Florida defeated by Mississippi State
Things can't get much worse for the Florida Gators. As if all the
off the field issues weren't enough for the team, their performance on the field late in games has left something to be desired.
Saturday marked the third time this year that Florida has lost the lead late in the fourth quarter, and it ultimately cost them the game. To make matters even worse, all three losses have come against SEC opponents.
The trouble started September 18th, just two days after the fraternity house incident, when the Gators lost on a 50 yard field goal to Tennessee. Their troubles continued three weeks later against LSU when a late drive by the Tigers set up a touchdown pass to LSU running back Joseph Addai with only 0:27 remaining in the game. To make that loss worse, it marked the 6th time that the Gators had lost at home under Ron Zook in the last two and a half years. To compare, the Gators did not lose that many times at home in 12 seasons under Steve Spurrier.
Flash forward to Saturday, playing on the road at Mississippi State, a team which had only one win, coming against an unimpressive Tulane team in their first game. Mississippi State was sure up for the Gators possibly calling on the guts they showed the last time the Gators were on the road in Starkville. On that trip, the Bulldogs also won, snapping a 72 game win streak by Florida against unranked opponents.
Mississippi State and Florida went back and forth the entire game with the final score coming with just 0:44 left in the fourth quarter. On the play, Jerious Norwood broke two tackles and scampered for 37 yards for a touchdown to put Mississippi State up for good. This came on a drive where Mississippi State was just trying to get in position to kick a field goal and hope it would be enough. Norwood finished with 2 touchdowns and 174 yards rushing on 29 carries.
Florida was unable to do much with the ball on their drive, and having to start at their own 20 on the last drive didn't help. A personal foul facemask penalty on the touchdown run allowed Mississippi State to kick off from the 50 and easily get a touchback.
Florida still has three more SEC games remaining, but at 2-3 in conference, there is not much hope left for a title run. Two of the remaining conference games are against Georgia and South Carolina, two teams which should put up a good fight against the Gators. Even splitting those two games would only guarantee that Florida could end at .500 in conference, as their other conference game is against Vanderbilt, a game which should be winnable. Of course, that was what people were saying about Mississippi State.
Lost in the game was that this is the first conference win for Sylvester Croom who took over at Mississippi State this year. This is the type of win that can turn a program around fast. Croom is probably hoping that is just the case. He has found offense from his running back, and a gutsy performance by his quarterback Omarr Conner, who fought cramps throughout the final drive by the Bulldogs.
Hats off to Croom and the Bulldogs on their win. For Zook and the Gators, they have seven days to figure out what went wrong and correct it before they face another tough Bulldog team, this one in Georgia.
