Little improvements add up to big plays in Gators win over Tennessee

Well, that was fun!

By the time the fourth quarter ended, the only people left in the stadium were a few Tennessee die-hards and a whole lot of Gators fans. Despite reports to the contrary earlier in the day, Florida’s fans showed up in Knoxville. So did their team.

The Gators beat Tennessee 47-21, but that score doesn’t begin to explain the feel of the game. There were big plays all over the field. The Gators made big plays on offense (5 plays over 20 yards), big plays on defense (9 tackles for loss, 3 fumbles and an INT recovery) and big plays on special teams (forced fumble to start the second half, pinned Tennessee deep twice on punts).

The best part of the game to me though wasn’t the big plays. It was the little things that caused those big plays to happen. Those little things are the type of improvements that have been missing from Gainesville for years.

I’ve been critical of Dan Mullen and Todd Grantham this offseason, but this was really impressive. Last season if you asked me what McElwain’s fingerprint on the team was, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you.

This season, I can definitively tell you; these Gators do the little things well.

Defense

Any analysis of this game has to start with Florida’s defense.

Just on the surface, the Gators defense was spectacular, with three fumble recoveries, two INTs and constant harassment of Tennessee QB Jarrett Guarantano.

But there’s more than that. The Gators dominated the line of scrimmage with nine tackles for loss. Those tackles for loss forced a safety, but they also forced Guarantano into third-and-long situations that repeatedly led to turnovers.

The first turnover obviously set the tone for the performance.

On this play, defensive end Jachai Polite comes around the edge unblocked because the tight end and running back both block the blitzing Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. This was particularly interesting because Tennessee tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson was out wide prior to the snap being guarded by linebacker Vosean Joseph. Wood-Anderson was then motioned to the end of the line to block.

The fact that Gardner-Johnson blitzed meant that Joseph was responsible for coverage. That’s an interesting strategy for a player who has been much maligned for his ability to tackle in space.

But it’s also brilliant when you consider that instead of having Gardner-Johnson cover Wood-Anderson and Joseph cover a running back in the flat, Grantham chose the opposite. This wasn’t an isolated strategy for the Gators defense either.

Above is a key fourth down play where Joseph was isolated one-on-one against Wood-Anderson out wide. The ball hits Wood-Anderson in the hands and probably should have been caught, but Joseph played him tough and made it a difficult play.

Perhaps more importantly, Joseph is unlikely to get fooled by a change of direction from a tight end like he would with a running back or get beat deep. Essentially Florida’s staff has made the decision that they are willing to sacrifice a couple of short throws to a tight end if it means they eliminate big plays to the running back.

But they are being rewarded even more for their faith in Joseph in coverage. Wood-Anderson finished the game with zero catches. That follows up last week when Colorado State tight end Cameron Butler – who had torched Arkansas the week before – also had zero catches with Joseph as his primary defender in coverage.

Joseph’s success against the tight end frees up other players to focus elsewhere, like the running back swing pass that gave Florida fits in last season’s game.

On this play, Joseph stays home against a pulling Wood-Anderson. Linebacker David Reese immediately jumps out to stop the swing pass to the running back. Gardner-Johnson fights through the wide receiver’s block and makes the tackle behind the line of scrimmage. But even if he’d missed the tackle, Reese was there to clean things up.

This is a subtle adjustment that the staff has made. It’s not unusual for a linebacker to guard a tight end in coverage. But typically the offense sees that as a mismatch. Instead, Florida used it as an advantage and was able to use Joseph’s ability to cover to free up other players to do things they do well.

People will give Polite and Reese credit for that opening turnover and those guys did their jobs well. But the reason they were able to play that defense is because of the confidence that the staff is showing in Vosean Joseph.

Offense

People will again be up-in-arms that Florida’s offense barely outgained Tennessee 387-362 overall. But Tennessee ran 26 more plays than Florida did so on a per-play basis, Florida’s offense was considerably better (7.3 vs. 4.6 yards per play).

That play all starts with QB Feleipe Franks.

Franks has been the subject of much debate during the offseason and during the first three games of the year, but there shouldn’t be any debate about his play in this game. Franks was excellent.

That’s particularly true when you compare him to Tennessee’s QBs, who combined to turn the ball over 5 times and only completed 10 of 25 passes.

Franks did only complete 50 percent of his passes (and that’s about what we should expect), but he averaged 9.6 yards per attempt. That indicates that he is hitting big plays down the field and amounts to a yards above replacement (YAR) value for the game of 0.81, which is significantly better than a game manager.

Now, Franks isn’t being used at a high volume (only 18 throws) and so it’s hard to compare him to a QB who throws the ball 30 times a game. But for what he’s being given, he is executing it well. For the entire season, he has a YAR of 0.42 after having a YAR of -1.45 last season. By any measure, he’s vastly improved.

One area where he’s improved is when a play breaks down. Last season, Franks would take sacks by running out of bounds. Not only did I see him throw the ball away Saturday night when scrambling, but he made what was probably the key play on the long throw to wide receiver Freddie Swain.

