Florida announces contender status with 11-point win over Auburn

If you’re reading this, you’ve likely watched the big plays from Florida’s win over Auburn a few times already.

The Swamp came alive early when Freddie Swain took a slant to the house. That was bookended by the 88-yard run by Lamical Perine that salted the game away.

But one of the things I love about football are the hidden plays that lead to a win.

In that respect, I don’t think Perine’s 88-yard run was his biggest play of the game. Instead, I think it was this one.

This seems like a pretty normal 8-yard run until you consider the following sequence:

• Three plays prior, punter Tommy Townsend had been stopped on a fake punt attempt in Gators territory.
• Two plays prior, Auburn QB Bo Nix had hit receiver Seth Williams for a 32-yard score.
• One play prior, Auburn defensive lineman Marlon Davidson had landed on Kyle Trask’s knee on a potential first-down throw that was dropped by receiver Josh Hammond.

Third-string QB Emory Jones came into the game and even though it was second-and-10, the entire world knew that Perine was getting the ball.

If Auburn gets a three-and-out on this drive, the entire tone of the game might have changed. Instead, Perine cut the ball back to the left side, made linebacker K.J. Britt (#33) miss, and moved the pile another three yards after he was wrapped up.

Jones was able to complete a third-and-2 fairly easily on the next play and Florida was able to breathe just a little bit. Then Jones completed passes of 14 and 20 yards to drive the Gators down the field for a field goal.

It’s easy to forget because of all of the wacky things that went on in this game, but Perine’s run to me exemplifies everything he brings to this team.

He had the two biggest plays in the game after weeks of hearing that Dameon Pierce was the back who could break tackles and that Mullen needed to make a change. And both times, he made those runs by breaking a tackle by Britt in the hole.

The Offense

Dan Mullen is a wizard.

His ability to draw up offensive plays and formations that exploit defensive weaknesses continues to impress me, even though he does it week after week.

The touchdown Trask threw to Josh Hammond is a good example.

This seems like a pretty easy read for Trask. He has Josh Hammond (#10) on a linebacker (Chandler Wooten, #31). But it’s important to acknowledge why Wooten is matched up one-on-one with Hammond.

Notice tight end Kyle Pitts on the strong side of the formation. As he releases, he is picked up by defensive back Noah Igbinoghene (#4) and safety Daniel Thomas (#24). Lamical Perine is split wide at the top of the screen, occupying linebacker Owen Pappoe (#10).

Essentially, Mullen used Perine to split the linebacker outside and ran Pitts down the middle of the field to clear out the route for Hammond.

Pitts and Perine make this possible because they are both threats in the passing game. If Florida just brought in five wide receivers, Auburn would be able to respond with six defensive backs. But at least two linebackers are necessary to stop the potential of motioning Perine into the backfield and having Pitts block on a run.

He did it again on the big run to Perine.

Notice the formation. He has four wide receivers to the top of the formation and fakes a screen to the boundary. That draws not only the four defensive backs on the outside, but also the deep safety.

Brett Heggie (#61) gets to Auburn linebacker K.J. Britt (#33) but misses the block. Had he made the block cleanly, Perine wouldn’t have come within five yards of the safety who nearly got to him.

This is actually the same play that I highlighted to open this article. That time though, Auburn had much more outside leverage and caved in the right side of the Gators offensive line. This time, Perine was able to get to the outside and Florida had the big play it needed.

The Defense

On the defensive side of the ball, Florida was just as impressive. Perhaps no play symbolized that quite as much as this one.

Auburn’s whole offensive line is back from last season. The Tigers were averaging 252 yards rushing and 5.4 yards per rush coming in.

Yet, Florida only has seven men in the box on this third-and-short (C.J. Henderson is assigned to take the sweep by Anthony Schwartz (#5)).

The defensive backs didn’t come up to help against the run after the snap either. That’s quite a statement.

This wasn’t isolated. It was a conscious schematic decision by defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.

Time and time again Florida had itself at a numbers disadvantage in the running game but was able to make a play because the defensive line won the line of scrimmage.

That freed up the secondary to play extremely aggressively.

On this play, safety Brad Stewart (#4) fires up to make the tackle on the screen pass to Seth Williams (#18). He beats the offensive lineman coming out to block because he is able to react without hesitation. He reacts that way because he knows he has deep help if for some reason he has read the play wrong.

Florida played a ton of zone, more than you typically see with a Grantham defense. They rightly surmised that Auburn QB Bo Nix wasn’t going to be able to beat them consistently and Auburn would have to rely on big plays to move the ball.

Florida only gave up two of those, the aforementioned TD pass to Williams after the fake punt, and the 46-yard pass to Williams that came right before the backbreaking interception that Nix threw to end that drive.

