Florida's offense went from a 300-yard rushing performance to just 42 yards on the ground in one week, leaving offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner searching for answers after a 45-17 loss at Missouri.
Faulkner acknowledged that the Gators strayed from their offensive identity as penalties, protection issues and missed opportunities repeatedly put them behind the chains. He emphasized the importance of establishing the run and avoiding the obvious passing situations that allowed Missouri's defensive front to take control.
Faulkner also discussed the challenges of playing without Vernell Brown III, Eric Singleton Jr.'s toughness while battling injury and the contributions of several young players late in the game. With South Carolina visiting
The Swamp next, he outlined what Florida must do to regain its offensive rhythm.
Here's everything Faulkner had to say.
How did the inability to establish the run affect the offense against Missouri?
Yeah, we've got to be able to run the football. You know, it's kind of the way the game unfolded. Probably got away from it in the second half when you get down. We're not built for that right now, right?
We were off schedule all day, no rhythm. You can see when we're in rhythm. Really, the first drive we had, we were in pretty good rhythm. And then the one drive, the touchdown in the first half, we were able to stay ahead of the chains. No penalties, no mess, and then we scored a touchdown.
So there's a lot of reasons why the run game wasn't what it was the week before. Three hundred yards is a lot. Forty is nowhere near where it needs to be. We'd like to be at least somewhere in the middle of that.
Why did Duke Clark receive only one carry against Missouri?
No, I think you look back at the way the game unfolded, right? You get down, you've got to throw it and try to get back in it. We want Duke to have more carries. We want Jadan to have more carries. We want to be able to run the football more efficiently than we did the other day.
But again, that's some of the way the game unfolded, us not being able to take advantage of opportunities in the first half that we had. And then you get behind, and that's kind of the way it was, just the way it worked out.
Why isn't Florida built to rely heavily on dropback passing?
No, I think really nobody wants to sit back and drop back 20 times a game. That's the toughest thing to do. It's a tough thing to do in this league with defensive lines that you're going to play.
Really, we want to be able to throw the football, right? But we want to be able to do it on our terms, on schedule, play-action pass, naked, all those different things that you want to be able to do. We also want to be able to drop back, pass and throw the football, just not as often as we had to on Saturday.
So we've got to get better there in that area, all facets. Designing it, making sure we give them things that we're good at, and then protection, all the different things that go with it. We've just got to be better.
How can Florida's play-calling help overcome its pass protection struggles?
Yeah, I mean, obviously, it intensifies the challenge. Yeah, no, for sure. The things that we've got to do is, when you look back at the game, I think it was, if I'm not mistaken, 10 third-and-10s or more, right? That's tough. I think it was third-and-10, third-and-10 or more. That's what somebody told me this morning.
So I think that's No. 1. That's a lot. No. 2 is it was like 10 or 12 second-and-10-pluses. We had several first-and-15, first-and-20. So we were off schedule all day, and that makes it hard for any offensive line. Doesn't matter the level. They get a chance to pin their ears back and go.
Credit to those guys over on the other sideline. They did a heck of a job. Outplayed us, outcoached us every way, shape or form. So we've just got to be better in all facets.
How did Vernell Brown III's absence affect Florida's offense?
Yeah, we played the whole second half of Ole Miss without him. There's no excuses for us. It's next man up, next-man mentality. We've got a bunch of good players.
The thing that he does bring to the table is he's really good at beating man coverage, and he's really good in the perimeter game. So yeah, not having him, but we knew we weren't going to have him. So that's not the reason that thing played out the way that it did.
Did Missouri's familiarity with outside zone give its defense an advantage?
It definitely helped. They go against it, but it wasn't just outside zone that wasn't clicking for us, right? I think it was only three or four times we called it. We knew they'd be really good at it, and you could see early on they had a really good plan to stop it.
But some of the other run game wasn't probably where it needs to be. And then some of that is, look, the statistics are what they are, but we got sacked three times. That gave up a bunch of yards, too.
Again, that goes back to staying on schedule. So that's what we've got to be able to do. And that's what we've been able to do. And then we were off schedule. We had been able to make up for it, and we just weren't able to make up for it.
How does Florida adjust now that opponents have a blueprint for its offense?
Yeah, they may have a blueprint on it. Everybody's got blueprints on each other at this point in the season. We've played five games now. Like I said, I would go back to there's a lot of mistakes that were made in the game that we could control, and then there's some things that they did a better job than we did, and we've got to get those things cleaned up.
We've got to know our deficiencies. We've got to play more to our strengths. And the bottom line is, from now to the end of time, we have to do a much better job of staying on schedule, staying ahead of the chains. Whether that's pass, run, screen, whatever that looks like, we've got to be better at that.
And when we do that, I think you'll see hopefully what it looked like the first four weeks.
