Graham Mertz leads offensive outburst as Florida football rallies for win at South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Florida Gators found a dramatic way to pick up its their road win of the season, rallying from down 10 points in the fourth quarter to beat South Carolina 41-39 before 79,247 at Williams-Brice Stadium.
UF trailed 37-27 with 9:11 remaining before quarterback Graham Mertz led Florida football on back-to-back touchdown drives to complete the comeback.
Mertz found tight end Arlis Boardingham on a 4-yard TD pass to cut South Carolina's lead to 37-34 with 4:40 to go. UF's defense was able to get the Gators the ball back with 2:43 left, and Mertz led the Gators on a 9-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 21-yard TD pass to Ricky Pearsall with 47 seconds left to put Florida up 41-37.
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Florida (5-2, 3-1 SEC) snapped a four-game road losing streak dating back to last season, picking up its first road win since Nov. 5, 2022 against Texas A&M.
Mertz went 30 for 48 for a career-high 423 yards passing with 3 TDs and no interceptions.
Here are three takeaways from the Florida win:
Florida football offense gets off to fast start
UF's offense got off to the fast start it was looking for on the road, scoring 21 points on its first four offensive possessions. Florida started the game with a 9-play, 66-yard TD drive, capped by a 3-yard TD run by Trevor Etienne to put the Gators up 7-0 with 10:47 left in the first quarter.
From there, Florida put together two field goal drives, and went back ahead 21-14 on its fourth offensive drive, capped by 7-yard TD pass from Mertz to wide receiver Kahleil Jackson. Mertz spread the ball around to eight different receivers in the first half, completing 16 of 24 passes for 228 yards and a TD. Napier called a more aggressive game as well against the SEC's worst pass defense, taking more shots downfield.
Florida defense unable to make South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler uncomfortable
Rattler completed his first 10 pass attempts, carving up UF's beleaguered defense. He passed for 2 TDs in the first half as UF recorded just one sack in the first two quarters, by Princely Umanmielen. It didn't get much from the Florida defense in the second half as Rattler came up with some second half scrambles to escape pressure. Rattler finished the game 23 of 30 for 313 yards with 4 TDs and an interception.
Gators get 4th down magic
Florida went 3 for 3 on 4th down conversions in the 4th quarter. Two came on a touchdown drive that cut South Carolina's lead to 37-34 and the third came on a 4th-and-10 play, when Mertz connected with Ricky Pearsall on a 26-yard throw to the South Carolina 49 yard line.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football rallies for win at South Carolina
