The No. 11 Gators lost their SEC opener to No. 1 Alabama, 31-29, on Saturday afternoon in the Swamp.
Here are my five biggest thoughts on the week that was.
1. The Gators are the better team, but they made way too many mistakes.
If you had told me before the game that the Gators would outgain the Tide by more than 100 yards and outrush them by more than 150, I would’ve thought there would be no way that they’d lose the game.
Unfortunately, they beat themselves with an interception, penalties on third down, a missed extra point and sloppy tackling at times.
I said in my keys to victory article on Friday that they needed to play nearly flawlessly to have a chance to win. I was wrong, as they definitely had a chance to win despite the mistakes.
That bodes well for the Gators in a potential rematch in the SEC Championship Game – which I think is likely – although you’ve got to think that Alabama will improve significantly between now and then.
Saturday was a giant missed opportunity.
2. The offensive line is legit.
I thought they were going to be a really good unit after the first two games, but I was unsure because of the opponents they had played and the fact that a couple of long runs by Anthony Richardson skewed the statistics.
But there’s no question that this is one of the best positions on the team now. They ran for 258 yards and averaged six yards per carry against a defense that was surrendering less than 80 rushing yards per game and is loaded with NFL talent.
There were times when everybody in the stadium knew that they were about to run it, and they got the job done anyway. That’s the sign of a dominant offensive line.
They paved the way for 63 yards on the 99-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter.
In particular, I thought the middle of the line in Ethan White, Kingsley Eguakun and Stewart Reese blocked their butts off and played with the type of aggressive attitude that you love to see.
And they still protected the quarterback extremely well, only giving up one sack to Alabama’s ferocious pass rush.
The offensive line has been the biggest pleasant surprise so far this season. Some of y’all owe John Hevesy an apology.
3. I was beyond shocked to see Alabama get pushed around like that on both lines of scrimmage.
On the other side of the ball, the Tide rushed for just 91 yards and averaged 3.4 yards per carry. The Gators sacked Bryce Young twice and hurried him six more times.
For pretty much the entirety of Nick Saban’s tenure, Alabama has been the bully of the SEC. They win games by pounding their opponents into submission and wearing them down in the second half.
The Gators almost flipped the script on them in what would’ve been one of the most fitting and satisfying ways to win a game ever.
The trenches were the biggest difference between Alabama and Florida in the 2020 SEC Championship Game. The Gators haven’t just made up that ground, but they’ve surpassed Alabama, at least for now.
4. Dan Mullen called one of his best games at Florida.
To come back from 18 points down against a defense as talented as Alabama’s usually requires a potent aerial attack and a bunch of chunk plays in the passing game.
Emory Jones played much better than he did in the first two games, but the passing game still wasn’t anything ultra-special.
Instead, Mullen nearly orchestrated a big comeback by leaning on the running game. It just seemed like the Tide could never get a feel for what the Gators were going to do. Saban said after the game that the Gators took them out of some of the things that they wanted to do on defense by running so many option plays.
If you leave Saban, one of the greatest defensive wizards the game has ever seen, searching for answers for the entirety of the game, you’re doing an incredible job.
Mullen seems to have Saban’s scheme figured out pretty well. He put up 46 points on them last year, and he also gave the Tide a couple of scares with inferior talent at Mississippi State.
5. The defense played much more physically.
Finally, we saw the cornerbacks play press coverage on third downs and make plays on the ball. They broke up seven passes after breaking up just three passes combined in the first two games.
The defensive line fought through Alabama’s ginormous offensive line to regularly penetrate the Tide’s backfield. The linebackers flew downhill and hit the running backs hard.
This was the kind of defensive performance we were told we would see all offseason. The first two games looked like a diet version of 2020, but they turned things up a notch against Alabama.