both times.

What’s interesting is it still feels like FSU was resilient. Especially this defense. They overcame a tremendous amount of adversity and went toe-to-toe with a better team, a rival no less, but wasn’t quite able to get the final score to go their way. That shouldn’t take away from what was a very good performance against Miami’s offense, or the effort they put forth during that performance.

Burns had a mature answers when asked about how the team can move on from this disappointing loss: