A rough one: Florida's 3 NFL teams, biggest 3 college teams all fall on the same weekend
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — It was a dark week for football in the Sunshine State.
For the first time since the inception of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995, all three of the state's NFL teams and all three of the state's most prominent college programs lost on the same weekend.
The Miami Dolphins started the six-team slide with a 42-23 loss at Houston on Thursday night. The Miami Hurricanes followed with an equally poor road performance the following night, falling 27-14 at Boston College .
Florida State turned in the state's worst outing during the four-day stretch, a 59-10 drubbing to No. 2 Clemson that was the Seminoles' worst home loss in school history.
No. 9 Florida was considerably more competitive a few hours later, but faltered late in a 36-17 setback to rival and seventh-ranked Georgia in Jacksonville.
The Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had chances to stop the statewide skid Sunday, but both came up short. The Jags lost 24-18 to defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia at Wembley Stadium in London, and the Bucs got beat 37-34 at Cincinnati on a last-second field goal .
Not even second-tier college programs USF and UCF could salvage the weekend for the Sunshine State.
No. 17 Houston drubbed South Florida 57-36 on Saturday, and 10th-ranked Central Florida was off after winning its 20th consecutive game at East Carolina on Oct. 20. Florida Atlantic lost at home 21-13 to Louisiana Tech, while Florida International picked up the state's lone football victory of the weekend: a 38-17 road victory over Western Kentucky.
The six-team losing scenario nearly happened twice before — the final weekend of October in 2004 and an early October weekend in 2011. The state's big three college teams all faltered along with two NFL franchises, but the Buccaneers were on a bye that week in 2004 and the Dolphins were off that week in 2011.
