Florida football: Florida offense vs. the Towson Tiger defense

Each week we will look at the match-up between the Florida football offense and the defense of the opposing team. This week the Gators take on the Towson Tigers.

Florida is coming off a big win in the Swamp against Tennessee. The first game as a starter for  Florida quarterback Kyle Trask was a huge success.

Trask proved he could handle the job as the starting QB for the gators. The Offense has some improving to do, but are well on the way.

Towson is coming off an overtime loss to Villanova where their defense gave up a season-high in points and yards. They have a good group of players that like to create turnovers.

Towson defense

The Towson defense a good defense with a lot of good players. The only thing that may hurt them is the competition they play in. They have a very good backfield that wields a couple of big-time DB’s. Coby Tippett is a DB that comes from good football DNA.

The son of Hall of Famer Andre Tippett, Coby has had a good year so far. With three interceptions on the year, he is always around the ball.

He and a linebacker corps that seems to find their way to the end zone each week. Last week they had a big week for turnovers. Redshirt sophomore linebacker Christian Dixon recovered a fumble in the second half, while redshirt senior linebacker Keon Paye made his third interception of the season.

Linebacker Robert Heyward ran an INT back for a touchdown in the fourth as well. Hayward was not pleased about the overall play and had this to say about the defense: “

"There were a lot of things,” he said. “We were out of position sometimes. Some plays, they were just more physical than we were.”"

This will a huge test for these guys this week as they up against a Florida wide receiving corps that is second to none in the game. Not to knock what they did the first four games, but this is a class of receivers like they have yet to ever see.

For the Colonial conference they are a very good defense but playing in the Swamp will be a big task for this group.  They will be going against an offense that may be hitting its stride.

Florida football offense

Last week the Florida offense had a really nice game against Tennessee. Quarterback Kyle Trask starting for his time had a great game with 295 yards completing 20 of 28 passes. The offensive line gave him the time to make his reads and to complete his passes.

The line also improved in the running game, as the Gators had 128 yards rushing in the game.  Clearly this is still not where they want to be but they showed a lot of improvement. Lamical Perine once again led the way with 62 yards and a touchdown.

It was the fact that they broke longer runs this week, they had several runs that went into the secondary. that was an improvement and this week Towson will have its hands full as Florida football will surely run the ball a lot.

The receiving corps once again had a stellar afternoon. With three guys all going over 60 yards for the game, Freddie Swain with 67 yards, Kyle Pitts with 62 and Trevon Grimes with 60. That was it, Cleveland came out with 43 and Van Jefferson with 31. All in all 10 different people caught passes in the game.

The offense has been moving great and still can get better. This week they are poised to go against a defense that is not used to this type of talent.

The results

This week look for the game to be won early by Florida. That will allow more time for the likes of Emory Jones to get more reps.

That may not be good for the Tigers as Jones has been playing very well when he gets his chance. But this may also be a time for the running game to get rolling.

If they have a big game it may help with a big game next week. Towson has some good players on their defense and if either QB is sloppy they will get that ball.

But the only way Florida will lose this game is if they are looking ahead.

They should not think about Auburn until Sunday. Barring that, this should be a good win for Florida football as they move to 5-0.