Four Takeaways from Florida’s Loss to Texas A&M

Building on last week’s 29-21 win over then-No. 9 Texas, Gators coach Billy Napier wanted Saturday’s game against No. 5 Texas A&M to be a multiplier. Instead, the only math happening was another loss added to the record, as Florida dropped its fourth game of the year, 34-17.

All the problems that have cost Florida games this season reared their ugly head in this one, especially on the offensive side of the ball, where, after scoring 14 first-quarter points Saturday, Florida scored three the rest of the way. In addition, for the first time all year, the defense regressed and was overmatched all game.

But none of that matters, right? Because Napier said postgame that he will get the issues figured out. After all, it is only year four.

“In general, here, we’ve got to stay the course to keep going here. I think we got a lot of kids in there trying to do things the right way,” Napier said. 
”We’re close.”

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Unfortunately for Napier, close is not going to cut it, and after so long, it becomes an excuse for an overarching problem. With the loss, he is now 21-23 at Florida and moves to a staggering 0-14 against ranked opponents away from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Now, the question becomes, was the Texas win just a one-off performance, or is Texas A&M that much better than Florida?

Regardless of the answer, the Gators move to 2-4 on the season and will return home to face Mississippi State next week.

Until then, here are the biggest takeaways from Saturday’s loss: 

Offensive line overwhelmed … again

Stop me if you have read  this sentence this year — Florida’s offensive line does not look good. History repeated itself in College Station as Texas A&M teed off on the Gators’ offensive line. Florida allowed three sacks, six tackles-for-loss, five quarterback hurries and the pressure resulted in two of the three forced fumbles. Florida now ranks 85th in sacks allowed (12) and 77th in sacks percentage (6.08%).

The Gators appeared to turn a corner after playing flawlessly against Texas a week earlier, but that was all flushed down the drain after last night’s results. Austin Barber stood out the most with his performance at left tackle. Barber finished with a 30 PFF grade, which was the lowest from any Gators player. Most of quarterback DJ Lagway’s sacks came from his side and two of the three forced fumbles were from defenders rushing from the left side of the line.

Aggies Run Wild

The biggest key coming into this game was Florida’s defense having to stop the A&M rushing attack. The Aggies rushed for over 300 yards in last year’s matchup and the ground game was big focal point coming into Saturday’s meeting. Similar to the Miami game, the Aggies leaned on their talented offensive line and ran the ball 42 times for 183 yards, averaging 4.4 yards per carry, and scored three of their four touchdowns on the ground.

Le’Veon Moss led the way with 11 carries for 51 yards and one touchdown. His day was cut short after he was rolled up early in the second quarter and left the game with an undisclosed injury. Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed  finished 16 of 26 for 234 yards with one touchdown and one interception through the air, but added 37 rushing yards on seven carries. 

Lost third-down battle

To pull off a road upset, the opposing team needs to be able to win the third-down battle. But losing the time-of-position battle makes such a task more difficult, lowering the odds of pulling off any win.

Florida knew it would need to be efficient on third down –against the No. 5 third-down defense meant staying ahead of the chains. Instead, the Gators’ average third-down distance to go was 9.5 yards, a main reason why the Gators finished 1-for-11 on third down. 

Texas A&M’s pass rushers  took over and pressured Lagway for four quarters. 

“We were inefficient on first and second down. We weren’t able to run it effectively. And then obviously at times when we did throw it, they were able to get pressure,” Napier said. “Then you are playing third and long, Mike does a great job with his third down package, they are really good at what they do in that regard.”

Six of the Gators’ 11 third downs were distances of 10 yards or more, including a third-and-12 screen pass from their own 19 that resulted in a loss of three yards. The only conversion Florida picked up was a 25-yard completion to Eugene Wilson III on third-and-11 in the third quarter. On the other side, the Gators’ defense struggled to make enough third-down stops in the game. Texas A&M was 9 of 17m with an average distance to go of 4.6 yards.

Late in the fourth, when the score  was still 24-17, Florida allowed A&M to sustain a 12-play, 50-yard drive that took over eight minutes off the clock. The Aggies converted three first downs on that drive before delivering the knockout touchdown to extend the lead to 31-17.

A main reason for that goes back to A&M being able to run the ball and not fall behind the sticks like Florida did. UF only ran the ball for 74 yards on 24 carries, averaging 3 yards a carry.

Offense Stalls

Going on the road, Florida needed to have a fast start offensively and they did just that, with touchdowns on two of its first three possessions. But after its second score, the offense went cold. The Gators’ final 10 drives to end the game went as follows: punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble, field goal, punt, turnover on downs, fumble, end of game.

For the game, Florida finished with 319 total yards, with 245 coming through the air and had two turnovers.

Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, SEC