BATON ROUGE, LA-After their loss against the University of South Florida, the University of Florida Gators were in desperate need of a rebound. They headed to Death Valley to play the University of Louisiana State Tigers with a renewed focus against a top-three team.
Florida’s defense flexed its muscles early getting a stop and the Gators marched down the field to get a field goal. After another hold, Florida had a chance to take a two-possession lead and silence the Death Valley crowd.
It appeared that happened as quarterback DJ Lagway connected to Jaden Baugh for an 87-yard touchdown pass that had the Gators primed to take a 10-0 lead. Unfortunately for Florida, their continued theme of penalties negating touchdowns reared its ugly head. A holding call took the points off the board and the momentum that came with it.
The remainder of the game was a defensive battle with both SEC defenses playing like the nation’s best. However, the Tiger defense did just a bit more than Florida as they forced DJ Lagway to throw 5 interceptions, that was second most in Florida history.
An interception before half allowed for LSU to kick a field goal as time expired. At half, the Tigers led 13-10 and a DJ Lagway third quarter pick six to safety DaShawn Spears finished the scoring for the night.
“I’ve never had a performance like that in my life, so it’s kind of hard to process it”, Lagway said. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about, how do you bounce back, and how do you respond? And I’m planning on doing so.”
For Lagway, expectations were sky high going into the season and his slow start has put the Gators margin for error at zero and has left fans wondering if he is the answer for the Gators at the quarterback position.
Lagway’s struggles this year have to be a concern. He has thrown 6 interceptions through the first three games and has yet to look like himself. His accuracy and timing with the receivers has been just off and is the primary reason for the team’s struggles.
On the offensive side of the ball LSU could only find the end zone once, as the Gator defense kept them in the game. The Florida defense held LSU scoreless in all but the 2nd quarter and made the Tiger offense uncomfortable throughout.
Running back Caden Durham was a definite bright spot for the Tigers on the offensive side of the ball as his 93 yards on 15 carries were a game high. Garrett Nussmeier managed the game well as he added 220 yards through the air with a score.
The Gator defense has given up just two touchdowns in three games and yet the Florida finds themselves 1-2 where another loss will effectively end their season.
