SWAMP ALERT: Run Defense, Offensive Inconsistency

The Florida Gators have a 24-14 lead in the dwindling seconds of the third quarter and appear to be on their way to a vindicating victory that would silence the critics after last week’s upset at the hands of the Auburn Tigers...

However, this was not just any other team or any other atmosphere.

This was Baton Rouge, Louisiana, late on a Saturday night. This was the number one team in the country, the LSU Tigers.

They don’t call it “Death Valley” for nothing.

11:18 PM

A Kestahn Moore fumble later and the Gators find themselves with their figurative fingers in the proverbial dike trying to cling to a 10-point lead in a hostile environment.

11:31 PM

After a missed Colt David field goal, Gator Nation breathes a collective sigh of relief and the Gator offense retakes the field with a simple task: ball control.

Cornelius Ingram’s helmet mishandles a Tim Tebow pass and a Tiger linebacker winds up with the most unfortunate and costly turnover in recent Gator memory.

11:40 PM

Matt Flynn tosses his only touchdown of the game and moves LSU to within 3 points of the visiting Florida team.

11:44 PM

Even with two late turnovers, the Gators still held a 3-point advantage with about 10 minutes remaining on the game clock.

An offense that had become somewhat predictable and stagnant needed to regroup quickly in order to piece together a time-consuming drive in order to stave off the Tigers’ effort to remain undefeated.

11:48 PM

A Florida 3-and-out sets up the game’s final drive in which LSU methodically moves down the field and scores the game winning touchdown on the shoulders of Jacob Hester.

That’s the bad news.

The Gator offense couldn’t muster a drive in order to keep their defense resting on the sidelines. The young Gator defense couldn’t halt the LSU offense in the waning moments of a tough SEC road game.

In the end, a second consecutive loss was tallied for the Florida Gators and they head into the bye week with seemingly fewer weaknesses than in weeks passed.

That’s the good news.

While it’s apparent that LSU may have been slightly over-hyped (ask Pete Carroll and Bret Bielema about overcoming that misnomer) Tiger Stadium is still one of the most hostile and intoxicated places to play in the entire country.

Even though the Gators were outgained for the second straight week (391-314), they clearly outplayed the marginally favored LSU team for the majority of Saturday night’s match-up.

When Kestahn Moore decided to hang on to the football, he actually provided a much needed third weapon for Florida’s spread option attack rushing for a season-high 79 yards on only 12 carries.

Thanks to a handful of Brandon LaFell dropped passes, the Florida secondary played noticeably better than they had all season. Joe Haden provided numerous individual tackles and Wondy Pierre-Louis played his best coverage game of the season.

Tim Tebow’s scrambling ability returned to form and he was able to gain chunks of yardage whenever the pocket broke down against the nation’s best defense.

Amid all of the positives that can be taken from a nail-biting road loss to the country’s top-ranked team, many new problems (and some old) are still plaguing this Gator team, and they need to be corrected before yet another SEC road game in less than two weeks.

The most pressing concern from Saturday night’s loss was the depletion of the Gator run defense.

One of the team’s strengths all year had been the defense’s ability to make opposing offenses one-dimensional. But against the LSU offensive line, the Gators simply could not control the line of scrimmage and they allowed a season-high 247 yards on the ground.

The play calling has definitely improved since the Auburn loss last weekend, but the Gators were held to under 315 yards for the second straight game.

The problem with the offense against Auburn was a predictability that prevented the Gators from putting together drives of substantial length.

The problem with the offense against LSU was inconsistency.

At times, the Gators were able to control the line of scrimmage and kept All-American defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey relatively quiet. This led to successful touchdown drives and flawless execution of Urban Meyer’s spread attack.

But the inability to sustain drives late in the game ultimately forced the Gators to lean on their defense in order to pull out a victory.

The well-documented struggles of the Florida defense came to fruition in the 4^th quarter and couldn’t prevent LSU’s dependence on the Jacob Hester HB Dive play call.

This inefficiency was probably due to the decision by co-defensive coordinators Charlie Strong and Greg Mattison to constantly rotate linemen throughout the night.

Justin Trattou, Duke Lemmens, Carlos Dunlap, and Torrey Davis were the true freshmen who saw significant playing time on Saturday night along with other reserves like Terron Sanders and Lutrell Alford.

The idea to rotate linemen in order to keep the players fresh seems appropriate, but this rotation will take some time to work effectively due to the extreme youth of most of the players coming in off the bench.

This Gator team is growing up before our eyes and is becoming a much tougher and more “battle-tested” team. And the experience that they gained in Baton Rouge on Saturday night will prove to be vital in the coming weeks.

The competition for the SEC East crown is as competitive as it has ever been due to Tennessee’s resurgence and the unexpected performance of Kentucky and South Carolina.

The intangibles that this young Gator team learned on Saturday night will serve them well in the near future and may propel them into another SEC Championship game.

Not to look beyond this season one that still has an immense amount of promise the future for the Florida Gators is brightest not in the coming weeks, but rather in the upcoming season.

This Gator team is right in the thick of things in the SEC East and has to continue to improve week in and week out in order to remain relevant. Numerous questions were answered about the destiny of the 2007 team and we will be able to look back at this hard-fought loss to LSU as one of the main reasons for success in 2008.

SWAMP ALERT Defcon: 3 out of 5

Pertaining to: the battle for the SEC Eastern Division

                     Florida still controls their own destiny, but must win out in order to reach Atlanta