Florida vs. Georgia score, takeaways: Dawgs win fourth straight as Gators lose DJ Lagway, starters

Image Credit: UAA

Midway through the third quarter at EverBank Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the Florida Gators were basically operating as a MASH unit. Having lost their starting quarterback and both starting cornerbacks in the game, Florida saw a long-held lead dissipate in short order before the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs scored 28 of the final 35 points to prevail 34-20 in the latest edition of the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.

The disastrous afternoon began when freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, who exploded onto the scene in his first season and moved into a starting role two weeks ago, severely injured his left hamstring on a run late in the second quarter. Lagway immediately grabbed his leg and needed to be lifted off the ground before being carted off the field and into the tunnel.

The Gators nevertheless led 13-6 at halftime only to see junior Devin Moore and sophomore Dijon Johnson — both starting cornerbacks in place of senior Jason Marshall Jr., who was ruled out for the season earlier in the week — go down. Johnson was injured on a drive during which three Florida defensive backs were forced off the field. Georgia completed that effort with a game-tying touchdown.

Taking advantage of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, the Gators deftly worked their way into position for a would-be 51-yard go-ahead field on the next drive … except an errant botched snap gave the ball back to the Dawgs, which gained 31 yards of field position. Just a few plays later, Georgia found the end zone for the second time.

“Special teams are a team effort, and on that play, we did not execute,” head coach Billy Napier said.

The air was completely taken out of the stadium — at least the Florida half — given the sudden 10-point swing. The Gators wound up fighting back to score a fourth-quarter touchdown and tie the game, but the Dawgs answered in kind on the following series to prevail.

It was certainly a Murphy’s Law situation for a Florida team that needed to play near-perfect football to take down a Georgia program that’s had its number since head coach Kirby Smart took over.

The Gators picked off Dawgs QB Carson Beck three times and played stellar defense for most of the game, but once the offense became inefficient behind redshirt freshman QB Aidan Warner — and the defense simultaneously lost key players — UF’s legitimate chances of pulling off the upset completely dissipated.

Florida is now 1-7 in its last eight meetings against Georgia having dropped four straight games in the annual series. The Gators also fell to 0-22 this century when entering a game as two-touchdown underdogs.

Let’s take a look at what went down Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida.

Welcome to hell

This is what it looks like. Florida entered Saturday’s game without its No. 1 quarterback, No. 1 running back, No. 1 wide receiver and No. 1 cornerback. It ended the game losing its new starting QB and both starting CBs. All of this while going up against a hated rival that has won two of the last three national championships and boasts one of the nation’s best defenses.

The margins were slim entering the game; again, the Gators basically needed to be perfect. While they were not given the special teams gaffe, losing Lagway nearly erased the entire scoring potential of the offense. As such, Florida’s defense was basically tasked with hanging onto a seven-point lead for 30 minutes.

It did the best it could to that end, but the short-field situation created by the special teams gaffe was simply a terrible mistake to make at the worst-possible time. The Gators had a three-turnover edge — scoring 10 of their 13 points off two of those giveaways — before that snap resulted in a potential 10-point swing.

Florida showed fight coming back to tie the game, but its thin defense was unable to stop Georgia on its penultimate drive, and a back-breaking interception from Warner led to the clinching touchdown with 3 minutes to play.

Thinnest silver lining

What makes this loss — and the totality of Saturday’s developments — so frustrating is that the Gators appeared to be the same motivated, ferocious team coming out of the second bye week as the one that left the first bye week looking like it would turn the season around.

“I do think that the objective today was to come here and to put fanatical effort on the field. We wanted to ramp up the intensity,” Napier said.

If Lagway had not gotten injured, there’s a good chance Florida would have upset a more-than-beatable Georgia team. (Just as, if the man he replaced had not gotten injured, it’s possible Florida would have upset Tennessee three weeks ago.) It appeared as if Napier and his staff did everything they needed from a preparation standpoint to put the Gators in position to pull off an unexpected win.

And yet, despite Florida refusing to quit and playing as hard as it had in any game this season, some forces beyond the efforts of the players played a role in the Gators finding themselves where they have been far too often over the last decade: losers in a big game.

“Our plan was working well and continued to work well on defense and the kicking game, and even on offense to some degree,” Napier said.

Florida is now 2-13 against AP Top 25 teams under Napier, 1-8 over the past two seasons. UF is also 2-8 against top-five teams since 2018.

What went right

Normally, coming out of losses, Only Gators starts by touching on the negatives. Given UF’s effort in this contest, a game it well could have won, let’s flip the script.

• Florida’s three interceptions marked the third straight game in which the Gators forced multiple takeaways, a first under Napier. Its ball-hawking and stellar defensive effort continued a trend coming out of the first off week.
• Redshirt freshman DB Aaron Gates had one of the best games of his career with an interception, pass breakup, sack, QB hurry and three solo tackles.
• Before going down with injury, Moore picked off Beck leading to a field goal. Junior EDGE Jack Pyburn grabbed the third created from a pressure by sophomore linebacker Grayson Howard.
• Redshirt freshman wide receiver Aidan Mizell grabbed a 43-yard touchdown from Lagway in a quick-change play following a turnover. He likely would have played a greater role on offense had Lagway not been injured.
• Running backs sophomore Ja’Kobi Jackson and freshman Jadan Baugh combined to run for 138 yards and Jackson’s 15-yard game-tying score in the fourth quarter. Both remained efficient with big plays while in the game for redshirt senior Montrell Johnson Jr.
• Senior punter Jeremy Crawshaw booted a 59-yard ball that flipped the field early in the game, and his 49.1-yard punt average allowed UF to remain competitive despite offensive issues.
• Napier understandably decided to run out the clock to end the first half, but after Florida surprisingly broke off two long runs, it wound up completing a 40-yard drive in 40 seconds with a 53-yard field goal from junior kicker Trey Smack that earned back a seven-point lead at the break.

👀🐊 #Gators find the end zone first as DJ Lagway hits Jam-Master A for a 43-yard TD. It's Aidan Mizell's second TD of the season and first since Sept. 7.

(Bonus points if you can explain the reference.) pic.twitter.com/8PyqfMq4BO

— OnlyGators.com: Florida Gators news (@onlygators) November 2, 2024

What's that coming down the track… It's @24jjack

📺 ABC pic.twitter.com/vjG52NUz54

— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) November 2, 2024

What went wrong

• There were multiple frustrating penalties either called against Florida or not called at all during the first half. Among them were a facemask without the facemask being grabbed and a blatant uncalled holding on Georgia when an offensive lineman dragged a rusher to the turf on a third-down completion.
• It’s tough to expect much from a walk-on, third-string QB who only practiced with the second unit for the weeks, but Warner was particularly rough. He did convert a nice 26-yard pass to senior WR Elijhah Badger but ultimately went 6 of 21 for 40 yards and an interception otherwise. The simple fact is that the Gators’ passing offense will almost assuredly be nonexistent with Lagway and redshirt senior Graham Mertz out.
• In addition to injuries suffered by Lagway, Moore and Johnson, sophomore DBs Jordan Castell and Sharif Denson got hurt in the game.
  

Odds & ends

Florida is now 44-56-2 all-time against Georgia (41-50-1 in Jacksonville) with four straight losses and a 1-7 record since 2017 … UGA has now won four straight over UF for the first time since 1978-83 … the Gators still lead the series 22-13 since 1990 … Napier is 0-3 against UGA losing each game by 14+ points … UF’s defense has forced turnovers in seven of eight games with multiple takeaways in three straight for the first time under Napier … Florida is now 0-4 in neutral-site games under Napier (3-12 away from home) … the Gators under Napier are now 13-5 when leading after halftime, 3-13 when opponents score first, 1-11 when scoring less than 21 points, 5-18 when allowing 21+ points, 1-16 when tied or trailing after the third quarter and 3-13 when being outrushed … Florida is 2-13 against AP Top 25 teams under Napier, 1-8 over the last two seasons … the Gators have scored in 456 consecutive games, an NCAA record

What it means

It’s immensely tough to say.

On one hand, Florida appears to be a clearly improved team — not just from the group that started the season but in the way it is competing on both sides of the ball (particularly on defense). The Gators seem to be completely bought into Napier as their leader — program buy-in is what the coach expected to be a difference maker in Year 3 once the roster got sorted out — and they are playing like their hair is on fire despite losses that should have been wins against two top-10 teams in the last month. Lagway’s emergence and Napier’s handling of a freshmen-run offense the last two games has also been admirable; he’s even cut down on some of his mind-numbing game management mistakes.

On the other hand, how the hell does one evaluate Napier and this team over the duration of the season? With Lagway and a mostly healthy defense, it’s quite possible Florida could have pulled off some upsets against its three remaining top-20 opponents. Without Lagway, even if the defensive losses are mitigated, how can the Gators expect to be competitive in any of those games?

Coupled with a confusing coaching landscape, the expanded College Football Playoff creating a difficult hiring window, the moved-up transfer portal doing the same, a recruiting class that has cratered given uncertainty surrounding Napier and the coach’s on-field mistakes during the majority of his tenure, Florida will be in as difficult a situation as it possibly could be over the next few months — from the coaches and players to the athletic department and the decision makers.

The question that will need to be asked: It is clear the Gators were making progress; has it been enough to this point knowing the next four games will be played with a depleted roster?

What’s next?

Florida will face its second straight top-10 opponent away from home when it visits Texas next Saturday for a noon ET kickoff. The Gators and Longhorns will be playing for the first time since 1940.