Florida’s defense faced an unfamiliar situation Saturday, and coach Will Muschamp wasn’t pleased with how the Gators handled it.
While playing with a two-score lead for much of the second half, Florida’s defense was victimized by the play of Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers, the younger brother of Green Bay Packers signal-caller Aaron Rodgers.
Vanderbilt’s quarterback threw for 297 yards on 19-of-28 passing.
Of those yards, 220 came in the second half against a young Florida secondary that had not been thoroughly tested for most of the season.
“When you get put in those situations … you still (have to) play coverage,” Muschamp said.
Florida’s secondary struggled to do that after the break, allowing Rodgers to complete 14 of 19 attempts in the second half, including touchdown passes of 26 yards and 10 yards.
The damage could have been worse had Florida been flagged on a few aggressive pass defenses that appeared to be obvious pass interference calls.
Muschamp said afterward that he and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn continued to call plays the Gators had success with earlier in the game.
But Florida’s defensive backs relaxed their coverage, allowing the Commodores to effectively move the ball downfield late in the game.
“You gotta stay aggressive, you can’t worry about getting beat,” safety Matt Elam said. “You just got to do your job.”
In his postgame press conference, Muschamp said he was “thoroughly disappointed” with how his team defended the pass late in the game — and not just with the performance of the secondary.
He also pointed to the play of the defensive line, which oftentimes failed to pressure Rodgers and allowed him to keep plays alive with his feet before he was able to find a receiver downfield.
“We don’t coach them to play soft,” Muschamp said. “And you let them just throw the ball downfield, that’s not what we’re trying to do, that’s not what we’re coached to do.”
Although he was displeased with the effort, Muschamp said the issues were very correctable for the defense, which gave up a season high in passing yards.
Muschamp said the problems had more to do with a lack of exposure to those types of situations than they did with actual discipline issues, making for a good learning experience for a young defense.
“Just because it’s a two-score game with 2:12 to go in the game, that doesn’t mean play soft,” Muschamp said.
“Believe me, Monday morning at 6 o’clock, we’re gonna learn that you can’t play that way at the end of the game, that you gotta continue to play the game.”
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
Vanderbilt receiver Chris Boyd catches a fourth-quarter touchdown over UF corner Marcus Roberson. UF allowed 297 passing yards.
