Good, Bad and Ugly: Staff reacts to Florida’s brutal loss at Kentucky
The Gator Nation was hoping for a statement win on the road against their Southeastern Conference East rivals, the Kentucky Wildcats, on Saturday at Kroger Field. Instead, it was treated to a beat down few saw coming.
The loss makes it three straight against UK for the first time since Bear Bryant was coaching in Lexington.
From the get-go, one could tell Florida came out flat, failing to score in the first quarter while allowing 16 points to the home team, which was enough to exceed the Orange and Blue’s full-game output of 14 points. Further, the surgical precision with which running back Ray Davis eviscerated the Gators’ defense puts a great deal of doubt in Austin Armstrong’s corps heading into October.
So how do we feel about the loss here at Gators Wire? Following the defeat, we assembled the crew to weigh in with our Good, Bad and Ugly breakdown of Saturday’s fiasco. Take a look below to see what we had to say.
Adam Dubbin - Managing Editor
GOOD: Outside of the interception — which was not entirely his fault as, once again, the receiver tipped it into the opponent’s hands — Graham Mertz put together another fundamentally solid game. He is not flashy or special, but he makes the plays that need to be made. Unfortunately, his O-line was unable to give him enough protection to look downfield, limiting the Gators’ offensive attack.
BAD: The defense. Sweet mother of Moses, Ray Davis looked like Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders and SDSU-era Marshall Faulk all wrapped together against what was considered a top-25 corps coming into the game. For all the praise defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong has gotten after the shutdown of the Vols, we can expect the pendulum to swing the other way after Saturday’s showing.
UGLY: For someone who has been a Florida fan since 1977, losing three straight to Kentucky seems unfathomable … but here we are. Moreover, the ‘Cats had this game by the gonads from the get-go, pushing the throttle to the max the entire game and simply overwhelming a shaky Gators squad. This program just cannot seem to get big wins (or really, any) on the road these past few years.
David Rosenberg - Assistant Editor
GOOD: Adam gets it. Graham Mertz is legit. Maybe he’s not an elite quarterback, but he does his job every time out, which is more than we can say about the run game and defense after today. Pearsall is a fun receiver to watch, but it can’t just be him out there. No Eugene “Tre” Wilson III hurt the offense today, and Caleb Douglas, who also made a nice catch, getting banged up doesn’t help either.
If this team is going to win big games, Mertz needs to take one more big step forward as a quarterback/leader. I thought this would be the game. He came up a bit short.
BAD: For a team that was supposed to rely heavily on its run game, the Gators sure don’t run the ball well in big games. Well, Tennessee is the exception there, but the Kentucky and Utah games have both seen Florida’s rushing attack fail to live up to expectations.
Maybe that says more about the defenses than it does Trevor Etienne and Montrell Johnson Jr., but we’re getting to the point where most fans are going to draw certain conclusions (i.e. good but not good enough).
UGLY: Take your pick. Defense or penalties. I think this ends up being a wake-up call for a young and improving defense, but the penalties are harder to forgive for me. Beating yourself is never fun.
It’s on Billy Napier to clean things up.
Pat Dooley - Staff Writer
GOOD: This will not be easy? There isn’t much good that came out of this game except another highlight moment from Ricky Pearsall and a good day from Jeremy Crawshaw. That’s about it.
BAD: You wondered if this defense would hold up. Maybe the youth finally caught up to these Gators playing against a team full of guys who have had five or six years in an SEC weight room. But they were playing against a mediocre quarterback, and it didn’t matter because the defenders decided this would be the game to take bad angles and miss tackles.
UGLY: There certainly are going to be fans out there who will wonder if they were sold a bill of goods when we were told Billy Napier was thick with discipline. But here we had another embarrassing 10 penalties and other major mistakes. This could have been worse, but it was bad enough.
Jesse Richardson - Staff Writer
GOOD: Well, there’s not a whole lot to say in this section. So I’ll give it to the Ricky Pearsall touchdown. The senior receiver somehow found room in the open field and made a leaping try to cross the goal line. It’s the second week Pearsall made a significant play and he stacked a few yards to add to his total.
BAD: There are a few things to say here. I’m gonna go with Billy Napier’s playcalling. Granted, the offense struggled as a whole but these run plays on third-and-a-mile do not make sense. Some pass plays made sense but weren’t executed to the level where they gained positive yards. Some of the screen plays raised a few question marks as well.
UGLY: From an impenetrable defense in the two previous weeks to getting ran over versus against Kentucky. What the heck happened? Kentucky running back Ray Davis nearly broke the UK rushing record in the first half. Giving up 280 yards on the ground is going to kill the Gators every week.
Read more
Pat Dooley’s Six Pack: Instant reactions to Florida’s bludgeoning at Kentucky
Five takeaways following Florida’s humbling loss to Kentucky
PHOTOS: Highlights from Florida football’s loss at Kentucky
Social media reactions ahead of Florida-Kentucky Week 5 matchup
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