In the Florida Gators' three most recent losses — all against Top 10 teams — coach Billy Napier's offense has struggled to compete.
Against a schedule with this degree of difficulty, 11 points a game is nowhere near good enough and has been hard to watch.
The despair is worst on third down:
- In the double-digit defeats at LSU, at Miami, and at Texas A&M, the Gators offense converted seven of 40 third downs.
- Digging deeper: When the line to gain was five yards or greater, Florida's success rate dropped to three conversions in 29 third downs.
In Saturday's 34-17 loss at No. 5 A&M, a great start for the Florida offense dissolved in the final three quarters. The Gators converted one third down in 10 tries.
"I think they can rush," Napier said. The Aggies had three sacks and/or pressured Gators quarterback DJ Lagway into multiple incompletions. "I do think that in general we could do better. But yeah, anytime you play a third and long, those are the downs you want to avoid."
Both Napier and Lagway emphasized Florida's stumbles on first and second down and the cascading trouble it causes for the offense.
"We gotta stay on the field on third down," Lagway said. "I feel like that’s a main focus that’s going to be made next weekend and to focus on things like that and just execute.
“Third and long is tough to be in. I’d say just all that kind of goes into what we do on first and second down. We gotta have better first-down efficiency, better second-down efficiency and just stay out of the third-and-longs and try to keep third-and-manageables.
"You can’t go 10 or 11 (yards), cause if you go 10 or 11, it could be a pick, it could be a big sack."
Entering Saturday's games, six Southeastern Conference rivals — Missouri, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Tennessee, and Ole Miss — ranked in the top 20 nationally for third-down conversion rate at 50 percent or better.
Florida ranked 114th. After Saturday night's loss, Florida's success rate fell to 31.6 percent.
Mississippi State, the Gators' first unranked opponent in more than a month, comes to Gainesville on Saturday, Oct. 18. Game time is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Florida became the first school to play Top 10 teams in four consecutive games since Northwestern and Illinois in 1968. Those Big Ten schools each went 0-4. The Gators went 1-3.