Florida Falls in ESPN Rankings Because of Strange Jadan Baugh Showing

After arguably being the best team in the country against Ole Miss just about a week ago, Florida responded with arguably the worst performance it could have had. 

There was hope and expectation that Florida would be a very good team from top to bottom every week, but the strength of the SEC schedule came back to bite it in the butt a little. 

Florida has a great opportunity to keep playing well through the rest of the year after this loss, as we all know it is a very talented team, but it does raise some questions about the Gators that we didn't know about. One of those questions was what things would look like on the ground.

Running back Jadan Baugh is arguably the best running back in college football, and I'd go as far as to say he is, but Missouri did a great job against him, allowing only 13 yards on 12 carries. 

This is undoubtedly the worst Baugh will play all season, though it was a concerning sign. ESPN believes that Florida is relying a bit too much on him, pointing out that if Florida can't run the football at a high level, Aaron Philo is going to struggle, which is exactly what happened in this 45-17 loss.

“The Gators learned they have to rely on much more than running back Jadan Baugh to win games this season in a 45-17 loss at Missouri. Winning in Columbia has proven to be challenging for Florida, and that was no different Saturday. Baugh came into the game averaging 150 rushing yards. But after a 12-yard gain on his first carry, he had 1 yard on 11 rushes after that as the Tigers' defense swarmed to contain him. 

“Without an effective run game, Aaron Philo struggled in the pass game. Playing without injured Vernell Brown III did not help, either. Florida scored 17 points after averaging 53.5 points in its first four games. Meanwhile, Mizzou exposed the defense -- finishing with a 300-yard passer and 200-yard rusher,” Andrea Adelson wrote.

Sometimes in college football, we just have to give credit where credit is due. Missouri came out and did exactly what it had to do on both sides of the ball and, as a result, got its biggest win in a long time. 

As for Florida, there's no reason to press the panic button just yet. This was disappointing, and it will have to respond to it, but the Gators are still one of the best 10 to 20 teams in America and have a chance to make the College Football Playoff and win a national title.