Maybe he was still dizzy from that Curly Howard-esque 360-scramble-and-fumble in the third quarter, or because his Comeback Kids team was outscored 41-7 in the second half, or he was just numbed by the fact he finally lost a game for the first time since taking a snap at Florida State.
But Jameis Winston was having difficulty processing the reality of what happened Thursday night.
“It was never over,” he said, long after it was over. “Turned the ball over too many times. But it still ain’t over, yet. We can go out and play again, honest.”
Actually, it is over, Jameis. And Oregon has plans for its next game.
The first College Football Playoff opened with a semifinal between Oregon and Florida State in the Rose Bowl. It didn’t disappoint in at least two respects: 1) The Ducks punched a team with a 29-game winning streak in the mouth and looked like a favorite to bring a national title to an unfamiliar corner of the United States; 2) The defending champion Seminoles melted into some indecipherable mess, seemingly suffering from the mother of all market corrections after a string of comebacks during the season.
“That was fun,” Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said.
His perspective, of course.
Oregon dismembered Florida State 59-20. It helped that Florida State committed five turnovers — four in a cartoon-like third quarter — and botched too many touchdown chances in the first half, back when it was still a game.
But it might not have mattered. Oregon was the better team and is the better team. It doesn’t matter that it lost a game to Arizona in October and Florida State hadn’t lost since November 2012 to Florida — so long ago that the Gators were, like, good (11-1). So the sentence, “Will Muschamp was the last coach to beat Florida State,” no longer exists.
It was a remarkable run by the Seminoles, even if they lost a number of fans outside of Tallahassee along the way because of off-the-field issues. But they became unraveled in this one. They had turnovers on five of their first six possessions in the second half.
The greatest slapstick moment: With the Ducks leading 39-20, Winston scrambled away from defenders on fourth down, did an hysterical 360, appeared like he was trying to pump fake, then tripped over his own feet and fumbled. The Ducks’ Troy Washington said thank you. Then he picked up the ball and ran 58 yards for a touchdown.
Winston said he was just trying to make a play.
“This just isn’t the right way to end that (winning streak) because we beat ourselves.”
Winston came to the sideline after the fumble and appeared to argue with coach Jimbo Fisher. But Fisher claimed the quarterback just got “animated” and was telling him his receiver fell down. It didn’t look that way, but the coach probably didn’t want to take a shot at his player on the way out the door. This figured to be Winston’s final college game, even though he wouldn’t say as much.
Nor did the Seminoles seem to remember how to act in defeat. Three-quarters of the team walked off the field and not across it to congratulate Oregon. Maybe they were just out of practice.
Yes, this game was close for a while. The Noles trailed only 18-13 at halftime. It wasn’t cause for any panic-at-the-disco moments. They trailed in nine of their past 11 games coming into the playoffs. They’re big on cheating death, even if it didn’t play well with rankings committees that dropped them three times from a No. 1 ranking down to fourth at one point.
They didn’t have to be in that position. On their first possession, they drove to the Oregon 12, stalled and kicked a field goal. On their second possession, they drove into the red zone, had four shots from inside the 7-yard line — including a do-over after an Oregon offside penalty to nullify a 4-yard loss — were stuffed on third and fourth downs from the 1, and came away with bupkis. On their third drive, they made it to the Ducks’ 3, were penalized for delay-of-game (really) and kicked another field goal.
The ugly math: Three drives, 19 snaps from inside the Oregon 19, six points.
To be fair, Oregon got away with an interference penalty when defensive back Tyree Robinson grabbed tight end Nick O’Leary in the end zone on the third possession. But there was no call.
Strange. Florida State isn’t accustomed to having judging go against them.
The Ducks were great. The Seminoles were a grease fire.
Winston again, borderline scolding the media: “We beat ourselves. Just be real with yourself right now.”
Maybe humility will come in time.
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