After Graham Mertz opened Saturday’s game going 9 for 9 with 70 yards and a touchdown, things quickly fell apart for the Gators on both sides of the ball. The lack of physicality in the trenches proved that there’s still a significant gap between these two teams. The Gators gave up a total of eight tackles for loss on top of four sacks and two forced fumbles. Matching Georgia’s physicality needed to be the biggest priority, and this team failed to do that for 60 minutes straight.
Despite the issues offensively, wide receiver Eugene Wilson set a UF freshman record with a career-high 11 receptions, breaking the previous tie set between himself, Reidel Anthony and Jabar Gaffney with eight apiece.
Wilson finished the game with 11 receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown.
“I think first drive we were clicking. And then after — they have great coaches too; they’ve got great players, too. They made adjustments. I think anytime you’re in a game, you’ve got to be prepared to give a punch and receive a punch, I think, especially in this sport. It’s a fistfight, and it’s for four quarters. We’ve got to be better to be prepared for that punch and punch back and be able to respond quickly,” Graham Mertz said. “We started fast. Momentum was going. We knew it was going to be a momentum game, especially with the stands split 50/50.”
Behind poor offensive line play all game, Graham Mertz battled and did all that he could completing 25 of 34 pass attempts for 230 yards and two touchdowns. The redshirt junior was sacked four times in Saturday’s loss.
“I think the guys are frustrated. Because we know we’re better than that. And we know it’s controllable stuff,” Mertz said on the mistakes offensively. “We’ve said that at Utah and Kentucky, now this game. Every game there’s stuff you can control that go wrong, but it’s what did you do after that, your response to that. I think we’re going to push guys to have that short-term memory and respond quick, especially when you’re playing great teams. We have a lot of great teams on the schedule. It’s going to come down to executing, playing at a high level and being able to take a punch, give a punch, and keep punching because these games are going to be four-quarter battles.”
You can’t try to do too much against a very smart and disciplined team like Georgia and their defense, and that’s exactly what Florida did on Saturday.
After having the third-best fourth down efficiency in the FBS, the Gators went 0 for 2 on fourth downs and weren’t any better on third down.
“It definitely shifted the momentum,” Mertz said on the failed fourth down conversion. “I trust Coach Napier and his play call with all my heart. Anytime he calls a play it’s my job to go out there and execute it. We had a direct snap to Trev, and they had a great defensive call and they made a play. It was a momentum shift, but when that happens, our defense did a great job of, especially when we would give them a short field, I mean, holding them to those few field goals. That was big. So, for us we’ve got to play complementary football in all three phases, but I’m never going to doubt a play call. It’s my job to go out there and execute it.”
The biggest emphasis in practice has been the margin for error offensively. If you want to hang around a team like Georgia, you can’t make very many mistakes in any area.
Fortunately for the Gators, penalties weren’t apart of those issues on Saturday as the team finished with two total penalties all game.
“I think there were a set amount of plays that, when you’re playing a great team like that, I mean the margin for error, Coach talked about it all week, is so slim. You make a mistake. I stepped in the pocket, didn’t have good ball control,” Mertz said on the errors offensively. “The ball got tipped out. It’s first and, what, around the 15-, 18-yard line. There’s so many little plays within the game, but I can think of a set amount that we flat out didn’t execute. And it really flipped the score. Especially when you’re playing a good team like that, the score can get away from you quick. We’ve got to be better.”
Sitting at five wins and three losses through eight weeks, the final stretch of games to conclude the season doesn’t get any easier for the Gators. Florida will take on Arkansas next weekend in the Swamp, followed by LSU and Missouri on the road with a big matchup against Florida State at the end of the season. This team still has a chance to bounce back and make a statement with some meaningful games still left to play.
“I’ll tell you right now it’s not going to snowball. They’re a great team. They got after us today. We made a few mistakes. But we’ve got a young team and I’m confident in our leaders to see the bigger picture,” Mertz said on if this team will keep fighting. “We’ve seen that all year. We know what this team has. And we know that our best is still out there. So, there will be no snowball effect from this, I can guarantee you that.”
The loss against Georgia was somewhat expected for a young team like the Gators, even with Georgia not having Brock Bowers on the field. If this team wants to finish on a good note, they can’t have a repeat of last season and must continue to improve on their mistakes this upcoming week.