Here are my immediate thoughts following Vanderbilt's 56-0 loss at Florida.
1. You don't often see a minus-432 yard differential in a game involving two Power Five teams, but that's what happened today.
At one point in the second half, total yardage was 343-12 in the Gators' favor.
2. Offensive stats don’t get much worse than this:
- Vanderbilt had 12 yards on its first nine drives.
- Florida had 29 yards on one first-half interception return; Vanderbilt had just 18 in the first half on 24 offensive plays.
- VU gained 57 of its 128 yards on one drive. That ended at the Gator 10 when Mohamoud Diabate sacked Deuce Wallace, forcing a fumble, and linebacker Jonathan Greenard picked it up and jogged 80 yards for a score.
3. The long-awaited Allan Walters debut happened.
Walters threw a pick at the Vandy 27 on his first pass.
4. Florida didn’t fear Vanderbilt’s offense, and VU compounded its own problems by taking no risks when it actually mattered.
UF’s going for it on fourth-and-1 1/2 or so at its 44 on the game’s first possession made a statement about what the Gators thought of Vandy’s offense—which then got two yards on its next three plays after Vandy got a stop. The 28-point-underdog Commodores, who’ve been having a tough time getting the ball across midfield, then punted on fourth-and-8 from the Gator 42 rather than take a risk that might help put points on the board.
5. The bend-but-don’t-break defensive approach had some success today.
The Commodores trailed *just* 14-0 at half, thanks to a defense that got two turnovers, a fourth-down stop and Dimitri Moore's third-down sack that backed the Gators up and forced a 41-yard field-goal miss.
6. That, too, passed.
I wonder if the offensive ineptitude got the best of the defense today. Teams should always play hard no matter the circumstances, but anyone watching this one knew that it was over after Florida's Trevon Grimes took a pass along the line of scrimmage and raced 66 yards along the sideline for a score. VU missed an opportunity to knock Grimes out of bounds there and debatably missed an opportunity or two downfield to tackle him.
"Quit" is a strong term, especially when describing 11 guys at once, and I'm not using that here. But when the offense can't move the ball to save its life and you're on the field constantly, some combination of exhaustion and frustration sets in, and I didn't see the consistent, spirited effort I saw during parts of the first half in the second.
7. There was a brief JaVeon Marlow sighting.
Marlow was Vanderbilt’s top running back target in the 2018 class, and injuries derailed the start of this year for the redshirt freshman (and, it seems, part of last year, too.) Marlow is back and healthy, and flashed some speed on a 31-yard kickoff return.
For whatever reason, Marlow remains parked in the garage when the Commodores have the ball, which is hard to figure for an offense that needs all the help it can get. He did get four carries for 12 yards late in the game.
