Defense Manages To Contain Ryan

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - It wasn't always pretty, but the Florida State defense did enough to shut down Heisman Trophy favorite Matt Ryan and Boston College last night.

The Eagles quarterback threw for 415 yards and two touchdowns, but the Seminoles were able to force four turnovers to pull out a 27-17 win.

"Turnovers played as big a role as any part of it," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said. "They could have caught up and beat us, but turnovers played a big role."

The biggest play of the night was Geno Hayes' 38-yard interception return for a touchdown to seal the victory with 1:10 remaining. Hayes stepped in front of a pass intended for Ryan Purvis and went into the end zone untouched to prevent Ryan from staging his second consecutive improbable game-winning drive.

"That was a tremendous play by Hayes," Bowden said. "He nearly made it earlier in the ballgame so I guess he was waiting for that play to come up again where he could jump it. And that's exactly what he did. He jumped it and got a touchdown and boy did that make me happy."

FSU's first turnover came in the first quarter when Patrick Robinson stripped Eagles wideout Kevin Challenger and Myron Rolle fell on the fumble at BC's 40-yard line.

Robinson got the Noles' first pick, hauling in a Ryan pass intended for Challenger at the the Florida State 2-yard line. Robinson has an pick in each of his last five games, tying Terrell Buckley's school record for consecutive games with an interception.

Tony Carter recorded his third interception of the season early in the third quarter, stepping in front of a Ryan pass at the FSU 34. Ryan was forced to make an off-balance throw as he was flushed from the pocket by the Seminoles' pass rush.

The Seminoles nearly blew a fourth-quarter lead for the third time in four weeks as Ryan connected on a handful of deep passes in the second half, but the the Noles tightened up in the red zone.

"He is a tremendous accurate passer throwing way down the field," Bowden said. "He'll pinpoint that thing 50 yards down the field. The big thing was trying to stop the big play. ... He hit enough of those long ones to keep them in the game."

When the Seminoles weren't making plays, they got some breaks. The biggest came on third down with 8:57 left in the game, when a pass interference call on Roger Williams in the end zone was negated because Ryan was flagged for an illegal forward pass. BC settled for a field goal on the next play to cut FSU's lead to 13-10.

FSU also benefited from a pair of drops by BC tailback Andre Callender.