Florida Football: 3 reasons the Gators will beat Missouri in Week 12

Florida football has struggled with Missouri since the latter has joined the SEC. Can the Gators stay focused on the path to a New Year’s Six bowl?

This is the classic trap game for Florida football. Since Missouri’s inception into the SEC, the Gators are 3-4 overall, and losing the last two in a row against the Tigers. They’re looking to even the score on the road this Saturday.

Missouri has been the Jekyll and Hyde of the college football season. After inexplicably losing to Wyoming to start the year, the Tigers whipped off five wins a row in dominating fashion, looking like a strong team in the SEC West. Since then, they’ve lost three in a row, being outscored 77-21. That includes a shutout loss to Georgia last weekend, losing 27-0.

The offense has fallen off a cliff, not scoring more than 14 in the last three games after scoring more than 30 in their first six contests. They’ll be happy to have Kelly Bryant back for this one after he missed the Georgia game.

Florida had a big bounce back win last week. After a tough loss to Georgia two weeks ago, the Gators started a little slow against lowly Vanderbilt, only leading 14-0 at the half, before finishing the game winning 56-0. The second half effort was spearheaded by Jonathan Greenard’s fumble return for a touchdown and a defense that held Ke’Shawn Vaughn to just 28 rushing yards.

This game has trap game written all over it, but Florida should be ready, and here are their three reasons they beat the Tigers.