It was a rough weekend for football fans in the Sunshine State.
After Florida’s FCS, FBS and NFL teams went a combined 0-11 on the gridiron over the weekend, the Miami Dolphins‘ 23-15 win over the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football” was much sweeter for the state. It all started on Saturday. From Tallahassee to Coral Gables, Orlando to Tampa, not a single Florida college football team escaped the day’s misfortune. In an unprecedented sweep, nine of the state’s 10 Division I college football teams suffered defeat: the previously undefeated Miami Hurricanes, Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, UCF Knights, South Florida Bulls, Florida Atlantic Owls, Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, Florida A&M Rattlers and Stetson Hatters.
Bethune-Cookman suffered the slimmest margin of defeat, but might have undergone the biggest heartbreak. The Wildcats’ 25-23 loss to the Southern Jaguars was sealed in the fifth overtime after a successful two-point conversion by Southern.
On the other hand, the Owls suffered the largest margin of defeat in their 49-14 loss to the East Carolina Pirates. However, the Gators weren’t too far behind them with a 32-point deficit after falling 49-17 to the No. 5 Texas Longhorns.
Meanwhile, the Florida International Panthers had a bye week, keeping them out of this trend that continued on Sunday.
The Minnesota Vikings kept Florida out of the win column although both teams stayed out of the end zone in their 12-7 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Then, the San Francisco 49ers played their role by downing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20, thanks to 49ers kicker Jake Moody‘s walk-off, 44-yard field goal.
Outside of the gridiron, Florida sports fans were given plenty to cheer for over the weekend.
The Florida Panthers picked up a 4-3 shootout win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. Then on Sunday, the Miami Heat picked up a 95-94 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Orlando Magic secured a 121-94 victory over the Washington Wizards.