Despite a 17-point road victory, the Gators’ struggles on defense continued behind an offense that felt like they needed to score on every drive to keep the Bulldogs from creeping back on Saturday. Mississippi State’s 240 rushing yards were the second most Florida has allowed all season (310, Texas A&M). The Gators have allowed 550 rushing yards over their last two games.
There were flashes in man coverage at times, but this defense hasn’t gotten any better in critical areas. In Saturday’s win over the Bulldogs, Florida missed 23 tackles, the most since in the Billy Napier era.
“We have a lot of things to fix and I mean, that’s what practice is for, we have the bye week next week so that will be good for us, gonna watch everything and correct it,” sophomore linebacker Grayson Howard said on Saturday’s win.
Prior to Florida’s matchup against Mississippi State, the Bulldogs recorded a total of 66 rushing yards against Toledo and 24 total rushing yards against Arizona State. Mississippi State’s 240 rushing yards recorded against the Gators almost broke the Bulldogs’ season total of 293 rushing yards. Something must change up front before Florida faces UCF, as the Knights currently have the best rushing offense in the FBS with 1,127 total rushing yards recorded.
“I don’t have any other answer for you other than we’re capable of being better and I think we can play better,” Napier said on Florida’s defensive performance. “I think we can coach better. And look, we’ve got an open date here. We need to take a good look in the mirror on both sides of the spectrum, players and coaches. And maybe we need to adjust who plays and who doesn’t play. I still think that we need to handle the tempo better. Ultimately, a lot of their success was built around the tempo. We know we’re going to play teams that do that in the future. We got to get ready for it.”
On a more positive note, players like Jason Marshall Jr. proved why they were once seen as a potential first round pick. The Gators totaled the most PBU’s they have all season after recording six total. Two of those PBU’s came from Marshall himself.
“Ultimately, we’ll be able to look at the tape and coach some of these guys relative to some of the things they can do better in those areas. But, we did play tighter coverage,” Napier said. “I thought there were times out there where we played legal and were able to break up some passes and get off the field. And some of those are bang-bang. Without taking the aggression away, just coaching the technical part in terms of what they can do better.”
One of Florida’s bright spots in Saturday’s win was the goal-line stand less than a minute into the fourth quarter. A Bulldog touchdown would have made it a one-score game, but the Gators stuffed Mississippi State four times from less than three yards away.
“We know when they get in the red area they do a lot of motions and it’s certain stuff for us,” Trikweze Bridges said. “That was something I was expecting them to do and when that happened and I saw on the turnover play, I saw the quarterback doing an option play and I was just kind like penetrating to the quarterback and forcing him to toss it. It was a bad toss and we just made a statement on that play.”
Defensive back Trikweze Bridges had his best game as a Florida Gator on Saturday after totaling 10 tackles (5 solo) and a forced fumble. However, it’s not great when you have a defensive back lead the team in tackles.
“I didn’t even know I was leading the defense in tackles. Just like, do whatever I can to be a part of the team and help the team out,” Bridges said. “I don’t look at the stats. I just look at the game and work on the things that I need to get fixed. It’s good to have double digits (tackles). I’m not sure if I ever had this (many). That’s another thing about playing safety. I’m able to see a lot of stuff at safety and just come down, make plays, react a lot faster than playing corner, man-to-man. Not having my vison on the quarterback. I had the opportunity to play corner today, which was really good and really fun. I made a play, a PBU. I wish I had picked the ball off but that’s something I’ll go back and look at.”.
The Bulldogs previously averaged 19.3 first downs a game which ranked 74th in the FBS but recorded a total of 31 first downs against the Gators. In Mississippi State’s previous three matchups, the Bulldogs recorded 19 first downs against Eastern Kentucky, 18 against Arizona State and 21 against Toledo. If the Gators want to win more games this season, a dramatic change on the defensive front must happen.