Florida win over FAU provides more questions than answers, particularly at QB

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“I’m more concerned about the defense.”

That was the first thing I texted after the game when asked about what I thought about the brewing QB controversy that is sure to ensure after Anthony Richardson undoubtedly provided a spark after Emory Jones struggled after the opening two drives.

Todd Grantham has been criticized all offseason. These players were all part of a defense that was historically bad last season, and likely cost Florida a real shot at the playoff. They have to have heard the noise.

So how is it then that FAU starter N’Kosi Perry – who averaged 6.3 yards per attempt in his career at Miami – proceeded to average 11.8 yards per attempt in the second half against Florida and 7.9 for the game. You would have thought that Florida would have wanted a shut-out in the worst way. Instead, the Gators gave up 14 points late and kept turning to Anthony Richardson to bail them out.

Yes, most of those yards came in the fourth quarter. But it’s not like the game was really that far out of reach. And as awful as the defense was last year, they can’t afford to take parts of games off, even when up 21 points.

So a lot of people will take the QB as the biggest story of this game (and we’ll get to that), but to me, it’s the inability of Florida’s defense to lock down early on and then it falling apart late.

It’s just FAU and it’s just the 4th quarter, you say? Sorry, after last year, the Gators defense – and Grantham – don’t have any room for those sorts of excuses.

Defense

It wasn’t really just the 4th quarter either when you really consider what you might be looking for in this game.

Florida only had the ball 5 times in the first half (one a three-play desperation drive at the end of the half) because FAU’s first four drives were 10 plays (5:21), 6 plays (1:47), 10 plays (4:51) and 11 plays (3:26). All four drives ended in Florida territory, even if FAU didn’t score.

The defense did take control in the third quarter, forcing four straight punts, but then gave up a 59-yard drive that ended in an unforced fumble and the two touchdown drives. The Gators only had one three-and-out, which is pretty unacceptable given their opponents (the 103rd ranked offense).

Even the run defense – which looks good on its face with 37 rushes for 91 yards (2.5 yards per rush) – is papered over by the pass rush. If you remove the yardage on QB runs that includes sacks, FAU’s running backs averaged 5.0 yards per carry on 23 rushes.

At halftime, the Owls were 4 for 7 on third down (57%). Much of that was because of the soft coverage we’ve become used to from last season.

On this play, the Gators blitz with a 5-man rush. Every other defender is at least two yards behind the first down sticks. But the goal of a blitz is to either get to the QB or have him get rid of the ball quickly. When Perry does that here, it’s an easy pitch-and-catch for a first down.

That kind of stuff wasn’t isolated. In fact, on FAU’s first touchdown drive, it showed up again.

On this play, newcomer Jadarrius Perkins (#27) is in a zone with Ventrell Miller (#51) and Ty’Ron Hopper (#28). But Perkins sinks way too deep (at least two yards deeper than Miller or Hopper) and is stuck pushing out the FAU player at the sticks rather than short. The very next play was the jump ball that D’Marcus Adams caught over Tre’vez Johnson for 46-yards.

More interesting to me was that after the Perkins play above, ESPN showed Todd Grantham going nuts on the sideline. But when the next ball was snapped, Perkins was still out there lined-up in coverage. He was also out there on the next play, which included him pushing FAU running back Johnny Ford while 3 yards out of bounds.

FAU scored two plays later, but that’s not the issue to me. The issue is that you can’t have players messing up assignments without coming off the field. Next thing you know, they’re chucking shoes.

Offense

The Gators offense actually came out really strong, scoring on its first two drives.

While many Gators fans didn’t see it as the Landlocked McElwains were finishing up a 2-hour fourth quarter on SEC Network against Missouri, Emory Jones converted a 15-yard pass to Jacob Copeland on third-and-9 to make that drive successful. But after going back to look at that completion, there were still some issues.

