Antonio Callaway fired off the line and beat his man, leaving quarterback Austin Appleby with an easy target down the right sideline.
But Appleby’s pass had too much power, sailing over Callaway and meeting the turf on the Vanderbilt sideline.
The misfire came on Florida’s first drive of its 13-6 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Facing a third-and-seven, the Gators wanted to demoralize the Commodores early.
Instead, the offense jogged off the field, highlighting a problem Florida has faced since the beginning of the season: consistency.
“When the game starts I feel like we just gotta come out swinging,” cornerback Jalen Tabor said after the win.
That hasn’t been the case for No. 18 UF (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) this season.
Except for their loss to Tennessee two weeks ago, the Gators haven’t scored on their first possession.
And when they did against the Volunteers, they faced a different problem: Coming out with the same intensity again in the second half.
Coach Jim McElwain tried to make sure that didn’t happen against Vanderbilt.
“He wanted us to come back out there in the second half and, you know, just punch them in the mouth,” running back Jordan Scarlett said.
While Florida’s defense continued to throttle the Commodores like McElwain wanted, its offense was just as inept in Saturday’s second half as it was in the first.
Appleby and McElwain had varying theories as to why.
The coach said it was because the team failed to overcome negative plays, while the quarterback said it had more to do with making plays on first down.
“When we win on first down and we get our tempo going, we can be prolific, as everyone’s seen,” Appleby said.
“But when we don’t score and we’re turning the ball over and putting our defense back out there early, you know, that’s tough.”
Appleby said the team needs to have more plays like his fourth-quarter, 33-yard toss to tight end C’yontai Lewis — UF’s longest play of the game.
“It’s all about winning on first down,” the quarterback said. “That was a first-down call.”
But Florida’s main problem lies in its lack of consistency.
The Gators scored 45 points against Kentucky and 21 in the first half against Tennessee, yet scored only 20 points over their next six quarters combined.
Some of the inconsistency may be attributed to Florida’s quarterback position, where the Gators were forced to turn to Appleby after Luke Del Rio was injured against North Texas on Sept. 17. Both players have had good and bad moments.
For example, despite recent struggles, Appleby managed to produce against Tennessee in the first half, passing for two touchdowns. Similarly, while Del Rio — whose status for this weekend is uncertain — failed to ignite the offense against UMass, he torched Kentucky with 320 yards and four touchdowns.
But Florida’s issues may go farther than the quarterback position. And in the coming week, the team will try to resolve them.
“We’re not going to be able to come out and go slow,” linebacker Jarrad Davis said.
“We have to come with exactly what we’re going to bring every snap, every quarter. We can’t start in the second quarter. It can’t start in the third quarter.”
And while McElwain preaches that message every week, there’s added motivation for Florida to fix its consistency problems before this weekend.
It’ll face rival LSU — which it hasn’t beaten since 2012 — at home on Saturday.
“I don’t want to say it’s a different mindset,” Tabor said of facing the Tigers, “but it is.”
Contact Ethan Bauer at ebauer@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ebaueri.
Quarterback Austin Appleby (12) is tackled by a Vanderbilt defender short of the goal line during Florida's 13-6 win over the Commodores on Oct. 1, 2016, at Vanderbilt Stadium.
