The Florida Gators lost to the Oregon State Beavers, 30-3. Florida football’s offense shut down in this one. In a game where not a lot of was expected of the Gators, Florida played up to expectations only having 219 yards on the day.
The game started off with three and outs to punts for both teams. Florida was finally able to move the ball down the field getting into field goal range, but flags took them out into long field goal range and Adam Mihalek couldn’t make the field goal.
Oregon State went down the field for a TD behind the passing and rushing game. On the next drive, Jack Miller and Montrell Johnson led the Gators to first downs, but they lost the ball on downs after not being able to overcome a false start flag on the third first down of the drive.
Oregon State couldn’t take advantage and had to punt after three plays. Florida would punt the ball right back to Oregon State, as they couldn’t get the first down.
In Gebbia’s second drive of the game, he was able to lead the Beavers down the field into the red zone. Due to a false start penalty on the fourth and not being able to get the first beforehand, they had to settle for a field goal and a 10-point lead.
Florida’s offense would punt on the next drive after three plays as the Beavers led 10-0 going into the half.
The Beavers would score on the first possession of the second half via a 10-play, 64-yard drive. A three-and-out and blocked punt by Oregon State on the next drive would make this game particularly over.
Florida Football loses to Oregon State in 2022 Las Vegas Bowl
Some Fun stuff from this game
Quickly before we get into my analysis of this game. The broadcast crew was highlighted by Pat McAfee. Addtionally, Jack Colletto had a game. The Linebacker had four tackles, and a key 11-yard rush on a play where Oregon State went for it on a fake punt. The run came on the drive that basically sealed the bowl win for the Beavers, which was the first drive in the third quarter.
Also, Mcafee had a great segment on Oregon State’s equipment manager that can be found here.
Also, as Florida was trying to not get shut out for the first time in a very long time, McAfee had a great broadcasting call on it. I have to note that as usual, McAfee was a just fun commenter on sports in this bowl game.
What can Florida Football take away from this game?
I didn’t expect a lot out of Jack Miller going into this game, as this was his first-ever start for the Gators. During parts of this game, I liked the way he threw the ball.
He made a couple of bad decisions, doing an almost identical mistake twice when rolling to the sidelines and trying to throw the ball.
With the number of players out from the transfer portal, and the NFL draft, I didn’t really expect the Gators to win this game. As highlighted in my score prediction, I thought the Gators’ rushing attack would do a lot more than they ended up doing. I was really shocked about how few yards the rushing duo of Montrell Johnson Jr and Trevor Etienne had in this one. The duo combined for 28 rushing yards.
The defense played the way I expected. Oregon State’s offense cooked in this one, going for 340 yards. Oregon State had a great 10-win season that included a bowl win and a huge comeback win over rival Oregon, a season that the Beavers have to be proud off.
This was a really weird season for the Florida football. They started the season off with a win over a solid 9th-ranked Utah team. Anthony Richardson seemed like a Heisman candidate, and the Gators were primed to make some noise in the college football world.
Then they lost to a Kentucky team a week later in a poor offensive performance. They almost lost to the worst program in college football a week later against USF. A week later, they played what would be one of the best teams in the country very closely in the final game of September against Tennessee.
Basically, the Gators’ season story was the story of the Florida-Florida State game. The Gators would go down 2 scores in the third, come back, and then lose. This team is going to finish the season with three straight loses and questions at their QB position among other questions.
For fans of Florida football, this season was like a trip to an amusement park. There are ups and downs, parts that are fun and exciting, parts that are nauseating and sad, but at the end of the day, you just end up with nothing really gained.