The Gators’ offense did just enough to pull out a victory in the Swamp on Saturday afternoon. Florida started the game off painfully slow; nothing appeared to be working for the Gators.
Anthony Richardson was missing easy throws early on, bouncing a screen pass to Marcus Burke and leading Xzaiver Henderson a little too far on another.
The Gators mustered just 66 yards of offense on 19 plays in the first half. Florida was lucky to head into the locker room tied at 10. If it wasn’t for a 48-yard punt return by Xzaiver Henderson and a pick six from Jaydon Hill, the Gators would have been scoreless at halftime.
“We only had 19 plays, I think, in the first half,” Billy Napier said. “Very few opportunities. A lot of those 19 were situational football. They were redzone, they were third down, so very few plays of what we would call normal down and distance.”
Richardson didn’t think he played poorly in the first half, but he knew the Gators needed a spark in the 2nd half.
“I feel like I played decent first half,” Richardson said. “There wasn’t really anything spectacular happening with the offense. We were moving the ball well but couldn’t capitalize on drives, couldn’t finish, so I kind of took the burden on that. I felt like coming into the second half we had to switch up the energy and we did that.”
The Gators offense turned the corner, totaling 231 yards in the 2nd half. Napier started the half with a play action bootleg for an easy five-yard pass. This play wasn’t fancy or aggressive, but it allowed Richardson to get comfortable and find some sort of a rhythm.
Richardson wasn’t asked to do too much in this game, attempting just 14 passes. However, Richardson made big time plays when the Gators needed him most.
Likely the biggest play of the game was a 4th and two conversion in the third quarter; Richardson took off running after going through his reads and picked up 32 yards on the ground.
“Before it happened, Coach Napier asked me what play I wanted to run, offering me a few options and I chose that one [successful conversion],” Richardson said. “I went through my progressions and moved the protection to pick it up. Missouri’s defense covered up everybody which left a wide-open hole in the middle of the field for me. Whenever we have a big play like that, the offense runs off momentum. I’m glad it happened.”
Richardson connected with Ricky Pearsall on a 9-yard touchdown in the 4th quarter to give the Gators a 14-point lead.
“On that play, we run a lot of play action so I knew I had to try and capture the edge,” Richardson said. “A lot of teams play the edge strong with us so I knew I had to get my depth and just run around it. I just went through my progressions and the corner route was a little muddy, the first under route was a little muddy, and I just happened to see Ricky just running through the back and I was like ‘ok, I’ve got to hit him’ and I just ripped it in there and he caught it for me.”
Richardson finished the day connecting on 8 of 14 passes for 66 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. He added 45 rushing yards on five attempts.
This was obviously not an electrifying performance from Richardson, but I do think it’s impressive that the Gators were able to beat an SEC team with just 66 passing yards. Richardson was able to make big plays when the Gators’ back was against the wall. This is something we didn’t see Richardson do against Kentucky in week two.
Napier said that Richardson’s football team won on Saturday.
“It was truly a team win. The intangibles that we developed with this group of players, I’m proud of that,” Napier said. “They continued to respond and play through the ups and downs of the game. We are thankful. Good team win.”
The Gators welcome LSU into the Swamp next week for another crucial SEC matchup. LSU brings a tougher defense to the table, ranking 4th in the SEC. Florida will need Richardson and this Gators’ offense to be well prepared.