Five takeaways from Florida's 24-13 win over Auburn

It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

The lede doesn't count towards my five observations from No. 10 Florida's 24-13 victory over the seventh-ranked Auburn, but you'd better believe that was my first thought as I typed this story.

Turnovers pretty much defined any and all momentum other than the Gators' opening-drive touchdown - a 64-yard catch-and-run on a slant from quarterback Kyle Trask to wide receiver Freddie Swain, and their final touchdown - an 88-yard rush by Lamical Perine in the fourth quarter. The in-between was pretty messy.

Here are my five takeaways from the first Top 10 matchup The Swamp has hosted in seven years.

Florida's WR corps is (for the most part) positively unpredictable

I predicted before the game that wide receiver Josh Hammond was in for a huge day, given his style of play tends to work against Auburn. My co-editor Graham Marsh predicted that tight end Kyle Pitts would be the X-factor, given his big-play ability.

Those two combined for 10 receptions and 88 yards on the day. Not bad, but not what we saw coming.

WR Freddie Swain, on the other hand, took six receptions of his own for 146 yards and a touchdown - accounting for 55% of Florida's receiving yards.

But that unpredictability is a testament to Florida's receiving corps - it's arguably the best in the nation. In Week 1, Hammond led the team with four receptions for 93 yards. Against UT-Martin, Van Jefferson and Trevon Grimes combined for nine receptions and 150 yards, with Jefferson scoring.

The next week vs. Kentucky, Jefferson stole the show with 93 yards on seven receptions. Against Tennessee, Pitts broke out on four receptions for 62 yards, and scored twice the next week against Towson while Grimes and Hammond combined for nine receptions and 92 yards.

You simply can't predict which of Florida's pass catchers are going to have a big game on a week-to-week basis, and that's a huge advantage for their offense.

Kyle Trask has legitimate pocket presence issues

While he had a good day through the air, going 19-31 for 234 yards and two touchdowns, Kyle Trask's ceiling is limited by his lack of pocket awareness.

He was strip-sacked three times by Auburn's defensive line today, including on a key drive late in the game when Florida was in the redzone with a four-point lead. Trask has fumbled the ball five times in the past three games.

Trask is a comfortably accurate passer when he's got the time to throw, but even when he can't find open reads with a clean pocket to operate in, he begins to struggle and ball security becomes an issue. This has to be cleaned up immediately if Florida wants to keep competing in big games.

Florida's defense has proven one thing: It is elite...

Three interceptions. Two sacks. A fumble recovery. Three pass breakups. And a boat-load of QB pressures.

Florida's defense has proven itself to be one of, if not the, best defense in the country. The pass rush, which was largely without defensive end Jabari Zuniga throughout the game, was giving Auburn quarterback Bo Nix a headache from start to finish, and the secondary capitalized with interceptions and great coverage.

Auburn recorded 269 yards on the day, with only 100 in the first half. It's just about impossible to consistently move the ball against the Gators.

...other than in their tackling

Florida has just one glaring issue with their defense, and it's finishing tackles.

This has been a problem since the beginning of the season, and it continued to be apparent in the victory over Auburn. A missed tackle by cornerback Marco Wilson and Donovan Stiner allowed WR Seth Williams to walk into the endzone for Auburn's only touchdown on the day.

There were also numerous missed tackles on Auburn's nine-play, 80-yard drive in the late third quarter. Florida is lucky to have ended that momentum with an interception in the endzone, because all of the missed tackles on the drive put Auburn in scoring position - we could have hd a totally different result to today's game without the pick.

Dan Mullen has gotten trigger-happy on special teams, and it's backfiring

It's no secret that Dan Mullen has been an aggressive play-caller on fourth down for the Gators this year.

With a 14-6 lead and the ball on their own 33-yard line, Florida faked a punt with Tommy Townsend keeping the ball and running - losing a yard on a tackle for loss and giving Auburn excellent field position that the Tigers capitalized on with the TD pass to Williams.

While the Gators started hot on 4th down conversions, going 4/5 against Miami, they have only converted on 1/7 since including the failed keeper today.

Mullen defended the call after the game, saying that they’ll continue to call fake punts and go for it on fourth down...

Just let the specialists do their thing, coach. They're pretty good at kicking the pigskin.