Back for another week, it’s film study of a convincing Florida victory. While every win is a cause for celebration, knocking out the Bulldogs in dominant fashion is on another level.
Here is the video, and I’ll add commentary below.
Passes to running backs
If one thing sticks out in your mind about this game years from now, it probably will be all of the passes to the running backs. The top two Gator receivers by yardage were Malik Davis and Nay’Quan Wright. Three of the five UF players to catch a pass of at least 30 yards were those two and Dameon Pierce.
Most of the big pass plays to the backs were wheel routes. If you’ve heard this term but don’t know it exactly, that’s all right. It’s simply one where a receiver of some sort goes toward the sideline first and then turns upfield on a vertical route. They’re a favorite for tailbacks because it’s handy to have them go horizontally first to get around the scrum of offensive and defensive linemen.
The first six instances of running back passes I show in the breakdown video are wheel routes to the short side of the field. It was a strategic choice to do so based on the way Georgia aligns and runs its defense.
The initial example saw Davis getting one-on-one coverage from Jermaine Johnson, a 240 lb edge-rushing outside linebacker. Imagine Jeremiah Moon trying to cover a vertical route, essentially. Johnson has good speed and keeps up enough that Kyle Trask had to make a superb throw, but he did and it started a pattern.
Georgia fixed its coverage such that an edge rusher never covered the backs again, but Dan Mullen was ready for it. The second example has a quick slant from Jacob Copeland obstructing the path of LB Monty Rice from getting to Wright. UF picked on Rice a lot, as he was playing through a foot injury he sustained in the week leading up to the Bulldogs’ Alabama game.
The third time was different again. Trask fakes a handoff to Davis, and not the handoff but the realization it was only play action freezes LB Nakobe Dean. Backs usually block or just do something short over the middle or in the flat after play action. Davis instead goes on a vertical route up the sideline, and that tendency breaker got him space ahead of Dean.
The fourth time is a repeat of the second, where Pierce this time runs a wheel behind a Copeland slant. Georgia changed its plan so that a safety coming up has the responsibility, but Pierce shakes the tackle from an out-of-control freshman defensive back and gets a lot of yards after the catch.
The fifth time is getting Davis into a short pocket of open space on 2nd & 18. Georgia allows the catch because it’s dropping everyone deep as most defenses do in that situation. Rice is the one who has to make the open-field tackle, though, and Davis beats the slowed linebacker for a first down.
Finally Mullen puts two eligible receivers on the short side for the first time, an in-line tight end and wide receiver. They run a crossing and vertical pattern, respectively, to get out of the way as Wright catches a pass with plenty of room on his short wheel. The safety on that side, who had dropped back deep, has to come up and make the play but not before Wright moved the sticks.
With six short-side wheel routes in the can, Mullen starts getting mean. He sends Wright out on what looks like a wheel behind a vertical for Kemore Gamble, but Wright cuts in on a slant in front of the slowed Rice. Then he sends Davis out on a wheel to the wide side of the field, and a pair of routes from other Gators obstruct the path of Dean to get to coverage. Here pressure forces Trask to step up in the pocket, and the delay gives Dean time to get there. Trask puts it to where Dean can’t get it, and Davis makes one of the most impressive catches I’ve seen from a running back.
From there I show some passes to Gamble and the one to Keon Zipperer. Kyle Pitts gets to do his own Kyle Pitts things, but the other tight ends got schemed open in a similar way to the running backs. Gamble’s touchdown came on a short-side wheel route, in fact, and he later got a turn taking advantage of Rice.
Run attention
Florida did not run the ball well against Georgia. It didn’t have to. It just had to do it enough times with enough non-disastrous results to make the defense respect it.
I found a couple examples of basically the same play that shows where the Bulldogs paying attention to the run opened up a pass. Each time I can’t tell if it’s play action or a run-pass option, but I suspect the latter.
In both instances a safety comes up upon seeing the handoff action. A Gator receiver runs a pattern directly to the spot where the safety was at the snap, and Trask hits them for an easy pitch-and-catch. By keeping committed to the run, UF got some benefit in the passing game.
Poor offensive play from Georgia
The Florida defensive front had a good game overall, at least after that first play. In general, though, it is hard to assess the defense as having a great day because UGA’s offensive execution was so poor, so often.
Everyone figured out after the Alabama game that Stetson Bennett can’t throw against zone. D’Wan Mathis, well, he missed a lot of time last year as a true freshman after brain surgery and is a redshirt freshman this year. I hope for his sake that’s the reason he has been so ineffective this season.
Zamir White’s 75-yard run aside, the Gator defense did better than I expected against the run. As you could see from the end of the video, the pass defense was considerably less well settled.
If you had a dollar for every time a Georgia receiver got free behind the defense, you’d have enough to buy a Hot ‘n Ready pizza with more than enough to cover sales tax. A lot of misfires from the two Bulldog quarterbacks, plus a drop or two from their targets, meant that the pass defense issues never mattered much. A merely average quarterback would’ve had a respectable day, to say nothing about deep-ball aficionado Mac Jones.
But Florida wasn’t playing Jones and Alabama, it was playing Georgia with those two options behind center. Perhaps a more serious passing threat would’ve seen different coverages. Regardless, the Gator defense did more than enough beyond accepting bad play from the Bulldogs to win the game. I just can’t ignore all the errant throws.