How Florida Gators blew thier Playoff Chances

By Darragh Holland

After an impressive season so far, the Florida Gators were looking forward to a chance to beat Alabama in the SEC title game and maybe even sneak into the college football playoffs.

Sitting with an 8-1 record and ranked 6th in the nation, the Gators really had it all to play for. 

Before that though they had to take care of LSU who was sitting with a 3-5 record with some really bad beatings from Auburn and Alabama and no victories against teams with winning records.

A win for Florida would have them going into this upcoming game against Alabama with some confidence of upsetting the Crimson Tide.

Playing in the swamp on senior night and being 23 point favorites must have gotten into the Gators’ head as they struggled to get going and the game turned into a disaster.

LSU started their third quarterback of the season in Max Johnson, son of Super Bowl XXXVII winning Quarterback Brad Johnson, as well as missing leading pass catcher Terrace Marshall Jr and starting tight end Arik Gilbert.

Johnson came up trumps as he was hugely impressive in his first-ever start for LSU and led the offense to a total of 418 yards in the shock win.

The Gators on the other hand, never really got going in this one and must have known that it wasn’t going to be their night when QB Kyle Trask threw for 2 interceptions in the second quarter.

That’s bad for any QB but especially when you had only thrown three all season going into this game.

The first pick by Eli Ricks was taken back 68 yards to the house with Ricks even slowing down to taunt Trask as he went into the endzone. The second pick came as the Gators were driving and deep inside the RedZone. The ball hit off the hand of a Florida receiver, then bounced off the helmet of a defender before landing into the lap of Tigers cornerback Jay Ward, who did exceptionally well to reset himself and get in bounds.

While Trask did end up throwing for 474 yards and 4 TDs, the 2 interceptions and a fumble did cost the team big.

Marco Wilson’s decision to throw Cole Taylor’s shoe was killer for the Gators. (Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun)

He will be hoping those turnovers don’t kill his chances for the Heisman trophy but that will really come down to how he performs this weekend against Alabama.

With all that being said, it really is the defense that the Gators have to look at. As said above, LSU had 418 total yards with an offense that was missing many of its star performers.

This game may go down in history as the “Shoe Bowl” after Florida Defensive Back Marco Wilson committed one of the worst penalties in college football history.

After defending a 3rd down play to force a punt with just 1:51 left, Wilson threw tight end Kole Taylors shoe down the field to draw a 15-yard penalty and a first down.

This allowed LSU to continue down the field so that Cade York could score the game-winning field goal with just 0:23 seconds left to play.

Florida kicker, Evan McPherson, had a chance to put the game into overtime with a 51-yard field goal as time expired. Having made 4 50+ kicks this season -- a school record -- McPherson pulled it wide left to prove this game just wasn’t to be for the Gators.

Following the crushing defeat, the Gators now have a 0.2% of making the college football playoffs, according to ESPN’s playoff predictor.

Even a massive upset this weekend against Alabama most likely wouldn’t be enough for them to get in.

The Gators would now need a massive turnaround in their performance to beat Alabama now on Saturday night. Judging by the numbers ‘Bama has been putting up this season and how the Gators defense performed at the weekend, the Gators will really struggle to keep up with Mac Jones and the high scoring Crimson Tide which are averaging just over 49 points a game this season.

Evan McPherson missed field goal was the nail in the coffin for the Gators (Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun)

While you never know in sport, as LSU proved, it just seems impossible to see this Gator team coming back from this game to beat the Crimson Tide.

Apart from even being anywhere near good enough, their confidence will be knocked considerably and in order to beat Alabama, you need to come in with confidence.

Expect ‘Bama to come after the Gators hard early in the game and don’t be surprised if it’s all over by half time.

Darragh is a sports writer for La Tonique.