Florida blasts Eastern Washington

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Florida beat Eastern Washington 52-17 and it wasn’t even that close. Can we really learn something by examining what happened in more detail?

Well, I actually think we can.

For instance, we learned that when things slow down, Anthony Richardson can be otherworldly. Will things ever slow down when he plays teams like Georgia or Texas A&M? That I don’t know. But what this game does tell me is that when he’s seeing the field clearly, watch out!

Also, we learned that perhaps we shouldn’t be so concerned about Richardson running the ball. I’m not ready to anoint Jalen Kitna the next Kyle Trask just because he wears number 11, but Kitna showed a lot of good things in this one.

And unfortunately, we also learned that Florida is going to have to win some shootouts this year because the defense just isn’t very good. Yes, they only gave up 17 points and 14 of those were in the last two drives of the game with a bunch of reserves in, but the garbage-time TDs aren’t what concerns me (we’ll get to that).

So you might have checked out after the first half. Or maybe you weren’t able to log into the game since it was broadcasting on ESPN 8, the Ocho. Regardless, I do think it’s worth taking a little bit of time to see what the Gators put on film and how that bodes for them moving forward this season.

The Offense

Whenever you put up 52 points, 666 yards and have 12 explosive plays, you’ve done your job. The offense came out immediately and announced it was there to play as Anthony Richardson hit Justin Shorter in-stride for a 75-yard touchdown after the Gators fell down 3-0.

Richardson made two bad throws. One turned into a first-down reception by Keon Zipperer, though probably should have been picked off. The other turned into an interception on the first throw of the second half. Other that that, he was flawless.

Richardson averaged (averaged!!) 24 yards per attempt. He had a QB rating of 327.6. His Yards Above Replacement (YAR) – my proprietary stat for comparing QBs based on running and passing – was at 18.4. Remember, a YAR of 0.0 is average, 1.0 is very good (think, Jake Fromm) and 2.0 is Heisman-level.

But it wasn’t just the gaudy stats that impressed me. The Gators had Eastern Washington outmanned and knew it.

This is a beautiful throw by Richardson to Xzavier Henderson. Certainly given some of Richardson’s accuracy issues, this is a welcome sight. But the impressive thing to me is that Richardson uses his eyes to determine where to throw the ball.

Watch as Richardson tilts both his body and his head to the right. But the minute he sees the deep safety head that way, he knows he has Henderson coming back the other way. You can see that the safety has yet to turn around and the ball is almost to Henderson. This is what I mean when I say Richardson is really good when the game slows down for him.

I’m emphasizing Richardson allowing things to slow down because there are still times when it looks like he’s trying to move too fast.

On this play, Eastern Washington decides to bring its safety on a blitz after appearing to be in zone coverage prior to the snap. The Gators have a great play called as Nay’Quan Wright is isolated on a linebacker down the sideline. Just an average throw and this is a 15-20 yard gain.

Richardson sees the safety and drifts right (i.e. he is reading the coverage correctly). But he doesn’t have to drift because Wright is open and the safety is coming from such a long way away. Drifting brings him right into the path of the blitzing linebacker from the other side. The throw is errant because he’s off-balance due to anticipating the blitz and just moving too fast. This still happens sometimes, but is going to happen less and less as he gets more snaps.

And then, there are the things Richardson can do that nobody else in college football can.

This is from the opposite hash on a line. It’s probably a bad decision to make the throw, but he throws it where only Henderson can catch it. It’s also a throw you’re not going to see Will Levis making. Just look at how he re-gathers himself after the defender grabs his legs. The fact that he can get enough on it to complete the pass is simply amazing.

Of course, Richardson wasn’t the only Gators QB to play against Eastern Washington. Jalen Kitna got his first action and acquitted himself quite well, completing 8 of 12 passes for 152 yards and a TD. His QB rating was less than Richardson (because he “only” averaged 12.7 yards per throw), but it was still 200.6, which is high-level QB play.

So was it just Eastern Washington being the defender, or should Gators fans feel comfortable should Kitna have to step in? I think he gave us some data points that suggest we should.

One thing we definitely found out is that Kitna can run Billy Napier’s bread-and-butter play.

This is Kitna’s first throw and it should look familiar. It is the flood concept where the QB fakes the run to hold the defensive end, the tight end comes across the formation into the flat and then the other receivers run routes at different depths and allow the QB to select who is open.

I’ve highlighted the progression for Kitna. Zipperer (#9) is triple covered in the flat. He could have probably thrown to Ja’Quavion Fraziars (#0) at the medium depth but the third defender might have been able to break that throw up. Instead, he went to his deep option in Ricky Pearsall (#1) who is open with room to run.

It’s not a great throw. Hit Pearsall in stride and he might make the deep safety miss and take it to the house. But for the first throw of your career, you can do a lot worse than a 22-yard completion deep into enemy territory.

Most people will look at this and marvel at how Kitna laid the ball right in there. It is a great throw. But the thing that impresses me about it is that if Eastern Washington had stayed in the coverage they were showing pre-snap, going that direction with the deep shot is the wrong throw.

