ATLANTA (Seminoles.com)  –  Florida State went into halftime of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game cautiously optimistic about a three-point deficit that could easily have been a lead had the Seminoles capitalized on a few more opportunities.

That optimism, however, quickly faded in a second half unraveled by special-teams miscues and a trio of turnovers that allowed No. 1 Alabama to pull away for a 24-7 victory in front of 76,330 fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.



Florida State is 0-1 to start a season for the first time since 2009, the year before Jimbo Fisher took over as head coach.

Alabama’s Nick Saban, meanwhile, improved to 11-0 in openers with the Crimson Tide, as well as to 11-0 in games against his former assistant coaches.

The loss will sting badly enough, but the Seminoles are holding their breath in hopes that they avoided a potentially more significant blow.

With a little more than five minutes left in the fourth quarter, quarterback Deondre Francois was sacked and went down clutching his left knee. He was helped off the field by team trainers and freshman James Blackman finished the game under center.

While most pundits agreed that a loss to Alabama wouldn’t permanently damage FSU’s College Football Playoff hopes, losing Francois would be a difficult hurdle for the Seminoles to overcome.

The redshirt sophomore was expected to be one of the top quarterbacks in the ACC, if not the nation, and the rest of FSU’s quarterback depth chart consists of redshirt junior J.J. Cosentino, Blackman and fellow freshman Bailey Hockman.

Francois threw for 210 yards and a 3-yard touchdown pass to Auden Tate that gave the Seminoles a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter.

His injury capped a nightmare of a second half for the Seminoles.

The Seminoles had both a punt and field goal blocked, and they also fumbled away a kickoff return that led to a Crimson Tide touchdown.

Alabama finished with just eight points off of FSU turnovers, but the steady swing of momentum-swinging plays helped to keep the Seminoles’ offense on the sideline and the Crimson Tide to seize control of the game.

FSU went into halftime with a slight advantage in time of possession. The Seminoles finished with seven-minute deficit.

The final score belied an outstanding effort from Florida State’s defense.

With safety Derwin James back in the lineup for the first time in nearly a year, the Seminoles limited Alabama to just 269 yards of offense and surrendered only one touchdown drive that started on their side of the field.

Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts finished with 96 passing yards, 53 of which came on a long touchdown to Calvin Ridley that put the Tide back on top midway through the second quarter.

That was the first 21 unanswered points for Alabama.

FSU had several opportunities to score again: A 9-yard Alabama punt gave the Seminoles the ball at the Crimson Tide’s 31-yard line late in the first half, but a 4-yard loss on first down followed by back-to-back incompletions forced a punt.

A few moments later, with a little more than a minute to go in the half, a pair of passes to Ryan Izzo followed by a pass interference gave the Seminoles the ball at Alabama’s 20-yard line with 36 seconds to go.

But FSU could get no further, and the Seminoles came up empty when Rashaan Evans blocked Ricky Aguayo’s 37-yard attempt.

FSU will play its home opener against ULM next week at 7 p.m. The Warhawks fell to Memphis, 37-29, on Saturday.