Gators Down Georgia with Too Much Defense, Enough Offense

Saturday, October 29

Jacksonville, FL

3:30 pm

Florida Gators

Georgia

Tailback Jordan Scarlett is hoisted after his go-ahead touchdown run late in the first half of the Gators' 24-10 defeat Saturday of Georgia.

Gators Down Georgia with Too Much Defense, Enough Offense

Saturday, October 29, 2016 | Football, Chris Harry

Box Score Photo Gallery by Tim Casey, Courtney Culbreath, Adler Garfield, & Jay Metz

The Gators held Bulldogs and freshman sensation QB Jacob Eason to just 164 total yards.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — No one is going to accuse the Florida Gators of being flashy. When it comes to fireworks, they don't light up the skies. They don't bombard teams and leave a lot of carnage and in their wake. And it was just five weeks ago a very proud defense was humbled in Tennessee.

They're not perfect. Far from it.

But the Gators are ranked 14th in the nation, have won three in a row, control their fate atop the Southeastern Conference East Division, and Saturday added a 24-10 thumping of rival Georgia to their resume in front of 84,681 at EverBank Field.

"People pick this team apart quite a bit," UF coach Jim McElwain said after the program's third straight win in the storied series that dates more than 100 years. "The Florida Gators are a good team. I'll go with these guys against anybody and we'll figure out a way to get it done. That's the way they are in that locker room and I love that about their mentality."

The Gators (6-1, 4-1), of course, thrive on a defense-first mentality, as the Bulldogs (4-4, 2-4) and true freshman quarterback Jacob Eason found out. Georgia came in averaging 402.9 yards of offense per game, including 195.6 on the ground, thanks to a pair of running backs in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel who each have tallied 1,000-yard seasons. When the Dogs were done banging their collective heads into the UF defensive wall, they had 164 total yards, just 21 on the ground (via 19 carries) and eight first downs.

Florida fans show their love for defensive backs Jalen Tabor (left) and Duke Dawson after another tremendous effort by a UF defense that limited Georgia to just 164 total yards.

"We definitely know we're a good team,'' said senior linebacker Jarrad Davis, who soldiered through for seven tackles (two for loss) despite a severely sprained ankle that made him questionable for the game. "There's a lot of things that we can do to elevate our game. And this run that is coming up, we've got to really, really take the time out to put in the extra effort to really make ourselves that team that we are, that team that we can be. We're the Florida Gators. We need to prepare like the Florida Gators. That name holds a lot of weight and a lot of respect in this country and we need to demand it throughout the week so we can show up on Saturday and really impose our will."

Eason's first exposure to that will was pronounced. The nation's top-rated dropback QB prospect from the 2017 signing class went 15 of 33 for just for 143 yards yards, one touchdown, was sacked twice. The goal for UF coming in was to thwart the dangerous Georgia running attack and dare Eason, the rookie, to take aim at the league's top secondary.

It worked … for the Gators, that is.

"It's hard any time [defenses] make you one-dimensional," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. "It's frustrating because I really thought we'd be able to run in this game. There were glimpses, but nothing consistent."

Those glimpses were minuscule, at best — and they weren't much bigger for the Florida offense. The Gators, though, got 131 yards and a touchdown passing from Luke Del Rio, who engineered a unit that managed to sustain key drives by converting nine of 18 third-down opportunities. UF tallied just 231 yards, with 100 of those coming on the ground, but got a couple rushing touchdowns from tailback Jordan Scarlett and wideout Antonio Callaway, plus a fourth-quarter field goal from Eddy Pineiro, to finish as many drives as they needed.

The defense did the rest.

"We dominated, as you could see," nickel back Duke Dawson said. "A feeding frenzy."

After surrendering a field goal and touchdown on Georgia's first two drives — the former set up by a Del Rio interception and 30-yard return — the next 10 possessions against the UF defense ended like this: punt, punt, punt, end of half, punt, punt, punt, punt, downs and downs. Six of those drives were three-and-outs; the last two were four-and-outs.

"It's hard," junior linebacker Alex Anzalone said when asked what it must be like to stare down the UF defense. "You see the speed. There aren't a lot of holes, from the DBs down to he linebackers to the defensive line. There aren't a lot of places to pick at."

That's why the Gators can't take over a game despite an offense that is -- just calling it like it is -- still searching for consistent productivity. Two weeks after erupting for 523 yards against Missouri, UF started slowly, with the interception on the first series, but two of its three touchdown marches were for 10 plays, as the Gators dominated the clock (37:27) against a team that was second in the league in time of possession, mostly because of its rushing attack.

Down 3-0 after the Del Rio interception led to a Rodrigo Blankenship field goal, the Florida quarterback bounced back by finding tight end C'yontai Lewis for a 19-yard touchdown pass to give the Gators a momentary lead of 7-3. The UF score came two plays after Del Rio hit Lewis for a 17-yard pass down the left sideline that initially was ruled incomplete. After review, Lewis got a foot down before falling out of bounds to set in motion the four-play, 39-yard scoring drive that ended with Lewis wiggling through a tackle by safety Dominick Sanders and rolling into the end zone with 17 seconds left in the opening period.

Tight end C'yontai Lewis skies for a 17-yard reception that helped set up his first touchdown catch of the season.

Georgia reclaimed the lead when Eason flashed the skills that made McElwain call him "the future of the SEC." The six-play, 75-yard drive was boosted when Eason rolled right and roped a 38-yard strike to Terry Godwin to the UF 35. Three plays later, Eason was flushed to his left and soft-tossed a 14-yard touchdown to wideout Riley Ridley to put the Bulldogs up 10-7 at the 12:02 mark of the second period.

That was the score when Scarlett hit the end zone on a 2-yard run with 1:37 left in the first half to give the Gators the lead — for good, as it turned out. Scarlett, the sophomore, tallied a rushing touchdown in his sixth straight game when he ran through an arm tackle from linebacker Reggie Carter and finished an eight-play, 44-yard drive by the Gators, who benefitted from a poor Bulldogs' punt after UF forced Eason into a second consecutive three-and-out.

UF had a chance to give itself a cushion early in the second half, but Pinerio missed a 34-yard field on the Gators' opening possession. They made up for it on the second with a 10-play, 56-yard drive that ended when Callaway, on third-and-goal, came in motion and took a "jet sweep" handoff from Del Rio, zipped to the edge and followed a great block from Lewis to score untouched at the 3:11 mark of the third quarter. In doing so, Callaway became the first player in UF history to account for touchdowns five different ways in a career: receiving, throwing, rushing, plus kickoff and punt returns.

Pinero's 38-yard field goal with 4:24 to play — after a sensational fourth-down pass deflection of an Eason pass by Dawson — iced another 10-play drive.

And the game.

"It was a good team win," Del Rio said.

A really good and satisfying one. With 2:06 to play, Georgia called a timeout as UF faced a fourth-and-1 from the Bulldogs' 28. Out of the timeout, Scarlett bulled ahead for four yards, prompting a fired-up Del Rio to turn to his bench and do the Gator chomp.

Florida's overall performance wasn't overpowering, save the defense. That's OK with the Gators. They learned last year what elements of divisiveness can do to a locker room; how they can spill onto the field.

"I'm a guy who likes to think positively. I like to keep it real as well, but at the same time you can't sit back and dwell on the misfortunes [on the offensive] side of the ball," Davis said. "That's what we did last year. We sank. We saw exactly what happened. Instead of pouting about a bad situation, why not take the game into our own defensively. We're going to get tired. Things are going to go wrong. We've just got to keep doing us."

So far, "us" is working.