The Gators may believe; can they overcome the injuries?

Ja'Kobi Jackson scores on a 15-yard run in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 20-20 (Gator Bait Photo by Chris Spears)

JACKSONVILLE -- Saturday, Georgia did what it came to Jacksonville to do, which was beat the Florida Gators for the fourth straight year and seventh time in the last eight meetings. The Bulldogs are the No. 2 ranked team in the country. They’re supposed to beat unranked teams and they left EverBank Stadium with a 34-20 win. They came within one yard (455-228) of doubling up Florida’s offensive output and held a 7-minute advantage in time of possession.

On paper, that’s domination, but if you watched the game, whether at the stadium or on your big screen at home, it had a different feel to it even after DJ Lagway was carted off the field in the second quarter with what Billy Napier termed a soft tissue injury. The Gators were ahead 10-3 when Lagway left the game with 5:06  remaining in the first half. That should have spelled curtains for the Gators, who had to rely on redshirt freshman Aidan Warner, a walk-on transfer from Ivy League Yale the rest of the way.

But a funny thing happened on the way to unmitigated disaster for the Gators. They hung in there. Even with a limited passing game once Lagway was gone. Even with a bad snap on a field goal that skidded 30 yards past holder Jeremy Crawshaw and kicker Trey Smack that might have given the Gators a 16-13 lead in the third quarter. Even with corners and safeties that kept dropping like flies on an already injury-decimated roster.

Florida hung in there.

“I think our plan was working well, and really continued to work well on defense and the kicking game, and even on offense to some degree at times,” Napier said. “I thought third down was a challenge today. But, yeah, just overall the effort, the physicality, fundamentals at the point of attack, I thought we were in position for sure.”

It wasn’t until the final five minutes of the game that Georgia fans could start plotting a celebration rendzevous at Stuckey’s in Hahira. Florida finally wore down allowing Georgia to score a couple of touchdowns in the final five minutes to seal the win allowing Georgia (7-1, 5-1 SEC) to move a step closer to playing in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game and the College Football Playoff. 

Georgia can spin this all it wants that it was simply a tough win over a fired-up opponent in a rivalry game, but this much we know: Florida went toe-to-toe with Georgia and despite some insisting that it was a bad day at the office for the Bulldogs doesn’t change the fact the Gators (4-4, 2-3 SEC) had a legitimate chance to win this football game.

Luck had nothing to do with it either. Basically, the only thing luck had to something to do with was injuries, which made the Gators look like a team in serious need of a M*A*S*H unit. On one series, for example, three members of the secondary went down.

Yet with all the Florida injuries, Georgia didn’t know it had the game in the bag until a couple of minutes before the scoreboard clocks flatlined at 00:00. Although badly bruised and worn down, the Gators refused to quit.

For quite some time we’ve been hearing Billy Napier insist that he has Florida on the right track to put the football program back on the championship footing it enjoyed from 1990-2010. Saturday might have swayed some of the naysayers into believing that even with a depleted roster the Gators are capable of hanging with the best teams in the Southeastern Conference. Put a healthy Florida team on the field and the Gators just might be capable of finishing the deal and beating any team in the league.

Florida could have won this game with the two-headed quarterback monster of Graham Mertz and Lagway. Florida could have won the game with only Lagway. Florida damn near won the game with a Yalie who threw two of the worst looking passes any Florida quarterback has thrown since the days of Bobby Sablehaus.

Florida’s defense may have given up 455 yards including 309 through the air, but they picked off Carson Beck three times. In the second quarter the Georgia QB couldn’t have read a defense spelled cat if you had spotted him the c, the a and the t. When Lagway went down, the Gators had Georgia on the ropes. A Devin Moore interception and 32-yard runback led to a 43-yard Lagway-to-Aidan Mizell bomb for the TD that put the Gators ahead 7-3 with 13:42 left in the half.

On Georgia’s next possession, Aaron Gates picked off Beck, which led to the Gators driving all the way to the Georgia 14. When the drive stalled three yards and three plays later, Smack came on to kick a 32-yard field goal with 7:02 remaining in the half for a 10-3 lead.

One series after the Lagway injury, the offense gave Georgia a short field to work with, but once again the defense wouldn’t break, forcing Georgia to kick a 53-yard field goal with 43 seconds left in the half. The Gators had an answer for that, too. Ja’Kobi Jackson, whose role has increased due to injuries to Montrell Johnson Jr. and Treyaun Webb, ran for 32 yards and Warner completed a 9-yard pass to Chimere Dike to set up a 53-yard field goal by Smack with three seconds left in the half.

A 13-6 lead with Warner at QB seemed precarious, especially in the third quarter when the offensive limitations kept the defense out there way too long. Georgia outscored the Gators 14-0 and had a yardage advantage of 136-10, but the Bulldogs couldn’t put the game away.

When it was 13-13, the Gators had a chance to regain the lead, but then came the disaster on special teams when Rocco Underwood skidded a rocket of a snap past Crawshaw and Smack on what would have been a 51-yard field goal attempt. With possession back at the Florida 36, Georgia converted the short field into a 3-play touchdown drive for a 20-13 lead.

Aidan Warner (16) gets a clean pocket to work with in the fourth quarter (Gator Bait Photo by Chris Spears)

At that point it seemed the Gators were on the ropes, weak-kneed and ready to drop, but they rallied. Warner and Elijhah Badger connected for 26 yards and Jackson did the rest, finishing off a 5-play drive with a 15-yard touchdown run with 7:29 left.

This is when the Gators finally gave out of gas. Georgia drove 75 yards on seven plays, its only impressive scoring drive of the day to take the lead at 27-20. The final touchdown was a gimme in desperation time.  

Georgia’s bad boys who most likely lead the country in arrests won the game. That can’t be disputed, but Florida could have and perhaps should have won even with all the injuries. Imagine what could happen if the Gators were healthy.

Perhaps there is something to Napier’s belief that the game hasn’t evolved to the point that championships are unattainable with rosters filled with Boy Scouts.

“I think we have really impressive kids,” Napier said. “I think we have some unbelievable human beings on our team. We don't have a distraction. We don't have one guy that's not compliant. We have no discipline issues.

“We got a group that shows up on time; they work. I think the leaders on our team have done a great job holding people accountable. It's becoming the expectation. Ultimately, when it starts to work and you play toe to toe with some of the better teams you start to believe. For the first time since I've been the head coach here we showed up and we believed we could beat that team.”

Winning starts with believing and belief removes doubt. The Gators who were so decisively beaten by Miami and Texas A&M played like a team filled with doubts. The team that should have beaten Tennessee played like a team beginning to believe in itself.

The team that had Georgia on the ropes believed but in the end the rash of injuries did them in.

“I think ultimately belief is probably the most powerful in the final value relative to what we teach,” Napier said. “You got to have integrity. You got to be together. You got to have discipline. You got to have effort and toughness. If you do all of those things consistently, then the product starts to look the way it should look and there is a level of belief that comes with that.

“I think we have gotten to that point.”

However powerful belief may be, is it enough to carry the Gators to at least one win from the 3-game gauntlet that begins next Saturday at No. 5 Texas followed by home games with No. 14 LSU and No. 16 Ole Miss? Is there enough belief among the boosters that write big checks and the Florida administration that Billy Napier has the Gators moving in the right direction that they will cut him some slack?

Only time will tell, but for a Saturday afternoon in Jacksonville, the Gators stated their case that they not only believe, but they're capable of sticking with the No. 2 team in the country.