The Florida Gators improved to 2-2 on the year with a 45-28 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs Saturday afternoon in Starkville.
The victory is mostly thanks to the offense, which scored on seven of 11 drives against a porous Mississippi State defense. The Gators split things between the air and the ground, passing for 277 yards and three touchdowns while adding 226 yards and two more scores in the run game.
Despite a three-score win, many of the concerns surrounding the program remain. Winning is good, but 17-point victories are supposed to be convincing. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that it felt like Florida had the lid on the jar when Mississippi State turned to its backup quarterback.
Mississippi State’s defense is not good
Mississippi State’s deficiencies on defense were well-documented coming into this game. The Bulldogs feature one of the worst secondaries in the conference, one that allowed Toledo to put up nearly 300 yards through the air against them last week, and Florida had already proven itself against a bad defense once before.
Florida didn’t achieve the same success it had in the air against Samford, but only two incompletions on the day paints the picture here. The Bulldogs didn’t play the Gators tight, and Billy Napier exploited that with his playcalling after a three-and-out on the first offensive drive of the day.
With the pass game established and a sizeable lead on the scoreboard, Florida ran the ball more in the second half. All four Gators rushers looked comfortable handling the ball and broke rushes of 10 or more yards. Both quarterbacks also had positive rushing days.
It won’t be this easy for Florida’s offense for the rest of the season, though. Mississippi State is at the bottom of the SEC for a reason, and Florida’s schedule only gets more and more difficult moving forward.
Graham Mertz is still QB1
Recycling a takeaway from last week, it’s now clear that [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] made the right decision to keep [autotag]Graham Mertz[/autotag] as Florida’s starting quarterback. For the second week in a row, Mertz has looked more poised and in control than he did in an ugly performance against Miami.
It’s impossible to deny the raw talent of [autotag]DJ Lagway[/autotag]. His intermediate and deep passes have more zip on them than the ones we see from Mertz, but he’s still a bit overwhelmed at times. Going through reads and making decisions is what makes Mertz the better option in most scenarios, but it won’t be long until Lagway becomes comfortable.
For now, Napier should ride the guy who went 19-of-21 for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Mertz had one bad throw all day, a pass behind tight end Tony Livingston that could have been picked off, but that’s far from disqualifying.
Florida’s run defense is a major concern
Coming into Saturday’s matchup, Mississippi State ranked last in the SEC averaging under 100 yards per game. The Bulldogs ran for 240 yards and three touchdowns against the Gators, and the front seven looked tired at times as missed tackles piled up.
Mississippi State nearly doubled their rushing yards for the season in one game against Florida’s defense. Imagine what Georgia, LSU and Texas will do to this defense.
The broadcast mentioned that Ron Roberts, Florida’s defensive play caller, admitted that he doesn’t feel like the defense trusts one another with the way the season has played out. There’s no room for the blame game after a performance like this. Figure it out, or stick your head in the sand so you don’t have to watch yourself get buried.
Up Next
The Gators have a bye week coming up. Hopefully, Florida gets a little healthier before UCF comes to town on Oct. 5. Ten players earned inactive tags on the initial SEC Availability Report this week, and Florida can’t afford to be shorthanded moving forward.
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