Missouri receiver Emanuel Hall grabs a pass with Gators cornerback Trey Dean in coverage on Saturday. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Tigers Un(Lock) Door to Success Against UF Secondary
Saturday, November 3, 2018 | Football
Share:
By: Ethan Hughes, FloridaGators.com Intern
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Missouri quarterback Drew Lock came to the Swamp in 2016 as a sophomore to face a vaunted Gators secondary on Homecoming. The results were not pretty: 4-for-18, 39 yards and pick-sixes on back-to-back drives in the second quarter. He posted a career-low 18.2 passer rating in Florida's 26-point win.
On Saturday, he returned to the Swamp as a senior and likely first-round NFL draft pick. UF entered the game second in the SEC in passing defense and saw cornerback CJ Henderson (back) and safety Brad Stewart (undisclosed) return to action.
The results this time, however, could not have been more different.
Lock torched the Gators to the tune of 24-for-32 for 250 yards and three touchdowns, and the Tigers (5-4, 1-4 SEC) blew out the Gators (6-3, 4-3) 38-17.
"A lot of people thought they were better than they were, including the entire defense, including me," Henderson said. "It just showed today. We didn't go out there and execute."
It represented the second consecutive poor performance for Florida's defense. Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm lit up the Gators for 240 yards and three touchdowns a week ago.
For the second week in a row, UF gave up season highs in passing yards and total yards (471).
"We're very disappointed," Henderson said. "This is not the season we expected. We're not playing with consistency like we should be. We just need leaders to step up."
With his performance, Lock passed former Gators Chris Leak and Tim Tebow to enter third place on the league's career passing touchdown list. He also passed Danny Wuerffel for sixth in career passing yards.
The secondary simply was unable get off the field when it needed to Saturday, allowing Missouri to convert 11 of 18 third downs. Going back to the Georgia game, opponents have converted on 19 of their last 32 third downs.
"We got to make that very important to us," Henderson said. "We got to make that a focus, getting off the field on third down, and that just starts with us as the players."
Gators nickel/star back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson is the latest UF defensive back hobbled by an injury. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Every time it looked like UF might make it a game again, Lock would hit them with a big play.
Trailing by just two scores at 21-10 early in the third quarter, receiver Kam Scott ran a post route against Gators freshman cornerback Trey Dean with no safety help. Scott beat Dean to the inside, and Lock hit him for a 41-yard touchdown pass to take out whatever air was left in Florida's balloons.
Later in the quarter, Lock picked on Dean again, hitting Emanuel Hall for a four-yard score on a slant.
However, it wasn't just Dean. In the second quarter, Missouri faced a third-and-10 from its own 46-yard line. Hall (four catches, 77 yards, one touchdown) ran past Henderson, an All-SEC candidate, and Lock connected with him for 41 yards to set up a touchdown.
"He's a great player, one of the fastest guys in the league, great receiver," Gators head coach Dan Mullen said of Hall, who missed his team's previous four games with an injury. "He made a bunch of – they hit their down-the-field shots tonight. They hit their explosives."
Added Lock: "It was good to be able to have that guy back out there on the field. People talk about when you're growing up you have your blanket, your little blanket. It's like I was sleeping, and I was freezing for four weeks, but the little blanket came back and made some plays again."
Mullen said the Gators' lack of depth in the secondary might have finally caught up to them.
"In your total reps on a whole season, it starts to wear on you," he said. "You're in the secondary, and you're playing 70 plays per game. It doesn't show up maybe in game three, four and five. Starts showing up in game nine, 10, 11. You're just worn down from the season because of the lack of depth, the lack of rotation, the number of plays you're having to play."
The unit struggled to contain the run as well. The Tigers rushed for 221 yards at 5.3 yards per carry. Despite Stewart's return, the safeties frequently took bad angles, over-pursued or just flat out missed tackles. This is especially alarming considering that Missouri entered the day just ninth in the conference in rushing.
However, the Gators know that the struggles of the past two weeks are not entirely the secondary's fault. The front seven generated very little pressure, sacking Lock just once, and that came when he ran out of bounds. The offense's slow start also gave Missouri a wave of momentum early in the game.
It also looks like the unit may have suffered another critical loss. Nickelback Chauncey Gardner-Johnson walked off the field on crutches.
It's the SEC, every game is tough. South Carolina visits the Swamp next Saturday. The Gamecocks hung 48 points on Ole Miss on Saturday, and quarterback Jake Bentley threw for more than 350 yards. The Gators have no time to hang their heads.
"We got to put this game past us and continue to look forward with a positive attitude and come back the next week ready to work," Henderson said.
