Pat Dooley’s Six Pack: Quick reactions to Florida’s narrow loss to FSU
It was not a game for anybody who likes defense.
Florida and Florida State played the highest-scoring game in the history of the series and Florida’s defense — in the end — was just not good enough to get the stops necessary. FSU won 45-38 and was just short of 500 yards of total offense (497).
On a night when Anthony Richardson went 9-for-27 throwing the ball, Florida still had a chance at the end to either send the game to overtime or go for the win.
Sound familiar?
Again, the last gasp ended up being a Richardson pass to nobody under heavy pressure and Florida lost to FSU for the first time in five years.
The Dooley Six-Pack tries to dissect 83 points and 957 yards of offense.
Florida’s defense was back to bad
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FSU came into the game leading the country in explosive plays (20 yards or more) with 80 and you knew the key would be to limit those. That did not happen. Instead, FSU was forced to punt only twice and ended up with seven of those explosive plays.
And that didn’t include tailback Trey Benson rushing for 34 yards on the final two plays of the game-winning drive. Yes, Ventrell Miller was out for the first half. But this is back to being a historically bad defense that has a shot to give up the most yards ever at UF. Ever.
Benson ended up rushing for 111 yards and three touchdowns including the game-winner.
It was an odd game for Richardson
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He did have some drops for the second week in a row and was down five wide receivers. In some ways, the game was a microcosm of his season – good play, bad play, great play, awful play.
He played his heart out. So did most of the players Florida was able to muster for the trip to Tallahassee. FSU had won four straight games by at least 25 points and was in for a battle. But the Gator roster just isn’t that good, certainly not good enough to make so many mistakes again.
And this is a team that has perfected the art of making mistakes
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Including a bad throw by Richardson for an interception, busted coverages in the secondary and a team that was supposed to be disciplined committing a boatload of penalties. For as much as I complain about the talent, this was another game where Florida played just bad enough to lose.
It is an odd team in that you never know what you are going to get. Part of Billy Napier’s self-evaluation after the season is going to be why the Gators lost so many close games, every one of them still winnable in the fourth quarter. That’s not his reputation.
Florida forced a turnover early in the game
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But the defense did very little right the rest of the half. On the other hand, you do have to like the way the Gators responded to FSU’s first score with the 52-yard bomb to Ricky Pearsall. Richardson only had five completions in the first half and three were for touchdowns.
FSU took away his running threat, but that did open up things for the running backs, who had 111 first-half rushing yards and finished the game with 214 between the two of them. Trevor Etienne and Montrell Johnson ran hard, as they always do.
The real trouble was the third quarter
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It was about as bad of a third quarter as anybody could ask for. Not only did Florida’s defense give up 17 points, the offense’s first three drives went for zero yards if you factor in a delay of game penalty.
Florida allowed 10 first downs in the quarter and had several chances to make a play defensively, but Jordan Travis eluded rush after rush to pick up big yards. And Travis threw for 100 yards in the quarter.
He finished the game with 353 total yards and three touchdowns.
And so, Florida heads to its bowl game
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It limps into the next month with two straight losses to finish the regular season at 6-6, the same as last season. The difference? Dan Mullen didn’t make history in 2021. Unfortunately for Gator fans, Napier did.
Not only is he the first coach in the history of the program to lose to Florida’s three biggest rivals in the same season (Georgia, Tennessee and FSU), he is also the first coach in UF history to lose to FSU, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
Georgia, Tennessee and FSU are ranked 1st, 10th and 16th in the CFP rankings, respectively. There are reasons for it all, but no excuses are allowed.
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