Florida Football: 3 takeaways from tough loss to Alabama in SEC title

The 2020 SEC Championship Game was highly-anticipated and everyone assumed Alabama would just run Florida football off the field.

Florida was expected to get boat-raced off the field on Saturday evening, but the Gators put up a fight despite the defense not exactly showing up to play in the first half, giving up 35 points before the break to the Tide.

Kyle Trask and Co. were forced to play catch-up from that point on and cut it to just one touchdown on multiple occasions, but the Gators just couldn’t get stops.

Florida pulled within seven at 45-38 with under 10 minutes left in the fourth, but the Crimson Tide marched right back down the field and Mac Jones hit DeVonta Smith for the icing on the cake touchdown with about five minutes left.

What did we learn from this hard-fought Florida loss?

3. Florida’s defense owes the offense an apology

Much like they have all season, the offense did its job for Florida while the defense failed to get necessary stops. The Gators surrendered 52 points and over 600 total yards in a losing effort while the offense did its job to keep the team in the game.

Everyone expected Florida to get run off the field and that wouldn’t have been the case if the Gators had a defense with a pulse.

The only big stop the Gators seemed to make all game was a big pick in the first half which ended up as a fumble on the return as John Metchie of Alabama forced a turnover after a turnover. That was the best defensive play of the game. The stellar defensive play was short-lived.

Florida played a heck of a game and exceeded expectations, but even just a couple of big stops would have made the difference. Florida couldn’t get those.