TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Florida's defense kept the Gators in their game Saturday against third-ranked Alabama, but you'd never know it by the final score.
Or the stat sheet.
Quarterback Blake Sims passed for 445 yards and four touchdowns while engineering a Crimson Tide offense that amassed 645 total yards -- the most ever surrendered by a Florida team in 108 years of football -- in a 42-21 victory in their Southeastern Conference showdown at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
"A lot of guys are down, of course, and that's how it is after any loss," sophomore linebacker Jarrad Davis said. "Me and a couple guys tried to go around and make sure everybody keeps their heads up. This is only one game out of however many games we're going to play this season. We don't need to take this as something that's going to be detrimental to the Florida Gators' success."
They certainly had their chances, though the lopsided nature of the statistical sheets suggest otherwise.
The UF defense set up three touchdowns with turnovers, including a tipped-ball interception early in the third quarter that set up a 14-yard scoring run off a quarterback draw by Jeff Driskel that tied the score at 21-all less than two minutes into the second half.
After that it was all Alabama (4-0, 1-0). And very little Florida (2-1, 1-1).
On either side of the ball.
Sims completed 23 of 33 passes, with 10 of them going to stellar wide receiver Amari Cooper, who finished with 201 yards and three touchdowns, one of them a 79-yard in the opening period. The Tide also rushed for 199 yards, with the totality of their attack absolutely draining UF's defensive players.
The Tide's whopping total of 645 yards, the fourth-most in school history, eclipsed the 629 yards the Gators were gashed for in their 62-24 loss against Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl national championship game after the 1995 season.
"It's a lack of execution and that comes back to me," said Muschamp, pointing out how two huge first-quarter pass plays (touchdowns of 87 and 79 yards) set the tone for game. "We have to do a better job of executing in those situations and playing better in those situations."
The Bama offense was on the field for 43 plays in the second half, compared to a UF offense that ran just 18 plays after halftime on the way to finishing with only 200 total yards.
Driskel, like his offense, just could not find any rhythm. He finished nine of 28 for 93 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions. The Gators went 2-for-13 on third-down conversions, leaving little time for the defense to recover on the sidelines.
"When our number is called, we have to step up," junior defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard said. "It's not our job to worry about what the offense is doing. When the defense is called, we have to get them the ball. That's our job."
The coverage issues the Florida secondary experienced in last week's triple-overtime defeat of Kentucky reared themselves instantly this week, with Sims hitting running back Kenyan Drake with an 87-yard touchdown on Bama's first play from scrimmage. Drake lined up in the slot and was matched against Morrison, but raced by the linebacker with no safety help n the back end. Easy score.
That's where the Gators answered on defense.
Bama ran a sweep to Drake on the first play of its second possession, with safety Marcus Maye hitting Drake and forcing a fumble into the arms of cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III at the Alabama 31. Three plays later, facing a third-and-seven, Driskel hit wideout Valdez Showers out of the slot for a 28-yard touchdown pass to tie the game.
On Alabama's next series, Gators linebacker Neiron Ball hit wideout DeAndrew White and knocked the ball backward in front of the UF sideline, where safety Keanu Neal scooped it up and took it 49 yards for a touchdowns and 14-7 lead.
A short-lived one.
The Gators defense gave one right back a couple possessions later when Cooper, maybe the best wideout in the country, ran uncovered down the middle of the field -- no UF player within 20 yards of him -- for the 79-yard touchdown to tie the game with just over four minutes to go in the first period.
Sims' 2-yard toss to fullback Jalston Fowler gave Bama a 21-14 lead at halftime, a margin that quickly was tied early in the second half by Driskel's TD run.
After that, it was all Alabama, all the way to the end.
"We eventually got control of the game, which speaks a lot about the competitive nature the players have here," Tide coach Nick Saban said. "They just kept hanging in there."
Then they finished things.
The Tide's ensuing three possessions after the interception were all touchdown drives of at least 60 yards and eight plays, including one that lasted 16 plays. On Bama's fourth possession, the Tide marched 42 yards in nine plays to the UF 8, where Saban, the mentor, opted not to pile on the scoreboard against Muschamp, his former assistant.
Muschamp will stress to his players not to read too much into this outcome.
"We need to stay the course with the idea that, right now, that's a good football," he said of the Tide. "But we're a good football team too, with everything still sitting out in front of us."
