Florida State-Clemson final score: 3 things we learned from the Seminoles’ overtime victory

The ACC’s two strongest programs squared off in Tallahassee for a thriller Saturday night. No. 1 Florida State emerged with the overtime victory over No. 22 Clemson, 23-17.

On their second drive of the game, Clemson made it to Florida State’s six-yard-line but were unable to convert on the 23-yard field goal attempt. Florida State followed up with Roberto Aguayo’s 50-yard field goal, taking the 3-0 lead.

Cole Stoudt ran Clemson’s first three drives with limited success, but true freshman Deshaun Watson took over with very encouraging results. Watson’s first drive went 75 yards in 10 plays, ending in Ammon Lakip’s game-tying 30-yard field goal. Two drives later, Watson completed two big passing plays (including one on third down), leading to D.J. Howard’s one-yard touchdown run.

Sean Maguire struggled to deal with Clemson’s defensive pressure in the first half, but led Florida State on a touchdown drive to open up the third quarter. He completed six of seven pass attempts on the drive, culminating in Mario Pender’s one-yard touchdown run to tie it up.

Early in the fourth quarter, Watson connected with Mike Williams for an unbelievable 39-yard catch. Watson’s two-yard touchdown on the very next play gave the Tigers the 17-10 lead. Later in the quarter, Clemson sacked Maguire to bring up second-and-24. On the next play, he found a wide-open Rashad Greene for the game-tying 74-yard score.

With just over two minutes to play, Maguire was picked off by Jadar Johnson over the middle, giving Clemson the ball at the Seminoles’ 26-yard line. Two plays later, C.J. Davidson fumbled the ball away in the Florida State red zone, allowing Maguire to kneel regulation away.

Clemson was stuffed on fourth-and-short on the first possession of overtime. Karlos Williams ran twice for the necessary 25 yards, scoring from 12 yards out for the game-winner.

1. Jameis Winston is quite important to Florida State! Sure, throwing in a young quarterback against a hungry Clemson defense hellbent on revenge for his collegiate first start probably wasn’t going to yield positive results, but the Seminole offense looked fairly listless without their Heisman-winning quarterback. It wasn’t just Maguire: with Winston out, Clemson felt more comfortable blitzing more players, and Florida State’s offensive line struggled to cope with the added pressure.

2. Florida State still controls their destiny, but their stock fell. Clemson is a good football team, but their opening week blowout loss to Georgia is still fresh in the minds of many voters. It remains to be seen if anyone can hang with the Seminoles like this with Winston, but Florida State looked beatable Saturday.

3. That Clemson quarterback controversy? It may be over. Cole Stoudt has started each of the Tigers’ three games, but Deshaun Watson took over fairly quickly in this one and did not look back. The true freshman firmly outplayed his competition, leading the Tigers to multiple touchdown drives in the air and on the ground. Watson finished the game 19-of-28 for 266 yards (Stoudt was 3-for-5 for 40) and also ran for 30 yards and a score.