Florida State LB Justin Cryer delivers a powerful message to anyone still doubting the Seminoles after win over Alabama
Justin Cryer never had a doubt in his mind that the Florida State Seminoles could beat Alabama.
The Florida State Seminoles shocked the world on Saturday. There aren’t many, if any, outside of the fan base and program that picked FSU to win that game, besides maybe Lee Corso. Linebacker Justin Cryer let everyone know after the game that beating Alabama was what they expected to do.
Seminoles’ Justin Cryer delivers powerful message after win against Alabama
The Seminoles absolutely dominated Alabama in every aspect of the game, which is what they expected to do.
“What happened out there today did not surprise anyone in that [Florida State’s] locker room. Maybe y’all, but not us,” Cryer told reporters after the big win over Alabama.
Going into the game, everyone was worried about the Seminoles and how they would fare in the trenches. They have two defensive linemen on their two-deep depth chart who weigh more than 300 pounds. When playing against SEC teams, let alone Alabama, which sends players to the NFL every year, is not ideal. But, they made the best of it, and absolutely threw around Alabama on both sides of the ball.
Honestly, it starts with the defense and what they did. Alabama was 6-17 on third down and 2-5 on fourth downs. Many of those fourth-down stops were due to hits at the first-down line that knocked the offensive players backward, rather than forcing them to fall forward, where they could have ended up gaining the first down. The difference in physicality was noticeable because the Seminoles looked like the SEC team, not Alabama.
Alabama, a team that usually is elite at running the ball, struggled to do so on Saturday, and not having star RB Jam Miller certainly didn’t help. Alabama averaged just three yards per carry and finished with 87 total yards, while FSU finished with 236 rushing yards. The Crimson Tide also had 20 pass incompletions, which were due to either the pocket collapsing on QB Ty Simpson or the defensive backs just being dominant at the point of attack.
The Seminoles were the better team, and they knew that going into the game, and you couldn’t tell them otherwise.
