FSU-Miami produce another sloppy, low-scoring affair

	Defenses dominated all night and skill players such as Miami's Lance Leggett had nowhere to run. Bob Rosato/SI
	RELATED • Field goal lifts Florida State past Miami
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MIAMI -- Ah, the Orange Bowl: Decrepit, decaying, yet so full of memories. Then-sophomore Ken Dorsey leading a last-minute drive to knock off defending national champion Florida State in 2000. Willis McGahee steamrolling Virginia Tech for six TDs to clinch the Fiesta Bowl berth in 2002. Brock Berlin rallying the 'Canes back from a 26-point deficit against Florida in 2003.

Monday night brought yet another back-and-forth nail-biter between bitter rivals. This one was an epic struggle of fumbled snaps and illegal substitution penalties, tailbacks running into the line and quarterbacks running for their lives. Just when one team, Florida State, would go nearly two full quarters without gaining a first down, the other, Miami, would one-up them, gaining 17 yards the entire second half.

In the end, the Seminoles pulled out a dramatic 13-10 victory when safety Michael Ray Garvin intercepted a tipped Kyle Wright pass with 29 seconds left -- but only after FSU, having abandoned any realistic hope of gaining positive rushing yardage, became possibly the first team in football history to attempt to milk a lead by aimlessly chucking the ball downfield, then stood idly by while Miami botched a snap and dropped a wide-open third-down pass completion on its penultimate possession, then failed to gain the one first down it needed to run the clock out.

Remind me again why we still care about this rivalry?

Mercifully, the ACC is moving this annual glamour matchup away from Labor Day starting next season, though watching the game certainly qualifies as laborious. Congrats are in order to Bobby Bowden's team, which earned a hard-fought win despite failing to crack 14 points against the Hurricanes for a fifth straight time and gaining a grand total of one rushing yard.

In fact, the 'Noles were quite fortunate to win considering that Miami doubled FSU's rushing output. Yep, the 'Canes gained two yards.

Did I really just write that sentence?

"We didn't look very good at all tonight," conceded FSU tailback Lorenzo Booker, who finished with minus-three rushing yards but did bust a 35-yard screen pass to set up the game-tying touchdown -- which is the Miami-FSU equivalent of an 80-yard bomb. "We have to go back and fix our mistakes. But I'll be much happier to fix those mistakes coming off a win."

And that, my friends, was the lone difference between the 'Noles and the 'Canes after Monday night's contest -- one of the two gets to call itself a winner. Neither, however, has the "inside track to the national championship game" as was envisioned when this matchup first moved to opening weekend. The Chick-fil-A Bowl, on the other hand, was smart to send a scout to the game.

Undoubtedly, FSU and Miami fans will balk at this assessment. They -- just like the coaches and players afterward -- will invariably offer one of three standard explanations for the rugged play that has become so synonymous with this series.

1. It's the first game of the season. The teams are bound to be sloppy.

USC didn't seem to have that problem. Nor did Ohio State. Nor did Tennessee. Nor did ...

2. The teams have phenomenal defenses. You can't expect the offenses to look sharp.

No argument with the first part. Florida State linebacker Buster Davis (12 tackles, two sacks) just shot to the top of the Bednarik list with that performance. But a lot of other teams have terrific defenses too, including several -- Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Florida -- on these two teams' schedules. Think the 'Noles and the 'Canes are going to suddenly explode for 400 yards against those guys?