Florida football: Takeaways from the the first half against Kentucky

It’s been a bit of a reversal as the Florida football offense has been the story, not its defense as the Gators and Kentucky battle in Lexington.

It was supposed to be the case of Florida football’s defense applying pressure to Kentucky’s untested quarterback.

Well, that certainly wasn’t the case in the first half of the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams Saturday night.

Kentucky had its way with Florida on offense while the Florida offense sputtered. The Wildcats looked like they wanted it more with a 14-7 halftime lead.

Here’s a look at some takeaways from the first half:

Rushing three

Kentucky was facing third and 21 on their opening drive of the game.

So, you would think the Gators would bring four or five in the box to put pressure on Wildcat starter Sawyer Smith.

Nope.

Gators put three on the line and Kentucky converts the third down. Eventually, it would lead to a game-tying touchdown.

We need better decisions than that.

Speaking of decisions …

I’m not really sure what Feleipe Franks was thinking of when he tried to force a pass early in the first quarter into heavy traffic.

Not only did it stall the Gators momentum early, but the interception by Tyrell Ajian was just the result of bad decision-making on the field.

Just throw the ball away.

Underestimation

I think we all underestimated Smith coming in as the back-up quarterback for Kentucky.

We also underestimated the Wildcat offensive line, which gave the new quarterback plenty of time to start 9-for-9 with a touchdown before his first incompletion in the second quarter.

Oh, he also had a quarterback sneak for a touchdown to give Kentucky a 14-7 lead.

Sawyer finished the half going 10-for-13 for 128 yards and a touchdown.

Holding, really?

Franks had two … TWO rushing touchdowns called back for holding.

Really?

I thought, even though they were young and untested, they would at least be disciplined.

But, the first hold led to this awesome touchdown catch by Freddie Swain:

So, what do we need to do?

First, the defense has to lock it down.

The Kentucky offense has had its way with the football in the first half, with 12 first downs and nearly 170 yards of total offense.

Also, Franks has to spend more time hanging on to the football and making better decisions than anything else. Even though it didn’t lead to a score, that first interception was a killer.

The fumble was, well just a bad play.

And, just like the last two games, the Florida football running game has to emerge at some point. Just 20 yards on 14 carries for the Gators.

That’s unacceptable.