GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When the 11th-ranked Florida Gators sit down to watch tape of Saturday's 38-17 homecoming loss to Missouri, they'll watch, according to their coach, a complete, across-the-board breakdown of all three football phases at Spurrier/Florida Field. Offense, defense, special teams. Nothing worked. 

"Obviously, disappointed," UF coach Dan Mullen said. "We didn't play very well, at all. Attention to detail. Sense of urgency. Our execution…. That's all on coaching." 

Maybe so, but the players were the ones on the field, and the Tigers, who came in winless through four Southeastern Conference games, were the better of the two teams, and it wasn't particularly close. 

Quarterback Drew Lock passed for 250 yards and three touchdowns and led an offense that piled up 471 total yards and made for quite a contrast compared to what Florida rolled out on a night starting quarterback Feleipe Franks was benched in the second half in favor of third-year sophomore backup Kyle Trask, who saw his first action against a Power Five opponent. 

The Gators (6-3, 4-3), losers of two straight, were down 35-10 when Franks took a seat, having completed just 9 of 22 throws for 84 yards, with one rushing touchdown. Trask took over and immediately marched UF on a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 7-yard scoring toss to Josh Hammond on fourth-and-goal. He finished 10 of 18 for 126 yards and the one touchdown. 

All told, Florida managed just 323 yards for the game, had only two plays of 20 yards or more and went 3-for-15 on third down. But to lay blame on that side of the ball — or merely on the starting quarterback — would be unfair. 

"There's a lot to go around," Mullen said. "It's a harsh reality for us, as a team."
 
To put UF's defensive day in perspective, consider that Missouri's offense, just seven days earlier, was basically reduced to a comatose state in a home loss against Kentucky, as it failed to register a single first down after halftime. Against the Gators, Lock completed 24 of his 32 passes (75 percent), his running backs gained 221 yards on the ground, and his overall unit converted 11 of 18 third downs (61 percent) and had gains of 27, 31, 18, 22, 24, 41, 41 and 21 yards. 

UF, meanwhile, had six three-and-outs on its first 10 possessions (including three straight at one point) to fall behind by 25 before Trask entered the game. 

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Tigers (5-4, 1-4) mocked the few remaining UF fans with Gator chomps. 

Of course, they did. 

"It just comes down to the want-to and having to do it every single play. When you want to be great and you're also the Florida Gators, you have to do it every single play," said UF tight end and former walk-on R.J. Raymond, a member of the team's leadership council and one of just four players who were made available for postgame interviews. "They want to beat the Gators. Every single week, you're going to get every single team's best effort. That's why when Missouri won, their fans, their players, they were Gator-chomping because it means so much to beat us." 

He wasn't done. And neither was the passion in Raymond's delivery, which apparently was similar to the message he gave to teammates in the locker room after the game.

"The leaders of this team, the seniors, it comes down on us because we've been through it all," Raymond continued. "We know what it takes to go to an SEC Championship [Game] and we also know what happens when you go 4-7. We've got to bring everybody with us."

Florida actually drew first blood when Missouri started its second possession backed up at is own 5. The Tigers had to punt out of there and it was a short one, just 30 yards, with an illegal batting of the ball by the kicking team adding another 10 yards to the Gators' field position. Kadarius Toney rushed 12 yards on first down to the Missouri 19, but the drive stalled there and true freshman Evan McPherson ricocheted a 32-yard field goal off the right upright and through the posts for a 3-0 home-team lead at the 7:18 mark of the first quarter. 

It didn't last. Lock had a few pretty plays — a 10-yard completion to tight end Al Okwuegbunam on third-and-6, an 8-yard scramble, then an 11-yard completion to Emanuel Hall — before Larry Rountree III broke off the left side of the UF defense and zipped untouched for a 27-yard touchdown to push the Tigers in front 7-3 with just under four minutes left in the period. 

