Five Takeaways from Florida’s Disastrous USF Loss
From inexcusable penalties to head-scratching coaching decisions and poor execution on offense and defense, everything that could have gone wrong for No. 13 Florida (1-1) went wrong in Saturday’s disastrous 18-16 loss to USF.
“I want to keep it short and sweet. I think that we can do much better, we can coach better, we can play better,” Gators coach Billy Napier said. “Obviously, I don’t like these any more than our fans do or you do. We have to do much better.”
Florida suffered its first lost in program history to USF, and Saturday’s game marked the first time since 2013 that the Gators have lost to a Group of Five opponent.
Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s debacle:
Too Many Penalties
After a penalty-free Week 1, Florida racked up 11 penalties for 103 yards. These mistakes had dire consequences on the game, wiping away two touchdowns, forcing a field goal on one false start penalty and forcing a punt on another that led to a USF safety after the snap went over Tommy Doman’s head.
Defensively, the two costliest penalties came on the final drive of the game. Trailing 16-15 with 2:25 left in the fourth quarter, and backed up at their own 11-yard line, USF needed to go the length of the field to win.
On the second play of the drive, cornerback Dijon Johnson was called for pass interference, resulting in a first down. The ensuing play, Florida stopped USF for no gain, but after the play, defensive tackle Brendan Bett spat in the face of an USF lineman and earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and ejection.
Those 30 free yards of penalties helped ignite the Bulls’ game-winning drive.
“It’s unacceptable. I think we’ve got a lot of players in that room as well that have the same belief that it’s unacceptable,” Napier said. “When a guy does something like that, he’s compromising the team. He’s putting himself before the team. Everything the game is about, you’re compromising. So there will be lessons to be learned there.”
Losing Turnover Battle
One of the keys heading into the game was to win the turnover battle – Florida did not. Instead, the Gators’ offense lost the turnover battle and did not force any on defense. The interceptions continued to rack up for Lagway, who threw his first of the year Saturday. In 14-career games, Lagway has now thrown 10 interceptions.
For the second-year in a row, long-snapper Rocco Underwood has cost Florida points with a bad special teams snap. Trailing 12-9 in the third, Underwood sailed the ball over Doman’s head into the end zone for a safety. While it is technically not a turnover, it works as one here.
Coming off a two-turnover performance in Week 1, the Gators’ defense could not produce any turnovers or real pressure on USF quarterback Byrum Brown. A week after Brown went down four times, Florida got to him only once.
Explosive Plays Plague Defense
The last two seasons, Florida’s defense has been dreadful against explosive plays, ranked outside the top 100 among Division I teams in that category. In the third quarter, Byrum Brown found receiver Keshaun Singleton for a 66-yard touchdown pass.
“I think that the ball’s in the air, we’ve got two players breaking on the ball. There’s an opportunity there; ultimately, there’s a quick substitution. We’ve got to get our call in. I think that was the biggest issue is we didn’t necessarily have a call. They snapped it as quick as possible,” Napier said. “In general, there’s an opportunity to make a play on the ball. We misjudged the ball a little bit. Ultimately, I think that’s the thing that you’re going to evaluate.”
After the two costly penalties on the final drive, the next blow was a 29-yard screen pass that set up USF deep into Florida territory due to missed tackles.
Napier’s Poor Clock-Management
With 1:13 left in the game, USF started running the clock out by pounding the ball up the middle on the ground. Florida had two timeouts to preserve as much time as possible, and instead of using any, Napier declined and USF snapped the ball at the 26-second mark. Weirdly, Napier called the two final timeouts on the next two plays.
“We had two at that point, there’s going to be a field goal kicked,” Napier said. “They had one, so they had an extra down. So, regardless of when the timeouts get called, it’s going to end up about the same.”
Lagway Lagging
For the second week in a row, Lagway’s struggles to consistently push down the field have shown. Lagway missed at least four throws where he had receivers open, including an overthrow that was intercepted.
Lagway finished 23-for-33 for 222 passing yards, with one touchdown and one interception. His struggles cannot be ignored as he continues to get right after missing all of spring and most of fall camp due to injuries.
“I feel like I still didn’t play very well. We didn’t get the W, so I didn’t play well,” Lagway said. “I put the offensive responsibilities on myself. Got to make the plays when I need to make the plays and when my guys are counting on me.
“So I put all that on me.”
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, SEC, USF
