TALLAHASSEE — The optimism for Florida State was more than just the prospect of improvement. There were six games remaining against unranked opponents, including struggling and shorthanded Stanford.

Optimism took a punch to the gut late Saturday night and early Sunday morning as the Seminoles fell short of the goal line on the game’s final play — but really fell short for a full game in a 20-13 loss on the West Coast. And the Seminoles could only blame themselves after 13 penalties.

“To have that discipline and focus with everything that we do within the program, to emphasize some of those situations and some of those critical things … 13 penalties is awful,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said. “A lot of those were focus penalties.”

FSU (3-4, 0-4 ACC) goes into the bye week in a tailspin, havi

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