Autopsy Cause of Gators Defeat: Self-Inflicted Wounds

Photo: GatorBait Media

Watching the film of Florida’s 27-8 loss to Georgia will be the equivalent of performing an autopsy for Jon Sumrall. Cause of death – in this case defeat – will read “self-inflicted wounds.”

The Georgia Bulldogs are a fine football team. Nothing they did Saturday would lead someone to believe the Bulldogs (7-1, 5-1 SEC) aren’t deserving of the nation’s No. 3 ranking. They are big, strong, physical on both lines of scrimmage and perhaps the most fundamentally sound team in the country. On the offensive and defensive lines, the Bulldogs looked like grown men going against Florida’s boys.

Make no mistake about it, Georgia is very, very good, perhaps good enough to win a third national championship in the last six years, but it took complicity on the part of the 17th-ranked Gators (5-3, 3-3 SEC) for the Bulldogs to pull even with 8th-ranked Kentucky (7-1, 5-1 SEC) at the top of the Southeastern Conference standings. Of Georgia’s 27 points, 24 were a direct result of Florida mistakes.

“They didn’t need our help tonight, but we gave it to them,” Sumrall said. “And they won the game, but the Gators didn’t help the Gators enough tonight.”

If it wasn’t turnovers – the Gators threw three interceptions and lost a fumble that was returned 66 yards for a touchdown – it was penalties. There were eight of them, five in the first half when the Gators were smoked, 24-0.

Here is a breakdown of the first half carnage:

FLORIDA’S FIRST POSSESSION

Taking over after Georgia’s Peyton Woodring missed a 43-yard field goal, the Gators moved 13 yards in two plays, gaining the first down on a 10-yard Aaron Philo to Lacota Dipre pass. Philo and freshman Justin Wilson collaborated on what would have been a 17-yard pass that moved the ball to the Georgia 45, but Dallas Wilson was called for a hold, moving the ball back to the UF 32. On third down, Philo was chased out of the pocket and rather than take a sack, he tried to underhand the ball in the direction of a receiver only to have Georgia’s Ellis Robinson pick it off.

“I tell our quarterbacks all the time, I want every drive to end in some sort of kick, and a punt is one of those that I can live with,” Sumrall said. “We just kind of gave them a gift there.”

CRITICAL ROUGHING THE KICKER PENALTY

The Florida defense responded to the turnover by forcing Georgia to punt on fourth-and-15 from the UF 46. The Gators tried to block the punt, but Jaden Edgecombe missed the ball as he dived, hitting Miller below the knees. Given new life, Georgia needed five plays to put the ball in the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 1:50 remaining in the first quarter.

“We liked the block we had called,” Sumrall said. “We don’t leave our feet to block the punt. We want to hand block it in that situation … critical mistake. That was a turning point from a momentum standpoint in the game, because our defense had gotten a stop after the pick and then to gift them a new set of downs gave them life. You can’t do that against anybody in sleep, much less a team like that.”

FLORIDA’S FIRST POSSESSION OF THE SECOND QUARTER

On third-and-1 at the UF 28, Bryce Lovett was flagged for a false start. Philo and Amir Jackson connected on a 10-yard pass for a first down at the 33. Philo hit Eric Singleton Jr. in the hands with what would have been at least a 20-yard gain but the ball went through the wickets and into the hands of Georgia’s Demello Jones, who ran the ball back to the Florida 32. An unsportsmanlike penalty was tagged on the end of the play. That one was on Sumrall, who got in the way of one of the referees. The Florida defense forced a 28-yard Woodring field goal. Georgia 10, Florida 0.

GEORGIA’S NEXT POSSESSION: SECOND QUARTER

Taking over on their own 19, Georgia drove to the UF 41 where, on second and 10, Gunner Stockton threw wide right and incomplete at the UF 35. As Talyn Taylor broke for the sideline, Cormani McClain got his hand caught up in Taylor’s facemask. The ensuing 15-yard penalty gave Georgia a first down at the UF 26. Four plays later, the Bulldogs punched it in for a 17-0 lead with 1:55 left in the half.

SACK, FUMBLE, SCORE

Tramell Jones Jr., who had taken over at QB for Philo after the second interception, completed passes of 17 yards to Amir Jackson, 14 yards to Dallas Wilson and five yards to Bailey Stockton, moving the ball to the Georgia 37, well within Patrick Durkin’s field goal range. On second-and-5, Georgia’s Quintavius hit Jones from behind before he got into his throwing motion. The ball landed at the 34 where Chris Cole picked it up, got a convoy down the sideline and ran it in for a 66-yard defensive TD. A 17-3 deficit had seemed certain, but now the Gators were behind 24-0. Seventeen points on turnovers and another seven aided by a 15-yard penalty.

SECOND HALF: A PICK IN THE END ZONE AND A STREAK PRESERVED

After a first half in which the Gators managed only 109 yards, Jones got the offense somewhat ignited on Florida’s first possession of the third quarter, but Singleton couldn’t come down with a third down pass at the Georgia 28.

