ATLANTA – Two weeks ago, the Gators punched their ticket to Atlanta by stuffing LSU at the goal line on the final two plays of the game. It was the high point of an up-and-down season for a Florida squad that was determined to defend its SEC East title. On Saturday night, the Gators found themselves on the other end of a goal-line stand and, fittingly, it was the low point of an 8-4 campaign.

At the end of a wild first half, UF trailed 33-16, a deficit many assume would be too much to overcome. To start the second half, however, Florida forced a three-and-out. Starting at their own 34-yard line, the Gators moved the ball 64 yards in eight plays, with half of those yards coming on a misdirection screen pass to RB Lamical Perine.

The play to Perine set up 1st-and-goal at the Alabama 2-yard line. The first three downs, Florida tried to pound it in, but came up with no gain, a 1-yard rush and a 1-yard loss. Faced with 4th-and-goal at the 2-yard line, Jim McElwain decided to go for it. The Gators tried a roll-out pass off a fake handoff, but C’yontai Lewis was unable to come up with the ball in bounds. A three-and-out followed up by a 64-yard drive, and nothing changed on the scoreboard.

“Would have liked to have pounded that one in there,” McElwain said of the sequence. “Realize maybe, take the field goal, get it to a two-score game. But at that point, I felt momentum-wise, we could bang one of them in there — I don’t know what they were at, 33 or something like that. I felt we could maybe get them puckered up a little bit.”

It led to the exact opposite of Florida’s wishes.

Alabama got a boost in momentum, and put the nail in the coffin with an eight-play, 98-yard drive to make it 40-16. With their spirit broken, the Gators threw in the towel. Alabama added two more touchdowns to make it 54-16.

The box score shows that the Gators rushed for zero yards. Sure, the fake punt brought the total down by 11 yards, but the stat makes one thing clear: Florida never stood a chance of running the ball on Alabama. Even when it had three chances to pick up 2 yards.

“You can’t line it up and just run it at them,” QB Austin Appleby said. “They’re thick. They’re strong. They’re fast. They get to the ball.  Coach Saban’s got an unbelievable plan in place for them.”

It’s been a problem for Florida ever since Saban showed up in Tuscaloosa. In six meetings with Saban-coached Alabama teams, the best individual Florida rushing performance is 10 carries for 63 yards by Tim Tebow in 2009, a game that left him in tears. Saturday, Florida’s top rusher, Jordan Scarlett, logged only 18 yards on 11 carries.

Many Florida fans will pin the loss on Appleby because he threw three interceptions and helped spot the Crimson Tide an early lead. That’s fair. Others will pin it on offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier for various reasons, including his play-calls from 2 yards out. They’ll be happy to see Appleby move on, and they would gladly go in on the moving truck to get rid of Nussmeier.

Until the Gators find the offensive linemen and running backs who can punch it in from 1st-and-goal on the 2-yard line, it won’t matter who the quarterback is or who’s calling the plays. They won’t be able to hang with Alabama.