Week 5: Gators post-game news and notes

After a slow start to the season, the No. 7/7 Florida Gators (4-1, 2-1 SEC) performed spectacularly against Kentucky last week, only to play their worst game of the season Saturday in a 31-6 loss to the No. 1/1 Alabama Crimson Tide (5-0, 2-0 SEC) on the road at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL. With so much to discuss, OGGOA presents some important notes and quotes.

SECOND-WORSE LOSS SINCE…ALABAMA

The 31-6 beat down by the Crimson Tide on Saturday was Gators head coach Urban Meyer‘s worst loss since his team fell in similar fashion 31-3 in Tuscaloosa in 2005. In addition to both games having been road contests in Alabama, each were the only times under Meyer that Florida has failed to score a touchdown in a game.

BURTON THE HERO ZERO; BRANTLEY’s FAILURES

No, freshman quarterback Trey Burton did not play awful. In fact, as a receiver he caught four solid passes for 33 yards. But one week after being absolutely everything for the Gators, Burton was comparatively nothing, especially when throwing an interception on the goal line on 4th and 1 to conclude the Florida’s first offensive series of the game.

He was not alone as, one week after the best starting performance of his career, redshirt junior QB John Brantley was also brought back to Earth. Brantley completed just over half of his passes for 202 yards but threw two costly interceptions including one which was returned for a touchdown to ice any chance of a comeback by the Gators. Brantley also injured his ribcage in the fourth quarter trying to evade pass rushers and gain a 4th down on a pretty inconsequential play. He is expected to be fine.

TIDE’s RUSHERS STIFF-ARMED

Florida’s defense made it their primary goal to contain Alabama running backs Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, one of the few things the Gators actually accomplished Saturday night. Reigning Heisman Trophy winner Ingram was limited to 47 yards on 12 carries, though he did get into the end zone on two short-yardage touchdowns, and Richardson rushed 10 times for 63 yards with a long of 30 that inflated his statistics.

BETTER BUT NOT IMPROVED IN SECOND HALF

Of note is that the Gators actually outplayed the Crimson Tide in the second half, especially when you look at yards gained on offense. However, Florida was unable to gain large chunks of yardage, had too many plays fail and made costly mistakes that did not allow them to take advantage of their improved play. Alabama’s only score of the half was Brantley’s interception return, and Tide QB Greg McElroy was held to 84 yards the entire game (though he did complete 11-of-17 passes).

MVP FOR HENRY

Filling in for injured junior kicker Caleb Sturgis (who was 2-of-4 this season on field goals), senior punter Chas Henry was perfect on the night knocking through both of his attempts. Henry kicked a nice 39-yarder to end the first half and a 21-yard field goal in the beginning of the third quarter. He also punted the ball three times for 187 yards (62.3 average) including a long of 75 and two inside the 20.

QUOTES (After the break…)

Meyer’s opening statement: “We got beat by a good team and we didn’t play very well. Anxious to get back to work tomorrow. Sunday practice.”

Meyer on going for it on fourth down on the first series: “It was an aggressive call, something that we probably would do again. Matter of fact, I know we’d do it again. Sometimes you kick yourself in the rear end when you do that, but it’s kind of the way we play. We’re aggressive. We go on the road and get the chance to take a lead on a team, we’re going to try to go do that.”

Meyer on his team’s performance: “It was awful. We gotta get better. That was real disappointing. […] We just self-destructed: turnovers, red zone inefficiency. It was not good. We’ve never given up punt yardage. Last two weeks we’ve given up punt return yardage, too. We got some work to do.”

Meyer on Brantley’s performance: “I have to watch him on film before I make a comment on that. I think we all could have played better.”

Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin on the team: “I can only say that the scoreboard is what it is. But I like our team. That’s the best way to say it. The scoreboard says what it does.”

Austin on his unit’s struggles: “We really didn’t tackle well, but then I think we settled down. There were some things they did that were good and we didn’t react to them well early, but then we got it fixed. The biggest thing was when we had an opportunity to make a play [like] third downs early in the game, quarterback scrambles and dumps to the back, the back makes 10 yards and we couldn’t get ourselves off the field. We normally do that. When they have 24 points in the first half, we didn’t do a good job. We have to play better defense.”

Offensive coordinator Steve Addazio on the jump pass call: “It’s what we practiced. Fourth and close on the goal line. We gave the call for the jump pass. […] He couldn’t get separation. It just didn’t come together. The play’s a little bit like that. It’s either really there or it’s not. It wasn’t.”

Addazio again on the jump pass: “[That was] our mind was set at that point, given the whole scenario. We felt good about what we called, obviously. It didn’t happen. That jump pass is like that. We felt it was the right time. We’d kind of been working on that, kind of waiting for this opportunity and it didn’t happen. Obviously if you had that one again, you’d call a different call.”

Brantley on if the team regressed: “There are some positive things we’ll see on film. It’s not a step back because when we watch the film, we’ll watch those mistakes we made and get better from there. […] Personally, I’m sorry, but it really doesn’t matter. It’s a team thing. I’m sure there’s some good stuff. There’s some bad stuff.”

Burton on the jump pass: “I had a feeling I could get it to him. That’s why I threw it at a little angle like that.”

Senior center Mike Pouncey on not taking advantage: “It was frustrating because we were down on the 1-yard line a couple of times, and we didn’t end up getting any points. We turned the ball over both times, and that is something we’ll look at on film and try to fix.”

Alabama head coach Nick Saban on his team’s performance: “I was proud of the way we came out, not pleased with the way we finished the game. We’ve got to continue to understand how to play 60 minutes. It was something we came closer to, but still have further to go. We had a lot of bad field position in the second half and couldn’t get going, but those are all things we need to work on.”