I don’t know about you, but I was fairly encouraged by the Missouri game. Let me explain.
I was not expecting a work of art. When Florida has noon games against non-marquee opponents, they nearly always come out flat. That’s just par for the course. Remember that loss to Ole Miss in 2008 that spawned Tim Tebow’s famous speech? Yeah, that kicked at 12:30, and the Rebels were unranked at the time. Even the best Gator teams fall prey to that.
So given that UF came out in their customary fashion and were not terribly impressive for a half, they still put the Tigers away better than Georgia did the prior week. I am not going to sit here and tell you that these results mean the Gators are better than the Bulldogs, but I just want to provide some perspective. UGA was in serious danger of losing. Florida never was, though overtime was on the table until Jaydon Hill’s second interception.
The Gators missed two field goals and turned it over twice. They were also up by two scores in the fourth quarter until the defense went all-gas-and-no-brakes: sacks or giant gains allowed only from then on.
Mizzou is not a good team, and a C+ (at best) version of Florida handled its business. A 27-10 finish with a second half shutout would’ve felt more like progress, but it was still a good sign.
There’s nothing UF can do about its kicker situation right now. If Adam Mihalek is the best they have, then so be it. His misses have been on longer kicks, so maybe it’s time to try Trey Smack on those. Or maybe Smack is less accurate in practice on them. There’s no way to know unless Billy Napier tells us.
The turnovers are the more frustrating thing because they theoretically can be fixed midseason.
I don’t know what the deal is with the turnovers the last two seasons. Trevor Etienne’s fumble against Utah aside, it’s like every turnover that UF could lose, it loses. I know Kyle Trask used to throw a pass every game or two that’d go right at a defender, but usually they’d hit them in the hands and fall to the dirt. Maybe this is some kind of cosmic ledger balancing out.
But Florida would look so much better if it would stop giving the ball away. Heck, Dan Mullen might still be on the sideline if last year’s team didn’t do the same.
Anthony Richardson’s fumble is at least explicable as an inexperienced (albeit increasingly less so) quarterback not knowing how big of trouble he was in as a pocket collapsed around him. The pick was a 50/50 decision followed by a tricky tip drill. I don’t know how this stuff keeps happening. Maybe it wasn’t making up for Trask’s bad throws but for the dropped pick early on in the game.
AR never looked as comfortable as he did the last two weeks, but we saw late why he was never going to come out. His long run to set up a touchdown is not something any other QB on the roster can do.
But man, this team would have an instantly higher ceiling by a win or two if they could just figure out a way to stop turning it over. The defense has been finding some takeaways finally, and Xzavier Henderson actually had a good punt return. It could’ve been a stopped clock being right once a day thing, but that was at least one bright spot for a special teams unit that needs them.
I don’t know what the problem is with the defense. I mean, I do: they don’t have enough good players. See the recruiting issues that got Mullen fired for more on the topic.
Still though, I shouldn’t see Jason Marshall whiff on a tackle of one of Missouri’s replacement-level wideouts. I don’t know if he had a brain fart or if he was out of position or if the call from the DC just wasn’t any good. I don’t mean to single out Marshall, but inexplicable stuff happens all the time. Eventually it’s no longer inexplicable and becomes merely a sign of something very wrong.
Trey Dean at least showed why he keeps getting so much playing time with some good run stops early. I still don’t feel like I can trust him though. Same for Tre’Vez Johnson, who I’m pretty sure I saw jogging after Tigers more than once on Saturday. Sometimes he looks like a lightning bolt and really tags a ball carrier, and sometimes he looks like a weekend runner training for a 5K.
Hill’s return proved big, but he bolstered the deepest position grouping on the defense. They need more of that. More of everything. More quality DT snaps to keep Gervon Dexter fresher for longer. More linebackers who can stop the run besides Ventrell Miller. Shemar and Scooby are trying, but it’s a hard position to play as a freshman (even a redshirt in Williams’s case). More sure tacklers. More gaps filled. More, more, more.
Richardson to date had looked either like a superhero or terrible. Over the weekend he finally landed somewhere in between, and it worked out okay. I still think the team goes as far as he can take them, but we learned he won’t always be the main reason why the Gators win or hang in there with a better team or why they lose or scrape by a bad team.
The defense might be taking over that position of the limiting factor for the season. LSU couldn’t do much against Tennessee on offense, but I can just see the Tigers’ Jayden Daniels running wild since any quarterback with wheels better than Luke Del Rio apparently can do that on this defense.
Anyway, this Missouri game is probably not one anyone is going to remember when they look back on this year. That’s OK. Not every game needs to be something monumental. Sometimes taking care of business even when you don’t feel like it is enough.