Then it was Mizzou's turn to flip the field. The Tigers pinned the Gators at their own 4 with a punt, Franks threw three incompletions, and the Gators kicked the ball away into the wind, with the Tigers starting at the UF 43. On first down, Tyler Badie went off the right side for 18 yards to the 25. On third-and-7, Lock dropped and found Okwuegbunam completely uncovered down the middle of the Florida secondary; no one within 15 yards. Tucker McCann's point-after gave the visitors a 14-3 lead at 13:12 of the second quarter. 

If the Tigers were smarting from their dismal showing in the second half last week, no one would have known.

"After a really tough week, we showed tough resolve," Missouri coach Barry Odom said. 

After the fourth straight Florida punt, the Tigers met little resistance again. On first down from the Mizzou 22, Crockett broke off a 24-yard run. On third-and-10, Lock completed a 41-yard pass up the left sideline to Hall, who beat UF's star cornerback CJ Henderson. Four plays later, Crockett walked into the end zone on an option pitch to make it 21-3 and cap an easy seven-play, 78-yard drive. 

It all looked so easy for Lock, who two years ago came to the "Swamp" and completed just four of 18 throws for 39 yards and two pick-6 interceptions. This time, he looked like the part of his projection as 2019 first-round NFL draft pick.

"Our practice habits need to change," Henderson said. "We have some practice habits from last year that we brought into this year and we need to change that. We have to put this game past us and look forward with a positive attitude and come back ready to play."



After that, the Gators finally executed a touchdown drive. A 7-yard run by Jordan Scarlett on third-and-3 and 27-yard back-shoulder completion from Franks to Toney got UF to the Missouri 12. Franks went nine yards on a keeper to the 1, then rammed his way into the end zone the next play, drawing the Gators within 21-10 heading into intermission. 

UF got the second-half kickoff and a chance to build on their momentum. Instead? Three-and-out. 

Missouri? 

Eight plays and 66 yards capped by a 41-yard scoring strike from Lock to Kam Scott, who ran right past true freshman cornerback Trey Dean and caught the ball in perfect stride. It was 28-10. 

After yet another UF three-and-out, Missouri went 49 yards in eight plays, with Lock's third TD pass of the game being a 4-yarder to Hall.

That was it for Franks.  

Trask hit his first three passes and four of his first five for 52 yards, and helped the Gators reach the Mizzou 9. After two straight incompletions, then a run for two yards, Trask hit Hammond on a crossing route in the end zone. The pass was low, but Hammond went down to get it. 

"He did really well," Hammond said. "He's a guy who [takes] reps with the 1s and 2s every day in practice. Feleipe does, too. All of those guys get the same reps and same looks throughout the week. He was ready to execute when he came in and did a really good job of moving the ball." 

Afterward, Mullen gave Trask lukewarm praise and avoided throwing gas on what is about to be raging fire of a call for a quarterback change throughout Gator Nation (and its social media). 

"I thought he did OK," Mullen said. "We'll watch the film. He missed a throw or two here, but made some good throws and got the ball out and on time. He gave our guys a chance, for the most part. Other times, we didn't. He gave our guys a chance to make some plays." 

It was too little and way too late. 

Exactly where the Gators go from here — and what direction the coach goes under center — will play itself out over the next few days and the final three regular-season games, starting next week at home against South Carolina, which put up 48 points and 510 yards in a win Saturday at Ole Miss. Mullen was clear about his expectations. He wants to see some fight.

Even if he has to start it. 

"They keep score. Someone wins and someone loses," Mullen said, taking off on a soliloquy about competition. "I don't care what we're doing. You want to thumb wrestle me right now, I'm going to kick your ass, you know what I mean? You want to come on up, I got you. You want to go run stadiums, I'll kick your ass. You're going to keep score and someone is going to win and someone is going to lose? I want to beat your ass. If we don't have that attitude in the locker room, you've got a problem. I mean, what are you doing?"

What are the Gators doing? 

Check in next week to find out.