Five punts and only one touchdown in the first half for the Florida Gators. That’s not the team we’re used to seeing in the Swamp, but that’s exactly what we saw from Dan Mullen’s offense last year against Missouri.
The Tigers have proved themselves to be a difficult opponent for Florida for the past two years.
“They beat us pretty good,” said defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. “We just understand that they beat us. That was last year. We’re more focused on this year and playing this year and trying to be the best we can be and play to our standard.”
In 2018, the Gators were coming off of a disappointing loss in Jacksonville to the Georgia Bulldogs and let that setback seep into a game they should have won.
Florida was outscored on just about every front.
Defense
First and foremost, the final score of the game.
Florida’s defense let a 5-4 unranked Missouri team come onto their home turf and put up 38 points. It’s understandable that they were upset after losing to Georgia, but it’s not acceptable to let that impact games after the fact. They let the same thing happen in 2017.
“Our attitude wasn’t right going into the game,” said defensive back Marco Wilson. “We just started giving up which is not the right thing to do. We knew we weren’t going to win the SEC East or any of that. People just didn’t have the mindset of, ‘We still got something to play for which is that they’re keeping score in the game, and we need to win it.’”
Defensively, the score should have been different. On paper, Florida’s defense outplayed Missouri’s, just not when it really counted. 25 different players for the Gators recorded tackles in that game, showing off their depth on the defensive front. Altogether, they had 90 tackles, while Missouri only had 71. Each team sacked the quarterback only once.
The Gators did fall short when it came to pass pressure. They gave quarterback Drew Lock all day in the pocket, which led to his high completion rate. This year, they’ll be up against a different quarterback, and one that will likely be more challenging to handle. Even though Florida’s pass rush has improved significantly, Kelly Bryant is a really good quarterback that can find a way to make something work.
On third down, the Gators allowed Missouri to convert on eleven of eighteen attempts. Flip the script, and the Tigers only let the Gators get past the sticks three times on fifteen attempts.
“People didn’t get their mind right after losing a game,” said Wilson. “You lose a game, you got to put that behind you because you’ve got another game coming up, and you got to get ready for that. Because if you lose that game, it’s just more embarrassment and you don’t want that.
Offense
On offense, Florida was not producing. They only got into the end zone once in the first half but let Missouri in three times. Seven of Florida’s twelve drives ended in punts, and two ended in turnovers on downs.
Kyle Trask got his first real chance to show off his skills in that game. Ultimately, that led to a practice injury for the then back-up quarterback.
“It was tough to be competing to play and then get hurt,” he said. “It’s football and stuff happens. I think it’s made me stronger as a person over time though.”
“I think actually it’s really important for us not to focus on, you know, all the outside noise about the struggles we’ve had recently,” he added. “I think what we need to do is just focus on who we are and what we can do and doing our best to work through it even harder today in practice. And I think if we do that we’ll perform well on Saturday.”
In the air, the Tigers completed 75 percent of their passes. They averaged 7.8 yards each throw, going for 250 total passing yards, and the pass game wasn’t even their primary mode of attack. Three of their five touchdowns were on pass plays. The Gators, however, were relying on the passing game. Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask were only completing about 46 percent of their passes together, with 5.3 yards being the average pass. They were outthrown by forty yards by the end of the game, putting up 210 total passing yards.
On the ground, Missouri rushed for 221 yards on 42 attempts. The Gators defense just couldn’t stop Damarea Crockett who went for 114 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. On the other side of the ball, Florida only rushed for 113 yards on 28 attempts, with quarterback Feleipe Franks being the only rusher who found his way into the end zone.
Time of Possession
The Gators just couldn’t keep the ball in their court during that game. Anytime a team fails to convert that much, it’s going to give the other team an advantage as far as time of possession goes. It’s simple, the longer you have the ball, the more opportunities you’ll have to score.
The Tigers had the ball for about ten minutes more during that game than the Gators. That allowed them to get five more first downs than the Gators and ultimately outscore them 38-17 when the final whistle blew.
After that game, Mullen changed up the conversation. He put a heavy emphasis on the competitiveness of this team, going so far as to challenge members of the media to a thumb wrestling match in a post-game interview.
“I think it’s guys learning about just making sure they understand what it means to be a competitor and how to handle it and how to focus on what’s important,” he said. “They’re being pulled in so many different directions and forgetting the aspect of, that foot hits the ball next Saturday, they’re going to keep score and we want to win. We’ve got to do everything in our power to make that happen. How we practice and how we prepare and all of that stuff. That’s what’s important. And if you lose and focus on that, that’s when you start to not play well.”
And that mindset has translated to the players on this team.
“Everybody in this locker room is competitive,” said Jefferson. “He just wants us to compete, be competitive. Out there on the practice field we’re out there competing, being competitive and talking trash. It makes us better on Saturday. I think everybody that’s out there on that field just competes their tail off and it comes on Saturday.”
As the Gators head into their last SEC matchup of the year, they need to control their destinies if they want a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl. And let’s not forget the East is still technically up for grabs.
“This year, we watched it happen two years,” said linebacker David Reese. “It’s insane to do the same thing repetitively. We’re excited for the game and we’re pumped up. We just want to win.”
Coming off a big shutout win over Vanderbilt, Florida has success on their minds and are determined to not let Missouri continue to dominate this series.
“We turned it around this year,” said Jefferson. “As long as we just play together, focus on what we need to do we’ll be fine.”
