Shorthanded Gators spank Missouri in tune-up for huge showdown with Georgia

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If there’s one stat to describe the Gators 41-17 win over Missouri, it’s this: The Tigers had one gain of more than 20 yards.

Yes, they dropped a long pass that would have qualified. Yes, they were able to put together a few good drives. But against a Florida defense that has been a sieve all year that hadn’t practiced much over the past two weeks, just one explosive play qualifies as anemic.

And anemic is what the Gators defense made the Missouri offense look like repeatedly. The Tigers averaged 3.9 yards per play, which would have ranked 128th in FBS last season. They only ran the ball for 40 yards.

And they went 3 for 15 on third down.

After a relatively slow start, the Gators offense got going too, outgaining Missouri 514 to 248. It was more lopsided than that, as the Gators averaged 7.2 yards per play. And that undersells Florida a little bit, as the Gators were averaging 8.4 yards per play going into the half and then ran the ball 24 times in the second half against 10 passes (versus a 11 run/26 pass split in the first half).

Of course, this was just a warm-up for the main event against Georgia last week. But confidence in the Gators has to be much higher after this one.

Defense

If there was one series that exemplified the Gators defensive performance, it was Missouri’s second drive of the game.

Missouri was able to drive down the field, and it looked like the Gators were going to fall behind and regret having to settle for a field goal on its opening possession. Instead, the series unfolded in a way that should convince fans that Todd Grantham did spend the time off teaching his guys what to do.

On first down, safety Rashad Torrence (#22) is playing off the receiver, which has been a major complaint of fans this year. When the Missouri receiver breaks outside, Torrence breaks to make the tackle and does so perfectly. The DB hadn’t been breaking this aggressively towards the receiver or actually making the tackle once he got there thus far in 2020.

On second down, Missouri tries to run the ball to set up a third-and-manageable. Florida linebacker Ventrell Miller (#51) fills the hole and stuffs the running back for a small gain. That’s a great thing that we haven’t seen from Florida’s linebackers, but what I want to point out is that there are six Gators helping with the tackle at the end. We haven’t seen that kind of gang tackling earlier this year.

On third down, defensive backs Kaiir Elam (#5) and Trey Dean (#0) miscommunicate. They both follow the outside receiver, allowing the inside receiver to go uncovered into the flat. But Missouri QB Connor Bazelak makes a poor throw because he is getting pressured right up the middle.

The man getting that pressure? The player I singled out earlier this week: Jeremiah Moon (#7). Moon won’t get credited with a sack or a tackle for loss on this play, but he’s the reason Missouri didn’t get a first down. Bazelak could have still completed the pass, but making him throw it late and on the run made him inaccurate.

And with the Florida offense out of sorts and Missouri up 7-6 with 6:31 left in the half, the Gators defense had its best series of the season. After Missouri got its first third-down conversion on a questionable holding call against Kaiiir Elam, the rest of the series looked like this.

On first down, Missouri ran a play that they had some success with earlier in the game. On that play, defensive end Brenton Cox (#1) had gotten sucked inside by the action and the reverse was open around the end. But this time, Cox stayed home and was able to drop the wide receiver for a huge loss.

On second down, the entire defensive line played things perfectly. Jeremiah Moon (#7, there he is again) forced Bazelak to hand the ball off to Rountree on the read-option by staying home. Zach Carter (#17) pushed the guard back a yard and a half, which prevented the pulling guard from getting over to pick up Andrew Chatfield (#10), who continued pushing up the field forcing Rountree into a loss.

Again, notice how many Gators are around the ball when the tackle is made.

After a screen on third-and-28, the Gators got the ball back and scored. Then came the backbreaker for Missouri.

Again, credit this one to the defensive line. This time, both Carter and Moon beat their men. It looks like Bazelak may have seen Carter out of the corner of his eye and tried to hold onto the ball at the last second. Regardless, he and Rountree screwed up the mesh point and Florida was able to recover.

One play later, Florida was up 20-7 and the game was well in-hand.

Offense

The offense was unable to finish off drives in the first quarter, settling for red zone field goals.

Maybe that was due to some rust from the layoff, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effectiveness. The Gators averaged 8.7 yards per play in the first quarter and 10.7 yards per pass as they moved the ball right down the field on Missouri.

Then, they finally decided to get the ball to Kadarius Toney.

This is just an unbelievable individual effort. Toney isn’t the fastest player on the field, but he has the quickest change of direction. Part of that is because he has an ability to break tackles that you don’t normally see for players his size.

Certainly the part where he ducks under the tackle of Missouri linebacker Nick Bolton (#32) is impressive, but the thing that impresses me more is the first tackle he breaks against safety Tyree Gillespie (#9). It’s not so much that he breaks the tackle, but that he doesn’t run all the way around Gillespie. Instead, he sort-of rounds the edge just enough that he’s actually picking up speed as he breaks the tackle.

But that wasn’t his most impressive play.

When Toney goes into motion, Trask knows he has one-on-one coverage with deep safety help. Toney fakes going out to the flat (which he’s done a few times on tape) and immediately heads up-field. Trevon Grimes (#9) occupies the safety in the middle of the field and Toney is open by five yards.

This is special route running. To create that kind of separation is something NFL scouts are going to take note of.

