As said by Billy Napier, Florida suffered an embarrassing season opening loss to No.19 Miami in front of their home crowd. Not a whole lot worked on offense or defense for the Gators, who allowed 529 yards while gaining just 261.
Gator Country provides you with five takeaways from Florida’s 41-17 week one loss to Miami. Warning, it’s not good.
Dominated in the trenches
The single biggest takeaway from the game was that Florida was dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Florida’s offensive line couldn’t create very many running lanes and failed in pass protection, particularly late in the game.
Miami totaled eight tackles for loss and three sacks. The constant pressure led to Graham Mertz suffering a concussion late in the third quarter, after he was knocked to the ground what seemed like five consecutive times. The right tackle position was a problem for the Gators down the stretch.
If you take away Montrell Johnson’s 71-yard touchdown run, which was 27.2% of Florida’s total yards, the Gators averaged 2.5 yards per carry vs Miami.
Saturday was a rather horrific display of offense.
On defense, Florida simply couldn’t create any pressure on Cam Ward. Ward is excellent with a clean pocket, and we saw that on Saturday. Ward bought time with his legs when he needed to and was able to roam around in the backfield until his talented receivers eventually found open space.
Mertz’s deep ball accuracy
One of the offseason goals for Graham Mertz was to take more shots down the field. Mertz tried on a number of occasions vs Miami, but none were very accurate. More often than not, we had to hope that the deep balls weren’t picked off, rather than hoping for a touchdown. Mertz wasn’t leading his receivers to open space
This was simply one of Mertz’s worst performances as a Gator as he tossed for just 91 yards on 20 pass attempts.
Lack of discipline
Billy Napier and the Gators’ staff talked all offseason about how the culture and discipline has improved in year three. That discipline was nowhere to be found vs Miami. Florida had two critical roughing the passer penalties on defensive stops, which gave the Canes 15 yards and a first down. Miami would go on to score a touchdown after both penalties.
The roughing penalties were from a 6th year senior and a 4th year junior. Several players seemed like they gave up after halftime as well.
DJ Lagway
Let’s end with a few positive notes. DJ Lagway got to play the 4th quarter and flashed in both the pass game and run game. On his 2nd drive, Lagway connected with Tre Wilson twice for gains of 11 and 16.
He also displayed an athletic 16-yard scramble on 3rd and 10, where he utilized a sharp cut to gain a few extra yards.
Lagway led Florida to one of their two touchdowns. He did throw an interception, but it was a result of a rather horrific play call, where Florida pulled both their right guard and right tackle and left Jake Slaughter to block two free Miami rushers, who hit Lagway as he threw the ball.
With Mertz in concussion protocol, it’s possible he makes his first collegiate start next week vs Samford.
Sound on special teams
Florida’s best unit vs Miami was easily special teams. The Gators were effective in the return game as Chimere Dike had two punt returns over 10+ yards, totaling 28 yards. True freshman Jadan Baugh had a 35 kickoff return in the 4th quarter.
Florida’s punter Jeremy Crawshaw had five punts for 238 yards, including one he landed at Miami’s three-yard line.
The Gators were good in return coverage, highlighted by a massive hit from long snapper Rocco Underwood.
Trey Smack made his only field goal attempt and both of his extra points.
Most importantly, Florida got all 11 players on the field for an entire game. Joe Houston’s first game as Florida’s special teams analyst went smoothly, which is a significant improvement from last season.