Florida Football: 3 takeaways from tough SEC East loss to Georgia

2. Georgia won the game over Florida at the point of attack

Neither team had tons of success running the football, but Georgia had far more success than Florida on the first Saturday of November. The Bulldogs finished with 119 rushing yards on 37 carries, averaging 3.2 yards per carry as a team whenever they decided to keep the ball on the ground. It got the job done in a way that Florida simply couldn’t against a stout Bulldogs front seven.

D’Andre Swift led the way for the Bulldogs on the ground, rushing for 86 of those 117 yards on his 25 carries. Swift also caught a 24-yard pass from Jake Fromm that boosted his all-purpose yardage into triple digits. Brian Herrien also had a great day out of the backfield, catching four passes for 46 yards even as he only gained 13 yards on seven carries.

The Gators also had difficulty protecting Kyle Trask, who was sacked just twice but also had to scramble to buy time with striking regularity. Fromm, for comparison, did not sustain a single sack all game and ended the game nearly as clean as he entered the contest a few hours earlier.

If there is one disparity that was all too clear between these two teams, it is the protection that the respective offensive lines can provide for both runners and passers and the pressure that their defensive fronts get at the line of scrimmage. Georgia got it done on Saturday, while Florida found themselves struggling to open holes for their backs and protect Trask on passing downs.