By BRADY ACKERMAN
Florida Gators Football Sideline Reporter
Florida enters the open week looking to fix a lot of offensive problems and get guys healthy for the stretch run. Amazingly, the Gators still control their destiny in the SEC East and they could end up in Atlanta.
Urban Meyer is only focusing on his team this week. He is working on trying to win the next game against rival Georgia. In 2005, he tweaked his offense in the open week to get a win against Georgia, so he could do it once again. He also needs work on special teams and defense if Florida is going to get some wins down the stretch. Florida has not lost four games in a row since 1988 and the fourth loss in the stretch was against the University of Georgia.
The issues for the offense remain the same. The Gators need to improve their first down production, red zone production and find some big plays in the offense. For the second week in a row the offense failed to do anything in the first half, contributing to the slow start. Last week versus LSU the Gators produced negative-23 yards on first down and this week they had just 21 yards against Mississippi State. They must improve the first down plays to help get this offense "ahead of the chains."
The red zone production was terrific heading into the Alabama game. UF had converted 15 straight trips including 14 for touchdowns. Now, the Gators have only scored five times (four touchdowns) in the last 15 trips. I would like to see John Brantley have the opportunity to throw more in the red area, where he is 14-19 with five touchdowns on the season.
Finally how do you find big plays? You can draw-up or scheme-up some plays to get people open. Florida has not done that very effectively. However they do have playmakers that should be back. First they need to get Jeff Demps and Andre Debose healthy. If you can do that in the bye week and also get Chris Rainey ready for gametime, you should have your three fastest players available to make big plays. The Gator receivers have struggled versus man coverage, so expect to see that the rest of the season.
I would think the defense would be satisfied shutting a team out for three quarters at home and holding them to 10 points. The Gators gave up 212 yards rushing. While that was all that Mississippi State did, the Gators had trouble getting them off the field.
Florida needs to work on its third down defense and its rush defense in the open week. LSU and Mississippi State converted 14 third downs the last two weeks, which is not championship football. The defense did not give up a 100 yard rusher, but there were not enough
