BATON ROUGE, La. — Kelvin Taylor made Florida’s offense look alive in Death Valley.
Coming in at the start of the second quarter, Taylor made explosive plays other running backs could not.
Taylor was one of the few bright spots on offense in No. 17 Florida’s 17-6 loss to No. 10 LSU in Tiger Stadium on Saturday.
“He had a great game,” tailback Mack Brown said. “He had a great week of practice, so [he got] his opportunity and did the best job he can do.”
Taylor rushed for 52 yards on 10 carries Saturday and finished 4 net yards behind Brown, who had five more rushes.
Florida (4-2, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) needed Taylor and Brown to step up.
Starting running back Matt Jones left the game in the first quarter with an apparent left knee injury. Before leaving, he ran for 17 yards on four carries.
Muschamp said he did not think Jones’ injury was serious, but it kept the sophomore halfback out for the rest of the game. Jones appeared on the sideline later in street clothes.
“[Jones is] going to be just fine,” Brown said.
Taylor carried Florida to its second scoring drive of the day in the fourth quarter.
Tasked with getting the Gators back into the game, Taylor rushed for 36 yards on six carries on a drive that ended in a 27-yard Francisco Velez field goal.
“We wanted to get Kelvin some opportunities,” coach Will Muschamp said. “He did a nice job.”
But for much of the game, Florida had trouble running the ball. The offensive line struggled to open up holes in the LSU (6-1, 3-1 SEC) defensive line. Of the Gators’ 40 runs, 28 went for 5 yards or fewer. UF lost 48 yards on the ground, including 40 yards on sacks.
“You’ve got to whip blocks and make tackles,” Muschamp said. “We didn’t have enough of that happening.”
Right guard Jon Halapio said the offensive line had communication issues, which led to LSU defenders getting penetration into Florida’s backfield.
Although the running backs’ primary job is to move the football, they also had problems setting blocks on pass plays.
“I mean, pass protection (is) hard for everybody,” Brown said.
“It’s kind of hard to pick up. It takes a little bit of time.”
Brown was Florida’s leading rusher with 56 yards, but he could not break off explosive plays. His longest run was 9 yards. LSU stopped the brunt of Florida’s ground attack within feet of the line of scrimmage, erasing any chance the Gators had at pulling out a victory at Tiger Stadium.
“We moved the ball,” Muschamp said. “But we gave up too many negative plays.”
Added Halapio: “It was a line-of-scrimmage game.”
“We knew that coming into the game … We just got outworked, outplayed.”
Follow Adam Lichtenstein on Twitter @ALichtenstein24.
Kelvin Taylor (left) lunges away from Tigers senior safety Craig Loston during Florida’s 17-6 loss to LSU on Saturday at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. The freshman tailback carried the ball 10 times for 52 yards.