Florida’s second possession of the half avoided disaster when Georgia was flagged for roughing the passer, nullifying an interception by Demello Jones. Two plays later, Jones and Singleton connected for 18 yards. A 7-yard run by Jadan Baugh and a 10-yard scramble by Jones made it first and goal at the Georgia three. On second and goal, Jones rolled left and threw an interception on a pass intended for Singleton. Had Jones looked slightly to his right he would have seen Baugh open at the goal line.

Georgia managed only 14 yards of offense in the third quarter, but started moving the ball in the fourth quarter, taking it all the way down to the UF 11. On first down, Stockton flipped the ball to Talyn Taylor, who lost the ball when he was hit by DJ Coleman. Myles Graham emerged from a pack of Gators with the football, returning it 42 yards to the Georgia 48.

It took nine plays following Graham’s sprint down the sideline to ensure the Gators would add to their NCAA record streak of 480 games without being shut out, but it wouldn’t have happened without a fourth-and-goal pass interference call against Georgia. On the next play, Tramell Jones dived in from two yards out for Florida’s only touchdown with 6:59 remaining in the game. The Gators cut the Georgia lead to 24-8 when Jadan Baugh tossed a two-point conversion pass to Dallas Wilson.

THE O-LINE HAD A BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE

Georgia finished the game with four sacks good for -19 yards. There were seven other tackles for loss. Eleven negative plays, three picks and a fumble are a recipe for disaster in the SEC, particularly against a team like Georgia. The Bulldogs keyed their entire defense on Jadan Baugh, holding him to 38 yards on 17 carries. Throwing lanes and clean pockets were a rarity for both Philo and Jones. Neither quarterback played well enough for the Gators to win the game, but they didn’t get a lot of help, either, particularly from the O-line.

“I felt bad for both quarterbacks at times … I don’t know that either one of them independently played good enough for us to win the game, but I also don’t know that it’s really fully fair to evaluate either one of them fully because I don’t think there was enough help around them,” Sumrall said. “Not just the offensive line. We had receivers misaligned today, not run the right route, or run the wrong route a handful of times. The timing on things were off. I didn’t think we played up front good enough, though, on the offensive line to help them. And we knew coming into this game we needed to stay ahead of the chains and give ourselves an opportunity.”

THE DECISION TO START PHILO

Philo missed the Texas game with a shoulder injury suffered against South Carolina. Jones got hurt in the win over Texas. After the bye week prior to Georgia, Philo had better practice days on Tuesday and Wednesday, earning the start.

“Tramell, really, on Thursday in the bye week, our last practice, was not anywhere near 100 percent,” Sumrall said. “He was – I’m not gonna disclose his injury – but he could not come out of the run action, play-action plays full speed with the injury he had. It presented worse later in the bye week. Then on the Monday practice, just from an execution standpoint, Philo was a lot clearer earlier in the week, Monday, Tuesday. Tramell really didn’t look great with his health.

“I’m not gonna tell you all his injury, because I’m not trying to help other people right now, but he’s got a real injury. Like, I think some people are probably questioning what’s going on. He’s got an injury that may require surgery after the year, but he didn’t look really good until Wednesday, honestly. Philo looked better this past week, the entire week. We talked through, as a staff, after the first three days of practice, how they looked. We talked every day about it, but through three days, Philo was executing better on Monday, Tuesday, so we shifted to getting Philo the majority of the one reps on Wednesday was when it was kind of like, that was the direction we’re probably going here. I let both of them know on Friday, and then we just worked through as a staff. I said, hey, look, here’s the situations where we would make a change after a few drives. It’d either be (A) Philo’s not playing great or (B) really the other one is. He could be playing fine, but we just felt like we needed a spark or something different. Philo’s first interception was clearly on him, bad decision with the football. The second one hit the receiver in the hands, so we gotta catch that football, but I just felt like, hey, let’s give Tramell a shot. He got probably almost fifty-fifty reps total in the week, Tramell did, just maybe not as many with the ones, they got about the same number of reps if you did a pitch count, because what we do in practice is we usually give the ones a block of plays and the twos and get the same exact block of plays. So preparation on knowing what to do really doesn’t change.”

TOO MANY SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS

In the end, this came down to the Gators giving the game away. Georgia owed its 24 first half points to Florida mistakes. Had the Gators played the first half as well as they did the second, it would have been a competitive game, but you can’t win in the SEC with four turnovers, four sacks allowed and no running game.

“It’s the self-inflicted ones, the things that we do that are reckless, that hurt ourselves, that I really highlight, and that’ll get, all that stuff gets shown on Monday in our team meeting,” Sumrall said. “We have a penalty report tape. We show the ones that are egregious or self-inflicted that are not football plays that I have a problem with, or that are maybe alignment mistakes. And we have to clean that up. We got to play better football.”

A HEAD COACH APOLOGY TO THE FANS

“I apologize to our fans,” Sumrall said. “What the Florida Gators standard is – and do not shy away from the fact that we have to be a lot better across the board – it starts with me as the head football coach here. I have to have our guys more ready, more ready to play and more prepared. I’m grateful for our fan turnout, grateful for our fanbase. They should be pissed off. I hope they are. I am too, and we’re gonna get this right … I promise you we’re gonna get this right. I commit to giving everything I have for us to freaking get this right, and I’m freaking not okay with today, I’m not gonna whine and complain. We gotta get better. I’m so sick over it … Everybody’s pissed off and should be.”