Florida football: The LSU defense vs. Florida’s offense

Each week we take a look at the Florida offense and the opposing team’s defense, This week Florida football takes on the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at Tiger Stadium.

Last week, the Florida Gators won a huge SEC game by beating the Auburn Tigers 24-13 in Gainsville.

The offense looks like they were clicking on all cylinders, even the run game had a couple of good moments. The LSU Tigers got another win as they took on the Utah State, and won 42-6.

Once again their defense looked real good and should be a great battle with Florida.

Florida football offense

The offense had another very good day, I think Mullen stated it the best right after the game;

"“Offensively, I thought our guys did a decent job managing the day. We knew they had a great defensive line. As the game went on, we knew we had to throw the ball to win, but we wanted to try to stick with the run game and if you look, we ran it 33 times and threw it 39 times so they didn’t force us completely, at any point, out of the run game..”"

Let’s get right at the numbers. Kyle Trask was on fire once again. He went 19/31 for 234 yards and two touchdowns. Those numbers are with him going down with what is now being called a sprained knee.

According to Trask, he will be fine:

"“It’s definitely better today than it’s been,” he said. “It’s been getting better every single day. The pain is kind of going away now.”"

The receivers once again did not disappoint with Freddie Swain getting six catches for 146 yards and a touchdown. This was only the first time where a receiver was the leading receiver in a game.

Diversity with this group has been a big key factor in the passing game.

The receivers will once again this week prove to be the difference for the offense. The running game did step up and had a decent day. in fact, Florida football outran the No. 1 rushing team 168-124. Top rusher once again was Lamical Perrine with 130 yards — including an 88-yard touchdown run — followed by Malik Davis with 16.

The running game will need to get better as LSU has a pretty good defense. They have a chance this week to continue on the gains they made against Auburn. The running game can run on LSU.

LSU defense

To be honest the LSU defense this year has been less than stellar.

They rank in the bottom half of the SEC in passing yards allowed per attempt. Up until last week, they had only two interceptions as a group.

They did get back K’Lavon Chaisson last week and it seemed to make a difference in stopping the running game.

All SEC Football

The defense last week against Utah State allowed only 159 total yards and held a pretty good QB,  Jordan Love to only 140 yards on the day.

They were led in tackling by Patrick Queen, who had six tackles and Justin Thomas with four. This will be a good matchup with Florida’s line as both have had their trouble this year.

The defensive backs had a great game though with three interceptions on the day. Derek Stingley, Kary Vincent, and Grant Delpit all got their hands on a Love pass.

Delpit and Stingley are going to have their hands full with a large group of receivers that all can have a great day. Who do they put Delpit on? Florida has so many weapons on the receiver side it will be hard to match up.

They do go up against a pretty good group of receivers on their own team every day in practice, but this Florida football coming at you with all weapons. It should be interesting to see how it goes late in the game. Can all the receivers for Florida wear down those D backs from the Tigers?

Results

LSU seems to think they have corrected all the problems they have had this year on defense. They have some really talented players that can make a play if you give them the chance. Trask will have to be sharp and Emory Jones must be ready when he gets his chance.

The running game for the Gators got a big run and made some nice improvements last week. This can be another week where if we pound that line, they can have another good game. They need them to show up big to win this game. The same plan as last week, use the passing game to help the running game.

Loosen up the defensive front and give them guys a chance.  The receivers will come up big because that is what they do. The question for LSU is who will it be this week that goes off for 100. With a group that anyone can be your star, it makes for a long day for a defensive backfield. They cannot focus on one guy.

This will be a close game but in the end, Florida football will win and go 7-0. Next up: South Carolina