Both Kentucky’s offense and defense dominated the Gators in every aspect on Saturday, but this Florida team made it difficult to have any chance at all. From the procedural issues, missed tackles and poor offensive execution, Kentucky walked away with their third-straight win over the Gators.
Offense implodes
This team failed to execute behind a poor running game and bad situational football. The offensive line had several penalties and continued to struggle even after getting some key players back on the field.
“I think between possessions, we know what happened,” Napier said. “I think sometimes, you’ve got to remain objective. Sometimes it may be design. Sometimes it’s communication. Sometimes it’s undisciplined penalties. Sometimes it’s fundamentals and techniques. I think there’s lots of things that contribute when you don’t have success in this game. We’ve got a great group of people that work hard to do that and we certainly weren’t good enough today.”
The Gators committed 10 penalties for 85 yards and were 4 of 13 on third down efficiency. Six of those penalties were on the offensive line.
It’s clear that the problems we witnessed against Charlotte weren’t cleaned up after losing a must-win game against Kentucky.
“That’s my job, to have this football team ready to play,” Napier said. “We weren’t physically ready. All parts of the game they were more effective. I think for me, personally, as a leader, I have to do a better job for our team. In all ways. Ultimately, that’s my job. Is to have our football team ready to play. I’m going to take ownership of that because I know what we’re capable of.”
The offensive line gave up a total of nine tackles for loss, holding both Montrell Johnson and Trevor Etienne to a combined 71 yards on 21 carries. Quarterback Graham Mertz was also sacked three times and struggled at times despite decent numbers. Mertz completed 25 of 30 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns.
“I can be better in protection,” Mertz said on his play and struggles on the offensive line. “I can watch more protection cut-ups, get us in the right mic point, the right slide. There are so many different things that go into that. They fight like crazy every single play. I owe it to them to get them in the right call and be their extra eyeballs that’s always checking. I think today, they did some good things up-front and different pressures. So, I think in total, when I go back and watch the film, I am going to see that I could’ve done a better job in protection, giving them alert calls and getting them ready for looks that are coming.”
There weren’t too many positives to take away from Florida’s performance offensively. The running game has been nonexistent for this team when the offensive line isn’t playing well and that continues to show. When this team isn’t executing, the situational football starts to go downhill quickly.
Defense takes a wrong turn
The defense struggled to get off blocks and make tackles for four quarters with Kentucky running back Ray Davis rushed for 280 yards and four total touchdowns. The senior running back nearly broke the record for the most rushing yards recorded against the Gators in program history. Ty Davis-Price of LSU rushed for 287 yards against Florida in 2021.
“It came down to being gap sound,” Shemar James said on stopping Ray Davis. “Guys were jumping out of their gaps, not tackling very well. With a back like that, you miss a tackle and it’s ten more yards, 15 more yards, 20 more yards. It just came down to execution. We were just shooting ourselves in the foot, not wrapping up, not tackling, getting him to the ground.”
Kentucky was clearly the more physical team on Saturday as they took control of the line of scrimmage for four quarters. It was rare to see the front four get their hands on Ray Davis.
The Gators recorded zero sacks and just four tackles for loss.
“To play on defense, you are the aggressor in that situation,” James said on the physicality defensively. “It kind of hurts me to my heart and hurts the guys that I play behind and in front of to know that, I guess you could say out-physical today by Kentucky in the front seven. We’ll get that right next week.”
The defense slightly improved in the second half while only giving up 10 second-half points. Unfortunately, the offensive production just wasn’t enough to cut the deficit once again.
Shemar James recorded a team-high of eight tackles with one tackle for loss.
Unsolved issues
Penalties on special teams are starting to become a consistent trend for this team every week. It was only a matter of time before it caught up to the Gators.
The next play after Florida’s punt return 4th down penalty, running back Ray Davis ran for a long 75-yard touchdown.
“It’s disappointing, because we had a similar situation in last week’s game. I think we just got a young player out there who made a poor decision, and he knows he made a mistake. I do think that that was a pivotal moment in the game,” Napier said on the special team’s penalty. “I think you’re spot on. It’s still a close game. We’re off the field. We’re going to get it at midfield. We’re going to get it on the short field for probably the first time the whole day. Then we put them back out there and they ended up getting a touchdown off that possession. So, no question. 100 percent a huge play in the game.”
Procedural issues got even worse for Florida as they had a total of 13 players on the field when Ray Davis scored his third touchdown of the game.
It’s not just a special team’s issue at this point, this is an overall coaching issue that needed to be fixed weeks ago.
“We’ve got to take a good look in the mirror from an operational standpoint,” Napier said.
Kentucky has proven that the gap is closed between these two teams and things need to change quickly with the Gators in the middle of a tough stretch. This team has talent and that isn’t the issue anymore. The preparation in practice isn’t on the level it needs to be with the number of issues we’ve seen throughout the 2023 football season.