Trask only completed 58 percent of his passes, but this might have been one of his best performances this year. The throw to Toney was right on the money, delivered with enough zip that the safety couldn’t get over. And then there was this play.

Trask immediately realizes that Missouri is dropping into a deep zone with a blitzing linebacker. That means there is nobody to account for running back Dameon Pierce (#27). Instead of going for a big play downfield, Trask simply checks the ball down to Pierce, who turns it into a big play.

That play was set-up by this one.

The reason Missouri was playing such a deep zone was because on the immediate play prior. On this play, the Tigers found themselves in one-on-one coverage with a linebacker (#11, Devin Nicholson) covering Kyle Pitts. Trask’s going to find that mismatch every time and delivers a beautiful pass.

This is my favorite play by Trask though. Florida was behind 7-6 and Missouri had been harassing him much of the second quarter. But the Tigers made a mistake here, only rushing three defenders.

Trask does two things here. Pre-snap, he identified that the deep safety was shaded over towards Kyle Pitts side. He then looks that way immediately upon getting the snap, drawing the safety over further. Trask never had any intention of going to Pitts on this play (unless the safety did something stupid). Instead, he moved the safety with his eyes to open up the middle for Jacob Copeland.

I actually think Missouri screwed up its coverage, as the corner guarding Malik Davis left him wide open. That was actually fortunate for the Tigers though, as that second defender was deep enough that Copeland wasn’t able to take it to the house.

Fight Ramifications

This should be a game with nothing but positives coming out of it.

Beating an SEC opponent by 24 points without any practice time should be something to celebrate big-time. That’s doubly true considering the offense continues to hum and the defense showed signs of life.

But the end of the first half was marred by a fight instigated by a late hit on Trask and then exacerbated by Mullen coming out onto the field. I suspect that the SEC will fine Mullen heavily (i.e. 3-5X more than Kiffin). You can’t have coaches running out onto the field, regardless of their intentions.

And let’s be honest. Mullen didn’t do anything to cool the situation off.

But with Georgia on the horizon, my concern isn’t what size check Mullen is going to write. It’s whether any of the players involved get suspended.

Watching live, I thought I saw starting guard Stewart Reese (#51) throw a punch in addition to Zach Carter. But upon review, it was actually freshman linebacker Antwuan Powell (#52), who was standing next to Reese. Powell and Carter were ejected from the game after the incident and I suspect the SEC will consider that time-served. I’m not sure what they’ll do with Reese.

That’s becauuse there’s no doubt that Reese was trying to get to a Missouri player (Markell Utsey, #90) who was throwing punches while being held back by a member of Missouri’s coaching staff. Of course, that player had just hit one of Reese’s teammates and continued to throw punches.

I’m sure I’ll be accused of being a homer, but I don’t think the SEC should suspend him.

The incident was touched off because of a late – and somewhat dirty – hit on QB Kyle Trask. The officials let it escalate because they didn’t throw a flag. Mullen elevated it more by coming out onto the field. And then Reese sees Utsey throwing punches wildly.

Yes, he charged after Utsey. And yes, there were non-uniformed personnel in-between. But I don’t think Reese threw a punch. I don’t think he did anything more than push towards Utsey while Utsey punched Reese, Carter and Jeremiah Moon.

It’s a shame that we have to talk about this sort of stuff leading into the Georgia game. But hopefully the SEC will let the Gators play next week at full strength.

Takeaway

Florida’s defense finally showed up.

Last season, you could count on the Gators for at least one quarter where they completely shut down an opponent. That hadn’t happened yet in 2020, but it happened in the second and third quarters against Missouri, where the Gators only surrendered 30 and 4 yards, respectively.

Obviously, Missouri is not Georgia. There is still improvement to make. But the Bulldogs are not an offensive juggernaut, having put up only 14 points and throwing the ball only 14 times (2 picks) against Kentucky.

There were lots of people who were worried about how this game might go coming in. Dangerously thin at defensive back, there was a distinct possibility that Florida would get torched like they had against Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

Instead, the Gators played much better, especially on the defensive line. Jeremiah Moon played well when he was in there. Zach Carter got a ton of push up-front. Having Kyree Campbell back definitely helped. And the Gators finally figured out how to get off the field on third down.

The offense looked rusty to start. But Kyle Trask just threw for 4 TD in his fourth consecutive game. He’s now thrown for 18 TD on the year…..in four games. John Brantley’s best in a season at Florida was 11. Jeff Driskel’s was 12. Treon Harris’ was 9. Will Grier’s was 10. Luke Del Rio’s was 8. Austin Appleby’s was 10.

Perhaps more importantly, Feleipe Franks had 24 in 2018 and Trask had 25 last season. Those offenses weren’t enough to overtake Georgia, but the offense coming to see the Bulldogs this year is way different than the last two years.

Will it be enough to overcome the fast, physical Georgia defense? We’ll see.

But at the beginning of the year, we all suspected that the Cocktail Party would be the make-or-break point for this Florida team. That moment is finally here and it’s everything we expected it to be.

It’s basically winner takes the SEC East. Win and Florida doesn’t have one ranked opponent the rest of the season. The same is true for Georgia.

Is it Saturday yet?