Most teams try and stay ahead of the chains. It didn’t matter to the No. 8 Georgia Bulldogs Saturday night.
3rd and 1? Cool. 3rd and 18? No problem.
The Florida Gators defense couldn’t get off of the field on Saturday night. They couldn’t get to Jake Fromm and the junior torched them. Fromm finished the night 20-30 for 279 and 2 touchdowns. He was 10-13 for 119 yards and threw a touchdown on third down alone.
“Third down we just gotta get off the field. We gotta get to the quarterback. He was too comfortable back there,” senior Jon Greenard said. “I was terrible. I was ass today. No excuse.”
Greenard is a leader and shouldering more blame than he needs. He led the Gators with nine tackles in his first game back after suffering a high ankle sprain.
All week long the talk was of Georgia’s offensive line. The massive unit had given up just four sacks this season. They clear the way for the SEC’s top rushing attack and stopping the run was the biggest thing Florida felt they needed to do Saturday in order to win. For the most part, the Gators were successful in stopping the run. The defensive line was stout upfront. They held D’Andre Swift to just 86 yards, 30 of which came on a single carry with a missed tackle.
If someone had told Todd Grantham and Dan Mullen that the Gators would hold Georgia to just 119 rushing yards they would have felt pretty good about their chances at winning the ball game.
The score was 24-17, just a seven-point game but it never truly felt that close because of Florida’s inability to get off the field on defense and stay on it offensively. Florida ran 26 plays through the first 42 minutes of the game.
That’s unfathomable.
“I mean, that was a telling story. I feel like we did a good job of stopping the run but we didn’t get off the field,” senior linebacker David Reese said. “It sucked. I feel like we did a good job stopping a great back in Swift. Not stopping him, but maintaining him as long as we could. Also their complementary backs, NO. 35 and No. 3, did a good job and put ourselves in good situations to get off the field, but we didn’t.”
On offense, the Gators were 0-4 on third down in the first half. They didn’t convert their first third-down attempt until well into the fourth quarter. The time of possession at halftime was 19:44 to 10:16 in favor of Georgia. Florida’s defense wasn’t helping themselves but they also weren’t getting help from the offense.
Some of the most troubling numbers are the actual conversions. Georgia converted third downs of 14, 11, 8 and 7 yards. Georgia converted 12-of-18 third-down conversions. The last time they converted 12 third downs against a ranked opponent it was in the 2014 Belk Bowl against Louisville. The Cardinals’ defensive coordinator was Todd Grantham.
“Definitely give Georgia credit. We were right there. If you look at the plays guys are right there. It’s a matter of making that play. Credit to them,” Greenard said. “They’ve got some ballplayers and a really good system over there, really good play calling. Hats off to them.”
Florida has to be better on third down. They came into this game against Georgia with the 8th ranked 3rd down defense in the SEC allowing a first down on 34.91% of their 3rd down tries. That number ballooned up to 39.51% after this one game.
Saturday night Georgia was able to exploit a clear deficiency in an otherwise sound Florida defense.
How will they respond with three games left?