Even that big play pointed at what was obvious from Nix’ statistical profile coming in: he just isn’t that accurate. Had he placed that ball a little bit better it would have been a walk-in touchdown.

Instead, Florida was able to make him throw into tight windows all day long. That led to multiple interceptions, but also to seven three-and-outs. And it was all possible because the Gators defensive line help up and more against Auburn’s offensive line.

The Ugly

The Gators have now gotten away with 13 turnovers in its four games against FBS opponents this year, including four each against Miami and Auburn.

It’s a really frustrating thing to see because the Gators were clearly better than both the Hurricanes and Tigers, yet those games were close because they just couldn’t hold on to the ball.

A glass-half-full view of the turnovers is that Florida has been able to win despite them, indicating it is a much better team than last year. But a glass-half-empty view is that they are eventually going to come back to bite the Gators, particularly as they spend the rest of October away from The Swamp.

I tend to lean towards the latter, as the fumbles by the quarterback are only going to be exacerbated on the road. Indeed, had the turf monster not tackled Auburn defensive lineman Derrick Brown after he picked up Trask’s fumble on the last play of the first quarter, the game could have been very, very different.

But the turnovers weren’t the only mistakes.

The obvious one is the fake punt. It almost seemed like a frustration call from Mullen. The Gators had dominated the first quarter but in many ways fumbled away that advantage. Then Kyle Pitts dropped a first down completion (overturned to an incomplete pass on replay) and just when it felt like the Gators were about to drive down the field to make it 21-6, they were forced to punt.

I actually don’t mind this call. Townsend runs hard, and it was only fourth-and-3. Lots of fans will question Mullen on this call, but I like his aggressiveness setting the tone. You don’t beat top-10 teams without taking a few chances. This is just one that didn’t work out.

There was actually a different punt play that had a mistake that could have cost the Gators the game.

 

This looks like all good things for the Gators. After punting they get possession deep in Auburn territory because of the turnover. But Kyree Campbell was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for pulling a man off the fumble pile, moving the Gators back from the 2-yard line to the 17.

Trask fumbled on the ball Brown picked up and tripped three plays later instead of Florida going up 14-6 at this point. This game could have easily been 13-7 Auburn with a quiet stadium instead of Florida leading wire-to-wire.

The fact that it wasn’t is owed a little bit to luck, but also a little bit to Auburn making as many mistakes as Florida did. You can rely on that at home.

I don’t think the Gators should rely on that next week in Baton Rouge.

Takeaway

Florida dominated Auburn, much more than the 24-13 score at the end indicates.

Fans should be excited that an Auburn team that looked like world beaters a week earlier against Mississippi State looked completely helpless against the Gators defense just a week later.

Tougher opponents await, and Florida will need to improve.

But the good thing is that they have a track record of doing so. Last year, the team improved significantly following the loss to Kentucky and also after the losses to Georgia and Missouri.

The team that showed up this weekend at the Swamp is significantly better than the one that took on Miami in Orlando or squeaked by Kentucky in Lexington. The fact that they have made those improvements without having to be humbled by a loss is even more impressive.

By yards per play, Florida now has the 33rd ranked offense and 17th ranked defense in the country. There aren’t a lot of teams in the country that have that kind of consistency on both sides of the ball.

Georgia and LSU are two that are.

But none of that takes away from what Florida did on Saturday against Auburn. In a game where oddsmakers – and most pundits – had Florida as an underdog at home, the Gators came out and proved they were the better team.

They forced Auburn into mistakes to counter the ones they made on their own. They showed incredible resilience, being able to count on a third-string QB to play key stretches of the game and hitting a big run play to seal the game when the run game has been non-existent all season long.

I’ve written a lot about how Dan Mullen had a stellar record against teams with better talent when he was at Mississippi State. Well, in this one, he had a team with equivalent talent (Auburn is ranked 13th, Florida 15th in the 247Sports 2019 roster composite rankings) and his team looked significantly better.

According to the same rankings, LSU (#5) and Georgia (#3) have more roster talent than Florida. But if those matchups come down to Mullen vs. Ed Orgeron or Kirby Smart, I like Florida’s chances.

If nothing else, Florida can no longer be viewed as a paper tiger in the east. They just took on one of the big boys from the west and didn’t just win, they dominated up-front. They are now legitimate threats to make the playoff.

Are they the most likely candidates? Probably not. But it’s been a long time since Florida fans could hope that their team was good enough to compete on a national level. As much fun as the win over Ole Miss was in 2015, we all knew that team wasn’t good enough, especially after the Will Grier suspension came down.

That hope was back and alive in the Swamp this weekend. Bo Nix and Auburn heard it, and so did the rest of the SEC.