As collapses go, it was more of a steady erosion than a violent landslide.
With just over four minutes remaining in the second quarter Saturday, the Florida State Seminoles pushed their lead over Boise State back to 18 points with a 58-yard touchdown strike from James Blackman to Keyshawn Helton.
The score was 31-13 at the time, and the Seminoles appeared ready to pull away for a season-opening rout of the Broncos. They were rolling on offense, racking up more than 300 yards and averaging more than 10 yards per play. And while the defense wasn't exactly stout, it had made enough big, early plays -- sacks and turnovers -- to help the offense build a sizable lead.
For a moment, late in the second quarter, it appeared the Seminoles might actually have delivered a knockout blow with a scoop-and-score to make it 38-13. Instant replay later determined the play was a forward pass instead of a lateral, and Boise got new life.
From that play on, almost nothing went right for Florida State, and its big early advantage soon devolved into a 36-31 defeat.
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"I do feel like we got comfortable," said sophomore receiver Keyshawn Helton, who scored one of the Seminoles' four first-half touchdowns. "We got off to a big lead. We were executing a lot of plays in the first half. Everything Coach called, we were executing. I do think we got comfortable. But that's what we can't do in the future. We know we did that; we're not gonna do it anymore."
Here's a closer look at what went wrong for the Seminoles over the final two-plus quarters:
Offensive rhythm disappears
After Boise State kicked a field goal to slice FSU's lead to 31-16 late in the second quarter, the Broncos received a boost when the Seminoles went backward -- quickly -- on their next drive.
FSU threw back-to-back screen passes for a combined zero yards, then gave up a sack on third-and-10. Less than a minute of game time later, the Broncos had the ball back and were able to drive in for another field goal before halftime.
That made the halftime score 31-19, which was much more manageable than things had looked just a few minutes earlier. And the second half was a continuation of that trend.
Florida State had eight offensive possessions in the second half and delivered just three first downs. The Seminoles scored zero points in those final two quarters and held the ball for slightly more than 10 minutes of game clock.
Five of those eight drives lasted 75 seconds or less; three lasted less than a minute.
Here is a look at those second-half drives:
