Florida Football holds off Missouri in close home win

The Florida Gators beat the Missouri Tigers, 24-17. In the second get-right game for the Gators, the team underwhelmed against one of the worst teams in the SEC. Despite the fact that Missouri isn’t that bad and played Georgia close the week before, this game continues to ring alarm bells for Florida Football.

Florida Football holds off Missouri in home win

The game started with punts. The spell of punts ended when the Gators’ special teams got them into good field goal range. Despite the good field position, Anthony Richardson and the rest of the offense struggled and couldn’t capitalize, settling for three.

Florida’s defense made up for the offense and got a pick-six on the next drive. After Mizzou punted, the Gators were driving again, but the offense stagnated, with Florida having to settle for a deep field goal attempt that ended up missing. The game was 10-0, despite the slow start and missed field goal it seemed like it was going the way Florida wanted.

Brady Cook changed that by leading the Tigers down the field for a touchdown. On the next drive for the Gators, Anthony Richardson turned the ball over with a fumble. Missouri tied up the game with a field goal and it was 10-10 going into the half.

Coming out of the half, Florida drove down the field again and got into field goal range. Once again, Florida missed a deep field goal. Florida would correct their offense and finally finish a drive the right way by scoring a TD after Mizzou’s punt.

Brady Cook had the Tigers’ offense driving down the field on the next possession. In the red zone, he threw an interception and the Gators’ offense returned it for a touchdown from deep in their own territory.

Early in the fourth quarter, Missouri would respond and make it a one-score game once again. It seemed like Florida Football was in control of this game as they had the ball driving down the field with the clock running in the fourth.

Anthony Richardson would throw an interception late and gave Missouri an unnecessary chance to win the game. Despite this, the Gators’ defense showed up and stopped Brady Cook’s offense. The Gators would win the game.

Although Florida did win, this is another example of the passing attack’s inconsistent play. The reason that this team is a good team and not a great team is the offensive inconsistency. It has happened in pretty much every game they’ve played this year besides Utah.

Their upcoming game against LSU will be an interesting game because both of these teams have very inconsistent offenses for different reasons. LSU’s offense can sometimes skip a quarter and Florida’s passing game can be counted on to have a turnover.

For the Missouri Tigers, this is the second week in a row they played up to a better opponent. While Florida is way worse than Georiga, it was still a very good sign for the program that they kept up with them for the entire game. For a team that is one of the worst in the SEC, these two last weeks have certainly been an improvement.

Overall, Florida’s schedule is very interesting the rest of the way. Besides the Georgia and Vanderbilt games, the rest of their conference schedule is against good but flawed teams. Texas A&M’s offense is horrible but their defense is great. South Carolina has not played great all year but beat Kentucky this past week which has to mean something even though Levis was out.

While Florida Football will beat Vanderbilt and be destroyed by Georgia, the rest of their schedule is very interesting. While it might not have SEC or playoff implications, the Texas A&M, South Carolina, and LSU games are still all interesting games to watch for.

Florida’s regular season will also end against Florida State in a game where two notable QB’s will be leading both offenses (if healthy). Jordan Travis has been amazing this year for Florida State and it will surely be a great rivalry game. The amount of success that Florida has the rest of the way will depend on how consistent the offense will be. No matter what the answer is to that question it will be an interesting ride.