JACKSONVILLE, Fla.-- Dan Mullen's hands seemed to be tied in No. 6 Florida's 24-17 loss to No.8 Georgia.
The Gators were quickly behind after one offensive series.
"You want to play with the lead against them," Mullen said. "They don't play very well from behind I don't think. You want to play with the lead and we weren't able to do that early. From that it kind of changed. You get out of your gameplan a little bit."
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Mullen's side saw themselves down 3-0 early, while their offense could only muster seven plays on two drives.
Then came the controversial call.
Florida's defense looked like they were able to stop Georgia on third down when Bulldogs receiver Lawrence Cager got free from UF corner CJ Henderson and grabbed the ball from Jake Fromm. However, on the replay it looked like the ball hit the dirt.
The refs, however, called a complete pass. Georgia was awarded a first down.
"I just looked at the Jumbotron, so I saw what you saw," Mullen told reporters after the game. "I asked the official, but they said that decision's made in Birmingham. So they couldn't even give me an explanation. That's a question for them."
"Referees aren't always perfect and all that, but it happens," linebacker David Reese said. "It's football."
Kirby Smart's men took advantage and Fromm found Dominick Blaylock for the touchdown and the 10-lead.
"We’ve got to put the fire out in that situation," defensive end Jonathan Greenard said."(The call was) definitely deflating, but at the end of the day we've got to go play, whether it was called right, complete or incomplete, whatever it was, we've got to go play. Overall we've just got to keep playing."
The defense just could not dial a stop.
The Georgia offense went for a season-high 12 third down conversions in 18 attempts. It's the most against against a ranked team since the 2014 Belk Bowl vs. Louisville, where the Bulldogs also went 12-of-18 - Todd Grantham was the defensive coordinator against Louisville.
“If we get off the field right there the game changes," said Greenard. "When you stay on the field you get tired and they get their rhythm, run more plays to get us tired. That’s when stuff happens, mistakes happen and that’s when they get you.”
"I feel like we did a good job of stopping the run but we didn't get off the field," said Reese. "It sucks. They've got good running backs and I feel like we maintained 'em. Swift is a great back, probably one of the best backs in the country, so just know we did a good job on him and couldn't get off the field on third downs, it was a little frustrating."
Georgia only managed 119 yards rushing, after averaging 236 yards per game coming into the game. However, Fromm was given plenty of time in the pocket.
The UGA signal caller went 20-for-30 passing for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Which means after facing Grantham three times in his career, Fromm has gone 46 of 66 passes for 720 yards and seven touchdowns against the defensive coordinator.
"When you have 6’7”, 6’6” offensive linemen. Credit to them," said Greenard. "They know where they’re at and where their quarterback is when they’re in pass protection. It’s real difficult to get around big bodies like that. If you get around them the quarterback can slip under them. If you get under them they can slip around them. “
"I was ineffective today. No excuses. I didn’t get to the quarterback as much as I needed to," added Greenard. "I didn’t affect the game as much as I needed to. There are things we can clean up as a whole defense but me, I take pride in being a game changer. That’s’ the title I’m trying to get. I’ve got to do better. I didn’t do nothing today.”
The offense was ineffective as well, going 2-of-9 on third downs.
"Whenever you can't convert on third down, it's hard to get into a rhythm and it's hard to get drives started," said center Nick Buchanan.
Florida only ran 26 plays in the first 42 minutes of the game.
"They scored that touchdown to take the lead," Mullen said. "I think that was the biggest play of the game right there. I think we thought we were off the field on third down and they got sent back down.
"We had an overturned, err, call stands, you know? I thought that was one of the biggest plays of the game."
It does not help that the UF offense was just out of sync. Mullen was forced to call two time outs on the first drive of the game because of wrong personnel on the field and not lining up correctly.
Mullen was seen yelling at wide receiver coach Billy Gonzales in the fourth quarter, when the receiver was not lined up at the right spot.
"I think they signaled the wrong formation," said Mullen."At that point it was too big a point in the game to not use the timeout and make sure we get the first one."
Even with all that considered, the Gators still had an opportunity to claw back a win.
With 10:01 left on the clock, the Gators were down 24-10 with what seemed like plenty of time to come back from two scores. However, Mullen's side lacked any sense of urgency.
"I mean when you’re down two (scores), you’ve got to score once first," Mullen said. "So it is: Let’s make sure we put a solid drive together and get the touchdown first, and we did that and that’s kind of the whole thought that goes into that, you know? Don’t panic, don’t need to panic, run our offense, execute our offense, let’s take it down the field. We executed clean, we punched it in."
The Gators did finish the drive with a score, however, the 17-play drive also chewed up nearly seven minute off the clock.
With 3:05 to go, the Gators defense needed to force a three-and-out. That did not happen.
"It's not that complicated," Mullen said. "You've got to execute. You've got to throw, catch, run, block, tackle. Execute. We've got to do a good job as coaches making sure we're putting the best guys in position to make plays."
Things did not go Florida's way on several fronts on Saturday and Mullen was forced out of his game plan quickly.
The Gators never could adjust.
"A lot of time the game dictates how it’s going to go," Mullen said. "How the game is dictates a lot of things. We wanted to play with the lead and got our of plan for that. We didn’t have the lead."