I can’t see what’s going on with Copeland behind the play because of the camera angle, and Jones completes the pass but it requires a really nice catch from Copeland because it isn’t a particularly good pass. But look at Justin Shorter (#4) coming across the middle. He’s wide open with nobody around.

So Jones passed up the easy throw to make a more difficult one. The play was successful, but you’re not going to make a living passing up wide open guys running across the middle.

But even when it was an easy throw, Jones struggled at times.

It doesn’t get much easier than this. Jones knows he has one-on-one coverage against Davis because there are seven defenders in the box and one deep safety, shaded to the two receivers at the top. The defense is giving you a free 5-yards if you can hit the guy in the chest. Jones wasn’t able to do it.

That’s the story when you see a QB who goes 17 for 27, but only throws for 113 yards. It just isn’t getting the job done to throw for 4.2 yards per attempt. Normally, when I see a QB who runs for 74 yards on 10 carries, that indicates someone who had a ton of success because even an average performance throwing the ball will mean an effective offense. But average through the air is 7.3 yards per attempt. Jones wasn’t even close.

Let me be the first to throw a little bit of water on the Anthony Richardson fire coming out of this one.

There is no doubt that Richardson was dynamic in his time out there on the field. I mean, he averaged 23 yards per rush on 7 carries, including an electric 73-yard TD run. But Richardson was only 3 for 8 throwing himself, for an average of 5.0 yards per attempt. Yes, five of those attempts came on the final drive and were far downfield, but if you take away his fourth down completion to Ja’markis Weston, what you have is a QB who completed two screen passes (one nearly a backwards pass) for four yards.

But make no mistake, that 36-yard throw to Weston was the best throw by a Gators QB all night.

I saw some people criticizing Richardson for underthrowing Weston, but I think that’s missing the main story here. Richardson saw that Weston was going to be open before he was actually open. Because he didn’t wait for him to completely clear the defenders before letting go of the ball, his throw didn’t have to be perfect.

Remember what I said above about Jones on the throw to Shorter. Not only is the right throw, but it’s the easy one. Because of that, you can be a little bit off and still make a good play. Combine that with this, and you’ve got some understandable debate amongst fans – regardless of Mullen’s incredulity about being asked about Emory’s status as starter – about who should be the QB against USF.

Takeaway

Florida scored 35 points tonight. That’s just about what we should expect from the Gators offense this season based on Dan Mullen’s history at Mississippi State and with Feleipe Franks at QB.

Kyle Trask was an elite player when it came to picking apart defenses through the air. To expect that from Emory Jones or from Anthony Richardson is unfair.

But what we should be able to expect from those players – particularly Jones – is to at least be effective game managers. That means you can’t misread the defense in the red zone and throw a pick. It also means you can’t forget what down it is and run a QB sneak from the four-yard line.

Anthony Richardson was dynamic, but the last drive also showed that he has some significant limitations at this point in the passing game a well. When a good defense is able to game plan for those weaknesses, he’s going to struggle too.

But I don’t know how long Mullen is going to be able to keep Richardson back for much longer. I think back to when Kyle Trask came in against Kentucky two years ago and we all wondered how that guy had been sitting on the bench up to that point. I had the same thought tonight watching AR15.

He may have limitations, but his upside is so much clearly higher than Jones if game management isn’t a major tick in his favor. If Jones is going to turn the ball over and miss easy throws, there’s no reason to hold Richardson back.

Because you don’t want to overreact to one game, but we just saw Alabama absolutely whip a team with a dual-threat QB and hold him to 9 rushes for 10 yards. We just saw Georgia make D.J. Uiagalelei and Clemson look completely pedestrian on offense. And we just saw a Florida defense with a bunch of work to do.

I’m not sure of everything that we learned against FAU. But I’ve been saying for years now that the only way to offset the difference in talent between teams that recruit in the 9-12 range and the Alabama’s and Georgia’s of the world is to get truly elite quarterback play.

The only guy I saw tonight capable of providing that was Anthony Richardson.