Florida beats LSU on 4th down stop, wins SEC East

“We didn’t convert any points”. “I’m a competitor and I always play football for the love of the game”. “Like, you’re going to come at us and say we’re scared, when y’all didn’t want to come to Gainesville?” “The way I look at it, we came in with a objective and we played the way we needed to play”. No one will give the Gators a chance, but they’ll figure that out when they arrive in the A. But it’s not like this team hasn’t been counted out before. It just came down to execution.

And a goal-line stand on the final play of the game by the UF defense to clinch a trip to Atlanta proved those who doubted Florida wrong, as the Gators stormed the field at Tiger Stadium in celebration and then finally sounded off about the Tigers’ comments over the past couple of weeks.

And they can’t blame the Florida Gators or LSU Tigers for that. LSU is 4-1 against the spread after allowing less than 20 points in their previous game, 4-1 against the spread after coring less than 20 points in their previous game, and 4-1 against the spread after allowing less than 170 yards passing in their previous game.

LSU was without its top running back, Leonard Fournette, who has an ankle injury that limited his playing time.

And now that the first big test to close out the season is finished, Florida has two more to go.

OREGON 30, NO. 11 UTAH 28: Justin Herbert hit Darren Carrington for a 17-yard touchdown pass with two seconds remaining to give OR a 30-28 upset victory over No. 12 Utah on Saturday, putting the Utes’ hopes of a Pac-12 championship in jeopardy. Quarterback Danny Etling was sacked for a loss of nine, and the Tigers settled for a 22-yard field goal from Delahoussaye for a 10-10 tie.

Guice did rush for 83 yards on 19 carries and had a 1-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but after that he couldn’t hold onto the ball “no more”. The Gators collected 98 yards on one play, their lone touchdown, a pass down the right sideline from Austin Appleby to Tyrie Cleveland. The Tigers could have opened up a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter but Guice fumbled on first-and-goal from the Gator 7, linebacker Caleb Brantley stripped the ball from Guice, and linebacker Kylan Johnson recovered at the Florida 12.

And Jefferson was straight savage on the first attempt from the 1, stuffing a fullback dive that LSU pounded the Gators with earlier.

How incredible, how improbable was Florida’s show-stopping 16-10 triumph at LSU on Saturday afternoon? On fourth down with just three seconds on the clock, LSU called on Derrius Guice to try and jump over the line.

The Tigers (6-4) traveled to at least Florida’s 7-yard line on five occasions Saturday.

But they didn’t and LSU is a 6-4 football team.

They were spectators to their defense as LSU’s offense made a final march down the field… hoping the defense could come up with a clutch play once again as it has most of the season. They even converted a fourth down to get into the red zone. 10-13 Florida at 4:37 in the 4th QTR. His performance put him over the 1,000-yard mark for the second season in a row (he is at 1,058), and he also is just 28 yards away from becoming Vandy’s leading career rusher.

However, Florida gave the Vols new life by losing to Arkansas the next week.

The redshirt sophomore kicker nailed all three of his field goals, including two in the fourth quarter – from 26 yards and 34 yards – to seal the victory.

That was just the start of a string of unproductive plays for LSU that started at or inside the UF 10-yard line.