For those who had been paying attention, the problems that popped up for Florida on Saturday were not necessarily anything that came out of left field. The defense had been teetering on the edge of breaking all year, so that came as no surprise.
The lack of offense was a bit of a surprise, but there were some lingering signs things weren’t as rosy as they looked. And on Monday, Jon Sumrall touched upon the underlying issues as to why Florida couldn’t move the ball against Missouri.
Florida’s offensive problems against Missouri exposed a deeper flaw
Given the rate at which Florida had been scoring points, one might assume that the Gators can just sling it around and throw it 50 times to light up the scoreboard. But Sumrall made a point on Monday that’s not exactly the case:
“The way we're built, to be quite honest with you right now, we do not need to be living in a drop-back pass game the entire game. We need to play complementary football. That's how we're built offensively, personnel, structurally. And every year you have a different team. And we may at some point have a team that we feel we can just go drop-back pass a lot and wing it.
But right now we need to be able to stay on schedule. We had way too many 2nd-and-longs last week. And then even after penalties, 1st-and-long. And so when you put yourself behind the chains on second down, it makes it harder to convert. And so, yeah, stay on schedule is a big deal for us.”
Now it is true that any offense is going to struggle to convert if they can’t get positive yardage on 1st down, and this is where Florida ran into issues on Saturday.
Litteraly.
Jadan Baugh’s performance was a letdown, but while there were some moments where maybe he had more space than we thought, the reality is that Florida’s offensive line was bullied from the jump. Even on Florida’s opening drive, they weren’t gashing Missouri with the run game. Florida was able to use some smoke and mirrors to throw the ball, but once those tricks ran out and there were moments where Florida had to win some one-on-one battles in the trenches, that just didn’t happen.
And if we are being honest, it’s not like the performance of the offensive line was some massive shock. Baugh had burst onto the national scene because of his ability to make defenders miss. But the reason he had to make them miss in the first place, well…
There is also the underlying truth in Sumrall’s quote that Aaron Philo isn’t going to win you a game by himself. On Saturday, he wasn’t the reason the Gators lost either, but it is clear he needs a supporting cast around him rather than being the guy who can create magic on his own.
Florida should be okay this week against South Carolina (key words should be), but if Missouri had their way with Florida’s offensive line, what happens when they travel to Texas and face that front seven?
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