The No. 14 Florida Gators defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in Week 9 down in Jacksonville, 24-10. Here are the three biggest takeaways from this SEC East rivalry game.
The No. 14 Florida Gators improved to 6-1 on the year by knocking off a major SEC East rival in the Georgia Bulldogs down in Jacksonville, 24-10. It was a defensive struggle, but that is exactly what Florida wanted it to be to win this game decidedly.
Georgia is falling apart at the seams at 4-4. The Bulldogs may not make it to a bowl game in 2016. For Florida, they are still alive in the College Football Playoff after this neutral-site rivalry game victory. Here are the three biggest takeaways form Florida’s win over the Bulldogs on Saturday down in Jacksonville.
1. Florida is the best team in the SEC East, but still has to earn it.
They are not a terribly fun team to watch, as are many defense-first football teams, but the Gators look to be the best team in the SEC East. However, they will have to earn their way to back-to-back SEC East Championships.
Having the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Kentucky Wildcats is huge for the Gators, but not having it against the Tennessee Volunteers is anything but that. Tennessee should be able to win their four remaining SEC games over the South Carolina Gamecocks, the Missouri Tigers, maybe Kentucky, and the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Florida still has to play the Arkansas Razorbacks and the rival LSU Tigers out of the West. Thus far, only Kentucky has beaten an SEC West team out of the East. The Wildcats stifled the rival Mississippi State Bulldogs at home in Week 8.
The Gators have the better team over Kentucky and Tennessee, but that won’t matter if they don’t beat the Razorbacks or the Tigers in November. They can make it to Atlanta, but they’ll have to earn it.
2. Georgia’s play at offensive tackle is horrible.
There are two things that are painful to watch with the 2016 Bulldogs: 1.) They can’t run the football consistently and 2.) Georgia is unbelievably vulnerable at offensive tackle. Some Saturdays, the Dawgs can run the ball, but rarely do they hold their own out on the edge.
Georgia lost its two starting tackles from last season in Kolton Houston and John Theus. This has forced the Bulldogs to kick stellar guard Greg Pyke outside at right tackle and have to start Rhode Island Rams graduate transfer Tyler Catalina at left tackle.
Decent to good defensive lines in the SEC are wreaking havoc all over Georgia quarterback Jacob Eason with pure speed on the outside rush. Eason is a true freshman and may not always felt the pressure, he had maybe two seconds to get rid of the football before being pressured or sacked.
It’s not the lack of depth that is the most troubling. Georgia hired offensive line guru Sam Pittman to lead this group. Outside of guard Lamont Gaillard, this position group is not progressing for the Bulldogs.
3. Florida is a better team with Luke Del Rio at starting quarterback.
While it didn’t show up much in the stat lines, Florida is a better football team when Luke Del Rio is playing quarterback. Yes, this is obvious, but he does seem to give the Gators something in the intangibles when he is under center for them.
It’s a combination of toughness and on-field leadership that makes him a huge reason that Florida has a shot at winning the SEC. He’s playing through pain this year with a giant knee brace on his leg. Del Rio isn’t nimble at this time, but he’s giving it his all for the 2016 Gators.
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For Florida to win the SEC East and play for the 2016 SEC Championship, Del Rio is going to have to play well enough at quarterback as a game manager. Obviously, offensive-minded head coach Jim McElwain would want more than that from his quarterback going forward. He’s not perfect, but Del Rio can take the Gators to the places it wants to go to in 2016.