Florida football: 5 takeaways from the first half against Towson

It hasn’t necessarily been pretty for Florida football in the first half, but they are still in control at halftime over Towson.

Florida football had to be careful not to take FCS-ranked Towson for granted while they may have been looking ahead to Auburn next week.

In the first half Saturday, the Florida offense looked sharp while the defense looked a little shaky against a solid, dual-threat quarterback for the Tigers.

Nonetheless, Florida football kept control of the game and held a 17-0 lead at halftime.

With that, here’s a look at five takeaways from the first half:

Flacco is pretty legit

Towson quarterback Tom Flacco was the biggest bright spot for the Tigers on offense in the first half.

While he started going 1-for-4 for just 20 yards passing, where he hurt the Florida defense early was with his running.

There were several occasions where the Florida football defense had the ability to wrap up Flacco, but the fifth-year senior would find just the slightest hole and make the Gators pay.

In the first quarter, Flacco had 42 yards on four carries.

But, so is Trask

Florida football quarterback Kyle Trask was lights out in the first quarter, going 9-for-9 for 102 yards and a touchdown throw.

His completion rate was helped by the fact that Towson seemed to give him the short passes so as not to give up the big plays downfield.

And Trask made the most of what the Tigers’ defense gave him, as evidenced by his first-quarter performance.

After starting 9-for-9, Trask went on to go 12-for-12 for 133 yards.

Questions for the Florida defense

Not only was Flacco a problem for Florida football, but the Tigers found ways to beat the Gators’ pressure from up the middle.

Midway through the second quarter, Towson had 62 yards on the ground, compared to Florida’s 30.

But, one point of weakness was when Florida pass rushed up the middle and was able to contain on the corners, Flacco looked weak and nearly had a pair of interceptions.

Fortunately, when Towson did threaten in the red zone, their field goal kicker booted a 32-yard attempt wide right, to keep the Tigers off the board.

Good to find the running game

Florida football finally found its legs as Dameon Pierce and Lamical Perine got the running game off the ground — thanks to Trask’s pinpoint precision passing.

It wasn’t stellar, but the Gators did pull ahead of Towson in rushing yards with just over three minutes left in the first half.

A 31-yard run by Pierce on the Gators’ third scoring drive of the game set up Trask’s 1-yard touchdown run, but gave Florida football 68 yards on the ground, more than the 62 from Towson.

Hey, it’s the little victories, right?

Towson is getting dangerous

One stat stuck out with me in the first half.

5-for-8.

That was the third-down conversion for the Tigers in the first half.

I just have a feeling there is going to be a third down they convert on that we pay the price for letting them.

Towson is also hanging on to the football way too long. They are sustaining drives too easily, which is making me a little uncomfortable.

The Last Line: Dan Mullen had it right at halftime when he said we needed to get stops on defense. It’s not the offense that worries me at this point.