Final: Gators Fall at No. 4 Miami, 26-7

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.-- The Florida Gators are officially off to its worse start in nearly 40 years.

With a 26-7 loss to No. 4 Miami on Saturday, the Gators have now lost its last three games to move to 1-3 on the season, its first 1-3 start since 1986.

Florida went 0-for-13 on third downs, were shutout in the first half and were held to just 141 yards of total offense. 80 of those came in a third-quarter drive as Jadan Baugh rushed for a touchdown for Florida's only points of the game.

"I think in particular in the first half, we had some busted protection," Napier said. "I do think there's opportunities there when you look at it big-picture wise where we got to make some plays. We got to give Miami some credit, too. They pressured us, they affected the quarterback. And it wasn't good enough, you know, so I think the first half in particular was a game that was about third down. They stayed on the field, they got us off the field.”

DJ Lagway was held to just 61 yards passing, completing 12 of his 23 attempts. Saturday's loss marked his first start without a touchdown pass since Florida's 48-20 win over Kentucky last season.

The Gators have only scored three touchdowns in the last three weeks.

Miami converted its first five third-down attempts to take a 10-0 lead after its first two drives. Meanwhile, Florida punted on its first six drives with only one first down.

Led by 35 passing yards on two completions from Carson Beck, Miami took an early 7-0 lead on a seven-play, 56-yard drive capped off by a two-yard touchdown rush by CharMar Brown.

The Hurricanes added a pair of field goals in the second quarter from Carter Davis with a 53-yard early in the quarter and a 28-yard make with under two minutes left in the half to take a 13-0 lead.

The Gators, meanwhile, only managed 32 total yards in the first half as quarterback DJ Lagway completed 6 of his 12 passes for 28 yards. Florida also struggled to establish the run, only accounting for four yards on 10 attempts in the first half.

"I didn't play my best ball tonight," Lagway said. "I took what the defense gave me. I didn't make a lot of plays that I needed to make to stand out in the game. I kind of just managed it. I didn't make a lot of big plays, so I'm trying to find the balance between both."

Florida was 0-for-7 on third down conversions in the first half.

The second half slightly told a different story.

After forcing Miami to punt, Florida's run-game led the way in an 11-play, 80-yard drive in which Ja'Kobi Jackson had 27-yard rush, Lagway converted a 4th-and-2 with a run and Jadan Baugh scored his second touchdown of the season, cutting Florida's deficit to six points.

The Gators' defense joined the party with Cormani McClain intercepting Beck on the drive's first play. However, facing 4th-and-3 on Miami's 33-yard line, Florida elected to go for it, but Lagway's completion to TJ Abrams was stopped short of the line to gain.

From there, the team's traded punts before Miami went on a 13-play, 80-yard drive capped off by a one-yard touchdown rush by Brown to effectively ice the game. The Hurricanes added another touchdown after Florida turned the ball over on downs, this time a short rush by Mark Fletcher with 1:57 left left to make the score 26-7.

"It definitely wasn’t good enough," corner Devin Moore said. "We got some things to clean up for sure. There’s a handful of plays out there if we make those plays it could change the direction of the game for sure.”

The Gators, once again, turned it over on downs with 1:34 left, ending any chance for more points.

"I think there's, every position is contributing to our issues," Napier said of the offense. "Obviously, we talked about DJ and what he's been through this offseason. I do think that there's some rhythm missing there, and that's going to be what we – we’re going to go back to the drawing board, and I think the open date's coming at a good time there. We've got to evaluate everything we're doing on that side of the ball.”

Florida gets a much-needed bye week next week before playing its third-straight top 10 opponent with No. 8 Texas coming to the Swamp on Oct. 4.

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