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The Florida Gators were able to pull out the win over Missouri thanks to turnovers. However, there continues to be a pattern of struggles on both the offense and defense. Statistically, Missouri dominated the game, however big plays on defense were the key to a Gators victory. 

Offense

An unusual day for Anthony Richardson and the Gators offense, as Richardson had a season low 66 passing yards and was 8-of-14 on completions with one interception. However, the run game was on point again. Montrell Johnson Jr. had 86 rushing yards, Trevor Etienne had 83 rushing yards, Nay’Quan Wright had 22 yards, and Richardson had 45 rushing yards. Now, even though the Gators won the game, you could tell Richardson was a bit off, but also the fact that the Gators hardly passed the ball is a bit concerning. One thing that has proved to be dominant in games for Florida is that when Richardson is passing a lot, he tends to have solid games and the Gators often are unstoppable. It has been noted that the Gators have only punted once in the last 10 quarters, so when both the rushing and passing attacks are dominant, Florida tends to be in the end zone or putting points on the board. Against LSU, the Gators will need to be ready to throw the ball a lot, but also rush the ball a lot. 

Defense

Florida’s defense came up big in moments when a much-needed stop would help momentum. Jaydon Hill was the star against Missouri, having a huge pick-six, and another interception which led to a Gators touchdown. Now some would say even though the Gators had two big turnovers, their defense was static. Allowing Missouri to be 9-of-17 on third down, have 21 first downs, and 370 total yards. Missouri won in pretty much all categories except for rushing yards, where they only had 150, but the defense still needs to step up and make big plays. Now they did stop Missouri on the very last drive to end the game, but even so, analysts say there was a missed holding penalty on the Gators defense that would have continued their drive. The Gators defense will need to get back into order as next week they have a date against LSU in Gainesville.

Onto Next Week 

As noted before, next week the Gators will face LSU at 7:00 p.m. in Gainesville. Since the Joe Burrow era at LSU, the Gators are on a losing streak to LSU right now and will be looking to snap that streak. LSU is heavily favored in this matchup, but being the underdog tends to be in favor for the Gators. Now statistically LSU allows less passing and rushing yards than Florida, but with the way the Gators’ offense attacks, I think they have a good shot at being an outlier in putting up big numbers on LSU. The defense will need to get their act together to stop the LSU offense, and very few mistakes by Richardson will be needed. The Gators will pretty much have to play a perfect game before their bye week.