From this view you can see that Swain is covered up by defensive back Trevon Flowers (#5) as Franks scrambles. But Swain slips behind him and is wide open. Franks sees him and delivers the ball.

This isn’t about reading the defense or going to the right place against a certain coverage. This is an improvisation that Franks just did not have last season.

Additionally, look at Swain’s run after the catch. Tight end Moral Stephens comes over to seal off his man and is able to do so without executing an illegal block. First, that is a tough block to make without getting your man in the back. Second, it takes attention to detail to know to re-engage with your man to spring Swain after he receives the ball.

Other little things that have been showing up for a few games now showed up at key moments in this game.

Jordan Scarlett has struggled in pass protection in his time at Florida. That was not the case Saturday night. On this play, he absolutely stones his blocking assignment, which gives Franks time to deliver the ball to wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland for a TD.

Franks did hold onto the ball too long on this play, which made the catch much more difficult for Cleveland. From my vantage point, it was pretty obvious that Cleveland was open early.

But the fact that Scarlett absolutely stoned his man – defensive end Kyle Phillips – gave Franks time to wait. This is going to happen sometimes. The fact that Franks had the time to deliver the ball is because of Scarlett winning a one-on-one battle he wouldn’t have won two years ago.

Finally, any discussion about the offense has to include praise for the offensive line. While the line has been underwhelming in the first three games, it absolutely dominated Tennessee’s front seven.

On this play right after the turnover to open the second half, Jordan Scarlett runs for a TD that essentially ended the game. Tennessee fans certainly thought that because they went streaming to the exits the minute Scarlett crossed the goal line.

But notice how Scarlett didn’t even get touched until he made it 10 yards downfield. Yes, he had to break a few tackles at that point, but when a running back as big, strong and fast as him has a 10-yard head start, he’s going to be hard to bring down.

With that said, it is then important to focus on how Scarlett got that 10-yard head start. It turns out that it was directly tied to the offensive line.

A couple of weeks ago, Florida’s offensive line was not getting to the second level to block linebackers, which left those linebackers free to make tackles in the backfield.

As you can see in the still shot above, Tyler Jordan pulls across the formation to stone linebacker Daniel Bituli (left-most arrow) and Jawaan Taylor executes a perfect combo block first double teaming a defensive lineman and then getting out to block linebacker Darrin Kirkland, Jr. (right-most arrow).

Everyone else holds their blocks successfully, which leaves Scarlett one-on-one against safety Nigel Warrior (circled). Scarlett cuts to his left away from Warrior and is able to break a couple of tackles to score.

Florida’s offense created five explosive plays. Those plays were responsible for 31 points. The other 16 came from two turnovers inside the Tennessee 20-yard line and the safety after a punt that pinned them deep.

The offense didn’t need to do anything except those big plays and execute after turnovers to win. And that’s probably a good thing as outside of those big plays, Florida’s offense only averaged 3.8 yards per play. Against a better defense that doesn’t give up as much deep, Florida may struggle.

But on Saturday night, the Gators successfully moved the ball against an SEC opponent on the road. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Takeaway

It’s becoming clear that Tennessee is not as good as its talent profile might have had me believe. I was clearly wrong when I said in my preview that Tennessee was roughly equivalent to Florida and the Gators proved that.

But part of why I was wrong is because of the progress this Gators team has made in the past four weeks. This isn’t a game plan that Florida was ready or willing to execute against Kentucky.

Franks was still struggling to get the ball out on time. The defense was struggling to maintain gap discipline and got gashed in the running game. Vosean Joseph  and Rayshad Jackson were having issues guarding running backs in space again. The young defensive backs got beat deep repeatedly.

Many of those things have been cleaned up. Will the Gators still make some of these mistakes? Sure. And I don’t think it’s likely that Franks ends the season with a 6:1 TD:INT ratio. The competition is about to ramp up considerably with Mississippi State, LSU and Georgia on the horizon and those teams won’t turn the ball over six times.

But Florida is showing growth every week, which is what we’ve all wanted to see. Much of that credit goes to the players for executing the game plan that is given to them. But a lot of that credit has to go to the coaches who are making the players focus on the little things to get the most out of the talent that they have.

The movement of Joseph to a coverage position against linebackers is an example of what Mullen has been saying all offseason about putting his players in positions to succeed. Anybody who watched either side of the ball last season understands how sorely that was lacking.

Add to that the emphasis – and important contribution this season – of special teams and you have a team that is capable of beating anyone on any given Saturday. It showed against Tennessee, and nobody is happier to be wrong about the outcome than this writer.

Are the Gators the best team in the SEC or even the SEC East? Likely not. But I do believe they’ve shown that there isn’t any game that we should pencil in as an automatic loss, which isn’t something I would have said a week or two ago.

That’s a testament to the players and the staff, who took the loss to Kentucky and used it to work on the things that they could control and come out better on the other side.

It showed on Saturday night in a big way against Tennessee.