Lightning Delay Ignites No. 10 Alabama to Win over Florida State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Lightning strikes with eight miles of Bryant-Denny Stadium could only delay the inevitable. A 30-minute delay late in the second quarter re-ignited Alabama on both sides of the ball as the No. 10 Crimson Tide erased an early deficit to beat Florida State 50-36.

Immediately following the second-quarter weather break, Alabama (3-0) collected an interception on defense, scored a 46-yard touchdown by Ryan Williams, forced a three-and-out and scored two plays later on a Kaleb Edwards touchdown to take its first lead of the game.

"I'm not going to take away anything about our team as far as its belief," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said after the game. "I think you can see the mindset that you know we weren't taking anything for granted because I do feel when you find yourself in that spot, if you thought it was going to be an easy game, you start panicking and you start overreacting, and our guys didn't do that, so they just stayed in the fight, kept making plays."

Florida State (1-2) answered with a touchdown drive to open the third quarter, but the Seminoles did not score again until midway through the fourth quarter. Alabama iced the game with a nine-play, 90-yard drive that took 5:02 off the clock late in the fourth quarter, and Bray Hubbard sealed it with the Tide's third interception of the day.

For the second year in a row, Florida State came out ready to play against the Crimson Tide. The Seminoles scored the first three touchdowns of the game and held a 21-6 lead. Alabama answered back this time. The defense started to lock in after the delay, and Crimson Tide quarterback Keelon Russell began to trust himself with both his arms and his legs.

Russell had the best game of his young career, finishing with 320 passing yards and 3 touchdowns along with 56 yards and a long touchdown on the ground. Alabama's offense really started rolling. The Tide did not score a touchdown till the fifth drive of the game, which started a streak of five straight touchdown drives and seven straight scoring drives overall.

Freshman wide receiver Cederian Morgan hauled in the first reception of his collegiate career for a 21-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Ryan Coleman-Williams scored his first touchdown of the season on Alabama's first offensive drive out of the lightning delay. Russell threw it to Coleman-Williams behind the line of scrimmage, the receiver handled the rest for a 46-yard score.

Not stoppin' 1️⃣😮‍💨@Ryanwms1

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Florida State had an extra week to prepare for the game, and it showed. The Seminoles kept it a game until the final quarter.

Third-down conversions and big plays kept Florida State in the game. Alabama's defense had only allowed one third-down conversion through the first two games of the season, but the Seminoles went 9-for-15 on third down and had 11 plays of 15 or more yards. However, the defense stepped up when it needed to with timely interceptions from Red Morgan, Ivan Taylor and Bray Hubbard.

Six-foot-six wide receiver Duce Robinson was a nightmare matchup for the Alabama secondary. Robinson finished with six catches for 135 yards and a touchdown.

When the offense wasn't clicking early, senior kicker Conor Talty continued his strong start to the season with two made field goals in the first half. He has now made 13 straight field goals dating back to last season.

Alabama will be back at Bryant-Denny next week for an SEC showdown with South Carolina.

"There's a lot of things that our guys will take and build from, and there’s a lot of things we’ll look at and be upset about," DeBoer said. "I’m confident in this group that they’ll want to get back to work and never take it for granted.”

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