A couple plays early in the game, I thought we had a couple opportunities for touchdowns. The one that, even down 17, we come out in the second half and we have the snap infraction. We've got a little play for Eric Singleton right there to try to get around the edge. Don't know how that would've unfolded. And then the 30-yard gain Eric had called back for not being on the line of scrimmage.
Right there, you felt like, OK, we're fixing to hopefully get this thing back on track. I think there was 11 minutes to go in the third quarter at that time, and when that happened, you're first-and-20, and we never overcame it. And then it just kind of snowballed from there.
How has Eric Singleton Jr. looked while working his way back from injury?
One thing about him is he's an extremely tough kid, and most kids would not be playing right now. What he's even doing just for the team says a lot about him.
He's definitely not full speed. You could see that Saturday. But the fact that he's going out there because he knows we're down says everything you need to know about the kid.
What stands out about South Carolina's defense?
Extremely fast, extremely twitchy, get off the football. Very athletic. Good defense, well-coached. You can see that they're playing hard for their coaches, and that's a testament to their program.
How is Florida preparing for potentially rainy conditions?
Well, you've got to do a lot of wet-ball work. The good thing is we've got rain early this week, and we can just go out in the rain and do it. So we don't have to forecast it out.
But there's probably going to be rain. We're probably going to have it all week. So we're going to get out tomorrow, hopefully in the rain, and go from there.
How have the players approached practice following the Missouri loss?
I would say it's been really, really good up to this point, for everybody.
What happened Saturday is exactly what happened. There's no sugarcoating it. Sometimes that's the best way to just say it to the guys. Hey, guys, here it is. This is exactly what happened. There's no hiding from it, no running from it. We're not running from it. We're all in this thing together.
There's a lot of football left to be played. We're a young football team. We're working through these things, and I think they appreciate the honesty from us and understanding that it's all of us, guys. It's me, it's the staff, it's the players.
One thing about that locker room is we've got a great locker room. I love those kids, and they're giving us everything they've got. And you'll see hopefully this Saturday kind of the way this week of practice went.
I'm a big believer in practice, the way you approach it. Not that we didn't approach it the right way last week, but there's definitely a difference in attention to detail right now.
What did the younger players show on Florida's final touchdown drive?
Yeah, great for those guys to get in, get to play. One thing is it's no different than when we were up early in the first two games we played. We play until the clock strikes zero.
We don't look at the scoreboard. We have a job to do each and every play, to go out and execute that play. I thought those guys did a great job of going out and executing the calls and doing what they're coached to do. Putting a late touchdown up, it's good for them. They deserved it.
Could the final drive lead to more playing opportunities for the reserves?
Yeah, it's late in the game, but everything we do is an evaluation, right? And it's very important that they understand it because there's only so many players that you're getting a chance to play in a football game.
So we don't worry about the scoreboard. Each play is independent on its own. Go out and do your job. And those guys did their job good.
Does Faulkner draw on past experiences when correcting an offensive performance like Missouri?
Yeah, you definitely do. One thing is, and some of these questions kind of alluded to it, is our identity wasn't that. That wasn't our identity from just an offensive standpoint, right?
And so you go back to past experiences when these things have happened. How do you get it back? Some of that is all the moving parts that we've had over the last seven or eight days with guys kind of in and out of the lineup can sometimes make that difficult.
But to your question, as you go back and look at what mistakes have you made in the past when you've been in these situations, and now you're able to hopefully go correct them, really from a personnel standpoint, to be able to get the identity back sooner.
What went wrong on the missed opportunity during Florida's first drive?
Yeah, I think that's a bummer. Tough. He knew it, but he probably just came out a little flat, and that defensive end flashed maybe a little bit sooner and drew his eyes to the corner route.
If he comes out a little bit deeper, I think he sees it a little bit cleaner.
How does Faulkner evaluate his quarterback's performance against Missouri?
Yeah, there's some things that he did really well and made some big-time throws on some back shoulders that were really good. Made another really good back shoulder to TJ on the sideline that was close to being a catch.
So I thought he made some really good throws. There's some things that he'd like to have back, that we'd like to have back.
I'd like to hopefully, again, put him in better situations. Like I said, it's tough to drop back as much as we did, and you're off rhythm and the defensive line gets to pin their ears back.
But overall, yeah, we've got to play better. Got to coach better. We've got to all do it better. It wasn't just him. It was all across the board.
How does Florida's coaching staff rebuild the offense's confidence?
Well, I think you start with confidence is the truth, right? You've got to tell them the truth. Show them the mistakes, again, the mistakes that we made as coaches. Understand that we're all in this together.
And then, look, we need to make sure that at the end of this week that that is the outlier, right? Because we have played some good football, and you're able to still draw on that.
So I don't think they've lost confidence in that. I think they understand that on any given Saturday in the SEC, you've got to bring your A-game. And that's the bottom line.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Buster Faulkner explains Florida's offensive collapse at Missouri
