Mizzou hits the skids in Gainesville

The Missouri Tigers looked to extend their winning streak to 3 games against the 10th ranked Florida Gators.

Missouri began the night with the football but their opening drive didn’t last long, going three and out immediately. Following a Missouri punt, Florida drove down the field through the air, converting a big 4th down to keep their drive alive. Florida ultimately settled for a field goal after Ennis Rakestraw, Jr broke up a play in the end zone.

On Missouri’s ensuing drive, the Tigers demonstrated their efficiency using misdirection, which resulted in big yardage. Similar to last week, Larry Rountree III was fed a healthy portion of handoffs. The Tigers ended up botching a chip-shot field goal to end an effective drive.

Florida quarterback Kyle Trask looked exceptional in the first quarter, throwing for more than 120 yards. The Gators took advantage of Missouri’s missed field goal, putting another 3 points on the scoreboard. Gators were up 6-0 early.

Through one quarter, the Tigers’ offense looked rusty; they showed signs of life but weren’t able to muster any points. Defensively, Missouri’s secondary struggled against Trask but they played their best defense in the red zone, holding Florida to two field goals. It was still anyone’s ball game going into the second quarter.

Trask began the second quarter by throwing his second interception of the year. Jarvis Ware picked him off and returned it to the house for 6. The Tigers’ defense has struggled to force turnovers this year, but that play potentially changed that going forward. That pick six was their first defensive touchdown on the year. Nick Bolton disrupted Trask on the play.

Missouri’s defense continued to look sharp, forcing Florida off the field in just three plays, two drives in a row. Offensively, the Tigers grappled to put anything together in the second quarter.

The Gators put up their first touchdown before the half, but they left the Tigers over a minute and a half to put something together. In that time, Missouri failed to do anything productive and fumbled the ball on their own 30 yard line. The Gators then ran one play and scored another touchdown, resulting in back to back touchdowns for Kadarious Toney.

Before going into the half, the benches cleared and all hell broke loose. It’s unclear what triggered the brawl, but it resulted in multiple ejections, including Missouri’s DL Tre Williams. Tigers trailed 20-7.

The Gators continued to roll into the third quarter, Trask converted another 4th down, which quickly led to another Gator touchdown, and Toney scored his third touchdown of the night. The Gators took a commanding 27-7 lead.

Another Florida touchdown virtually sealed the deal on this one. Trask picked up his third touchdown on the night and the Gators took a 27 point lead heading into the fourth.

34-7 in the Swamp.

Missouri put together a decent drive to start the fourth, but it only ended with 3 points. Florida then proceeded to run as much clock as possible on their ensuing drive, which resulted in Trask’s fourth touchdown.

Gators led 41-10 with seven minutes to go.

Rountree recorded his fourth touchdown of the year in garbage time to make the game a bit more respectable; however this game was decided long before. The Tigers scored their first offensive touchdown of the night but were still down 41-17.

That would be the final from the Swamp. The Tigers unfortunately had no answer for Kyle Trask and the explosive Gator offense. Trask threw 4 touchdowns for 340+ yards.

Following the game, Coach Drinkwitz said that the team did not play well enough offensively or defensively.

In regards to the end of the first half, Coach Drinkwitz said that he was not proud of what happened “It’s disappointing, I am not for that at all. I have no idea what happened, but I’m sure we’ll find out more about it tomorrow when we watch the film.”

“I have to be better. I have to put our offense in a position to execute and I didn’t do that well enough tonight,” Drinkwitz explained. “We weren’t good enough tonight.”

The Tigers have a bye next week in preparation for Georgia on November 14th.