Gators’ defense continues to improve despite falling short in Jacksonville

The score may not show it, but Florida’s 14-point loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in no way reflects the massive effort and dominance that was put on display from the Gators’ defense in Jacksonville on Saturday. Despite losing quarterback DJ Lagway to a devastating injury in the second quarter, Florida’s defense continued to force turnovers on the other side of the ball and kept the Gators in the game up until the final minutes against the Bulldogs.

“I feel like first half we did what we was supposed to do: went out there and executed. Had a lot of turnovers,” Trikweze Bridges said. “Georgia was not prepared, ready for us to do that. At the end of the day, that’s our mentality every week, week in and week out. We just got to go out there and dominate.”

In Florida’s last three games, the Gators have recorded seven total interceptions and have a total of nine interceptions on the season through eight games. The Gators haven’t recorded more than nine interceptions in a single season under Billy Napier. Florida also ranks sixth nationally in interceptions while still leading the SEC through ten weeks.

“It was exactly the way we wanted it to go. We affected the quarterback. We made it sloppy. Made it ugly. We limited the explosive plays. Made them go the distance. We’re able to get some takeaways,” Napier said on Florida’s defensive effort. “We obviously need to capitalize on some of those short fields, but hats off to our defensive staff. They had a great plan, and the players executed that plan. We played with the type of intangibles that you want your team to play with.”

Even with star quarterback DJ Lagway on the sidelines, the Gators kept it a one-score game until Georgia scored their final touchdown just two plays after intercepting quarterback Aidan Warner with three minutes remaining in Saturday’s contest.

Florida’s defense did everything they could after totaling 72 total tackles, two sacks, four tackles for loss, four quarterback hurries, three pass breakups and three interceptions against the Bulldogs.

“We had to just turn it up a notch and just keep executing,” Bridges said on their mindset after Lagway’s injury. “We have to get him an opportunity to just warm up and get into his mode and in his game and just be able to play. I was on the sideline saying, let’s go on defense as well as the offense is scoring on offense. So, our mindset was just like, let’s turn it up a notch and keep going.”

Not only did the offensive side of the ball sustain significant injuries on Saturday, but so did Florida’s defense. In the second half, the Gators lost its best cornerback Devin Moore and saw three other defensive backs — Jordan Castell, Sharif Denson and Dijon Johnson all get hurt on one single drive. Florida was also without star cornerback Jason Marshall Jr.

“It’s going to take a lot of communication as a group,” Bridges said. “It’s going to take a lot of film, going a lot of things together and just like really just get those guys in the game, in the mindset to be ready to play and ready for your name to be called. No matter what situation we in, everybody have to be ready. Everybody. All hands on deck.”

After subpar performances at the start of the season, Florida’s confidence on defense has remained strong through ten weeks and that was clear to anyone who watched on Saturday.

“We always feel like that. We just had to clean the things up,” Bridges said on Florida’s confidence. “Beginning of the season just kept going, kept going and believing in ourselves. Block outside noise and whatnot,” Bridges said. “All we doing is keep going. Every day, every week we trying to show up and show out. We know what we can do. We weren’t surprised what we did today. That’s something that we want to put out for you guys to see and that’s what we going to continue to do.”

With DJ Lagway under center, the Gators probably score more points behind a defense that would’ve been on the field a lot less. It’s hard to look at what could’ve been, but it’s also hard to question Florida’s defense and their consistent improvement as we approach the closing weeks of the 2024 season.

The Gators will travel to Austin, Texas next weekend to face the Longhorns in another tough test against a top ten team. Kickoff is set for 12:00 PM EST.