Red Ink in Columbia: Grading Every Gator Unit After Missouri

Florida's first loss of the season wasn't one unit's failure. Nearly every position group came home from Columbia with a grade it would rather hide, from a run game that managed 42 yards to a defense that allowed 560.

No. 25 Missouri outgained the No. 8 Gators (4-1, 2-1 SEC) 560-325. The grades below lean on the numbers from the ESPN and UF box scores.

Quarterback: C-. Aaron Philo went 21 of 34 for 197 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions, and he was sacked three times. The 34 attempts were a season high, according to his ESPN game log. The part that will stick is Florida's opening drive, all 15 plays of it.

On third-and-goal from the Missouri 2, Philo didn't see running back Duke Clark wide open in the flat, the Orlando Sentinel's Edgar Thompson reported, and threw incomplete into the end zone for tight end Lacota Dippre. Florida settled for a 20-yard field goal. "You can't miss those," Philo said, according to the Sentinel.

"At the end of the day, running or passing, we've got to be able to move the ball down the field, and that's on me," Philo said, according to the Gainesville Sun's Kevin Brockway.

Backup Tramell Jones Jr. went 5 of 5 for 86 yards. He ran the entire seven-play, 94-yard drive in the final 2:39, which ended on his 42-yard touchdown pass to TJ Abrams.

Running backs: D. Jadan Baugh came to Columbia with 600 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns through four games. His first carry went for 12 yards. His other 11 gained one yard combined. That leaves him at 12 carries for 13 yards.

As a team, Florida ran 25 times for 42 yards, 1.7 per carry, and lost 43 yards on negative plays. London Montgomery's 17-yarder was Florida's longest run of the day. Missouri loaded the box to stop Baugh, the Gainesville Sun reported, and the blocking didn't answer it, which is why this grade isn't an F.

Offensive line: F. Missouri had three sacks for 26 yards and 11 tackles for loss. Safety Kensley Louidor-Faustin had 3.5 of those by himself.

Florida went 0 of 1 on fourth down, with Philo stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1 at the Florida 34 in the second quarter. On the first play of that quarter, offensive lineman Bryce Lovett's personal foul wiped out an 8-yard Dallas Wilson catch. There was a fourth-quarter false start, too.

Receivers and tight ends: B-. The brightest spot on the offense. Wilson caught four passes for 66 yards, including a 12-yard touchdown from Philo. Abrams started and had three catches for 55 yards, the 42-yard score among them. Bailey Stockton also started and caught two passes for 25 yards.

Flags took plays away here as well. An illegal formation penalty in the third quarter wiped out a 21-yard catch by Eric Singleton Jr., and tight end Luke Harpring's fourth-quarter holding call erased a Montgomery reception.

Defensive line: F. Missouri ran 36 times for 220 yards, 6.1 a carry. Most of that was Jamal Roberts: 24 carries, 211 yards and three touchdowns, including runs of 77 and 80 yards.

Florida's pass rush got two sacks, one each by Kamran James and Emmanuel Oyebadejo. Oyebadejo also forced a fumble. Missouri recovered it.

Linebackers: D-. Myles Graham and Aaron Chiles had five tackles apiece, but Roberts still went for 211 yards, and in GatorBait's view the second level didn't do enough to slow him. Graham didn't make excuses for the defense. "I take full accountability," he said, according to the Sentinel.

"I didn't play my best game at all. Nobody did." —Myles Graham, per the Orlando Sentinel

Secondary: F. Austin Simmons went 23 of 30 for 340 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 11.3 yards per attempt. Cayden Lee caught eight passes for 110 yards. Simmons hit Donovan Olugbode for a 47-yard score while Florida's defensive backs were looking to the sideline for the call, the Sentinel reported. Caleb Goodie Sr. added a 31-yard touchdown.

Florida lost safety Bryce Thornton to an injury in pregame warmups, UF's Chris Harry reported. Safety DJ Coleman led the Gators with seven tackles, and safety Lagonza Hayward started and had six. Three pass breakups. No interceptions.

Special teams: C. Alec Clark stayed busy with eight punts, a 45.4-yard average, a long of 55 and three inside the 20. Patrick Durkin made his only field goal, from 20 yards, and both extra points.

The costliest play came early in the fourth quarter, when a Florida holding penalty wiped out London Montgomery's kickoff-return touchdown. Florida was also flagged for a personal foul on the same play, which Missouri declined. That return would have cut the deficit to 45-17 with more than 13 minutes left. Instead, the Gators started at their own 20.

Coaching and discipline: D. Florida was flagged eight times for 80 yards, double Missouri's four for 50. Aaron Chiles' personal foul early in the third quarter was one of the costliest. It turned a 2-yard Roberts run into a first down at the Florida 19 on Missouri's opening drive of the half, and Roberts finished that drive with a 5-yard touchdown run.

It was 10-10 late in the second quarter. Missouri scored the next 35 points, and Florida didn't score again until the final minute.

Up next: South Carolina. The first chance to raise these grades comes at homecoming, when the Gamecocks visit on Saturday, Oct. 10 (kickoff TBA). They are 2-3 and 0-3 in the SEC after a 35-34 overtime loss to No. 24 Kentucky in which they blew a 17-0 lead. Florida's run game, offensive line and secondary have one week to get fixed.

Statistics from ESPN's box score and play-by-play (event 401856708), the official UF box score on floridagators.com and ESPN's game logs for Jadan Baugh and Aaron Philo. Quotes and reporting from the Orlando Sentinel (Edgar Thompson), the Gainesville Sun (Kevin Brockway) and UF's Quick Slant (Chris Harry). Grades are GatorBait Media's opinion.