TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- This is the kind of night it was for the Florida Gators: they needed 104 yards of offense to score on an 84-yard drive.

Countless penalties and a host of missed opportunities undoubtedly left the Gators, who had very little to say after the 30-7 loss to No. 3 FSU, scratching their heads on the bus ride back to Gainesville.

When the final tallies were put together, Florida had its season highs for both penalties (14) and penalty yardage (116). It was the fifth-most penalties for a Spurrier-coached Florida team.

Of the few words Spurrier said after the game, the miscues were one of the things he quickly addressed.

"Way too many penalties," he said. "You can't commit that many penalties and expect to win."

The performance was almost comical, looking like something you would expect more from Peewee football than the fourth-ranked college team in the country.

Mistakes marred each of Florida's first four possessions. On the first possession, it was a false start on fourth and 13, followed by an illegal block on the ensuing punt.

On the second possession, Florida was flagged for holding on the punt return, then committed a false start and a personal foul later in the drive. They overcame those mistakes, scoring their only touchdown of the game, but it took the Gators 20 extra yards to do so.

Possession No. 3 saw a false start and possession four had a delay of game.

Flags weren't the only problem as missed opportunities also haunted the Gators. On Florida State's opening possession of the game, they quickly marched down to the Gator 12. But soon after Gator cornerback Bennie Alexander watched a Chris Weinke pass sail right through his hands, the Seminoles scored. With nobody between Alexander and a touchdown, the play could have brought a huge change in momentum.

A second quarter interception by Alex Brown looked like it could promote such a swing in emotion, but a stuffed third and 1 ended the Florida drive that Brown's pick created. It was that sort of night.

In the second half, a pair of Florida pass interference calls, both on speedy Seminole wideout Marvin Minnis, led to an FSU touchdown and an insurmountable 27-7 score.

Florida was so jump happy that Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden called a trick formation in the fourth quarter to try and lure the Gators offsides yet again. Florida State ended up getting flagged for illegal formation, but the fact that the Seminoles tried such a play spoke volumes.

With all the flags that were flying, it was only fitting that the Gators blew a rare chance to score late in the game with what else, a penalty. With second and goal on the one, a false start pushed Florida back to the six-yard line, where three incomplete passes later, the Seminoles took over on downs.

"We needed to play smarter than that," quarterback Jesse Palmer said.

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com.