But the safety to the top of the screen shifts right before the snap to come up and help in run support. That leads to the safety at the bottom of the screen shifting to help deep, but there is no way he can get all the way over to help on a deep throw down the sideline.

Kitna pauses after he receives the snap – almost like he was making sure that what he was seeing was really there – and then immediately turns that way and puts it up. He doesn’t need to look off the safety because the late shift essentially already did that. All he has to do is make an accurate throw and it’s an easy six.

Defense struggles again

Florida gave up two late touchdowns to make the point total seem worse than it actually was, but had this game ended 52-3, I still wouldn’t feel all that great about the defense.

Last week when looking at how to fix the defense, I highlighted plays in the 10-19 yard range as the ones that were killing the Gators. Those sorts of plays extend drives and make it difficult to get off of the field on third down. So how did the Gators do in that area against Eastern Washington?

The Gators gave up 12 plays in that 10-19 yard range. That’s 14.1 percent of the total plays for the game, which is right around where the Gators’ percentage has been all year. Unsurprisingly, the Gators struggled to get off the field, surrendering an average of 7.2 plays per drive to Eastern Washington on the afternoon.

It started early, as the Gators gave up an 11-yard gain on the first play of the game.

All offseason we’ve heard about how Florida’s coaches have been preaching to tackle by tracking the receiver’s near hip. What this means is that you drive through the tackle and are focused on making adjustments if the defender starts to change directions.

That doesn’t happen here. Amari Burney (#2) tackles high and towards the outside hip. The result is that by squatting and pivoting back towards the inside, the receiver is able to turn what should be a one-yard gain into an 11-yard gain.

To be fair though, the Gators issues with these sorts of plays are not just against the pass.

Florida has a numbers advantage when this ball is snapped. The Gators have seven men in the box and Eastern Washington only has six blockers. Even if Eastern Washington blocks this play perfectly, their running back should have to beat a Gators linebacker in the hole to get a big gain.

The Eagles don’t block this play perfectly. None of their offensive linemen get to the second-level and so Florida’s defenders – in this case, Ventrell Miller (#51) and Jason Marshall (#3) – should be in position to make the tackle. Except…..they run into each other.

I think this is Miller’s fault. Before the snap, you can see him directing Shemar James (#6) to move further to the left. Then the defensive end on that side slants inside with James coming around the edge. That means the only player left to man the cutback lane is Miller, who just isn’t home.

These are far from comprehensive when it comes to why the Gators defense is struggling. But the biggest problem to me is that Amari Burney and Ventrell Miller and others I didn’t provide video evidence of are experienced players. They have to make these plays.

Until they do, the defense is going to continue to struggle.

Takeaway

The Gators were favored by 31 points coming into the game and won by five touchdowns. Getting that W while continuing to build confidence in Anthony Richardson and getting Jalen Kitna experience is important. The fact that it looks like Florida got out of the game without any major injuries is also a big deal.

Richardson, in particular, looks to have turned a corner. Obviously, he could always revert back to Kentucky or USF form just as fast as he has morphed into the elite player he has been for the past two weeks. But I think there are examples we’re starting to see of the game slowing down for him and as that happens, Florida is going to score a lot of points.

And that’s good because they are going to need all the points they can put up.

Missouri and LSU are on the horizon. Neither of those teams have otherworldly offenses, but both of them have way better offenses than either Eastern Washington or South Florida. The reality is that Florida’s defense isn’t just bad for a Florida defense. It’s a bad defense.

We all watched on Saturday night as Ty’Ron Hopper harassed Stetson Bennett even though Missouri disappointed us all against the Bulldogs. The difference in athleticism between Hopper and the guys Florida is putting out there is striking.

It’s not just on the linebackers either. Brenton Cox and Gervon Dexter are former 5-star recruits. They have combined for 2.5 tackles for loss and a half sack through 5 games. Yes, they are getting double-teamed, but it’s a massive problem that Amari Burney (3) is the only Gators player with more than one sack.

There just isn’t any push, pressure or production coming from the defensive line unit. That cascades to the linebackers, who expect to be mauled on run plays and on defensive backs, who know they have to hold up in coverage for an extended period of time.

I’ve seen a lot of criticism of defensive coordinator Patrick Toney over the past couple of weeks, but I’m not sure what he can do. If you don’t get any pressure, don’t make any plays behind the line of scrimmage, don’t win any one-on-one battles and don’t tackle effectively when you have a stop, it doesn’t matter what the defensive calls are. I guess if we are looking for a silver lining, it’s that there weren’t any obvious coverage busts like last week against Tennessee.

So I think this game against Eastern Washington actually taught us a lot. I think it taught us that the defense has issues that are going to show up every week, regardless of the talent level of the opponent. I think it taught us that Jalen Kitna can probably fill in for a short time if necessary. I think it taught us that Anthony Richardson’s trajectory is tied to how fast he can slow things down against elite competition.

And that’s important because that elite-level competition is coming up on the schedule really, really fast.