TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — With 56 seconds left in the first half and Syracuse down seven — the Orange was set to receive the second-half kick — Ryan Norton’s kickoff went 23 yards. It was easily recovered by Florida State at its own 42. The Seminoles marched down the field in 45 seconds to go ahead by 14 and the margin never got smaller than that in No. 17 FSU’s (7-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast) 45-21 win over visiting Syracuse (3-5, 1-3) on Saturday afternoon.

What initially appeared to be a squib kick, a perceived decision by head coach Scott Shafer, was actually just a miskick by Norton.

“It’s as simple as that, he’ll be the first one to tell you that,” Shafer said. “It was a bad kick.”

Norton told Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com that the kick was supposed to be a “drive” or “squib.” The two mean the same thing to him. He intended to get it over the first line of FSU’s return team and have it bounce around to the deep corner, but instead hit too high a spot on the ball.

“With the kick, he just mishit it,” Shafer said “Just mishit it.”

After FSU recovered, quarterback Sean Maguire completed two consecutive passes, a 20-yard screen to Jacques Patrick and a 17-yard slant to Travis Rudolph. Two incompletions and a Seminoles false-start penalty followed, but  a 19-yard completion to Bobo Wilson and two Patrick runs — the second of which crossed the plane — shifted the momentum for good.

Instead of having a chance to tie the game in its first drive of the second half, Syracuse sputtered to the finish in its fifth straight loss.