OFFENSE: B

The Gators’ offense got some fantastic performances out of running backs Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor, along with wide receiver Demarcus Robinson. However, the offense as a whole was just too inconsistent. Quarterback Jeff Driskel struggled to complete a majority of his passes, the offensive line failed to pick up several of Kentucky’s blitzes, especially their corner blitz packages and the receivers dropped some key passes throughout the game.

Because of the inconsistency on offense, Florida was forced to rely on a power running game upon the shoulders of Jone and Taylor. The two backs combined for 44 carries and 220 rushing yards. Jones was dominant inside on the rush all game, using his 235-pound body to run over the Kentucky front seven. Taylor exploited Kentucky via the outside run game with his tremendous speed and field vision.

Taylor, Jones and Robinson are easily the offense’s three best players right now. It remains to be seen if anyone else on the offense will step up in the coming weeks to take any of the pressure off of those three guys.

DEFENSE: B

As usual for a Will Muschamp team, the defense looked stout tonight…at least for the first half. In the first 30 minutes of the game, the Gators’ defense held Kentucky to just three points and virtually nothing else on offense. However, Kentucky came out in the second half and burned the Gators deep with several long pass plays. The secondary probably also missed out on at least three or four interceptions throughout the game in addition to the three picks they actually recorded.

Safety Jabari Gorman had the most trouble of the night as he was beat on a few deep passes as well as involved on the busted coverage that led to one of Kentucky’s touchdowns in the second half. They’ll need to play much better in their upcoming games in order to have a chance to win.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C+

Andre Debose had a couple nice kickoff returns and Frankie Velez knocked in three of four field goals, but the missed opportunity by place kicker Austin Hardin to win the game at the end of regulation with a long field goal brings down this grade. It wasn’t even close, too.

COACHING: B

The coaching staff didn’t have any glaring mistakes throughout the game, but I’ll heap the penalties on the shoulders of the coaches. Florida committed eight penalties for 78 yards Saturday night, an area in which the Gators continue to struggle under Muschamp. If the Gators want to be taken seriously as a contender in the SEC, they’ll need to become a much more disciplined team on the field.

OVERALL: B-

Give Kentucky credit. They are a good football team with speed and athleticism at a lot of positions, but this is not a game the Gators should have allowed the Wildcats to stick around in. Florida showed some improvements on offense as they finally have a go-to wide receiver in Demarcus Robinson and a strong running game from Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor. However, some of the same problems from last year remain with this team. It’s early in the season, but the Gators did not look like a team ready to compete with the “big boys” of the SEC. They barely squeaked by with win last night, and probably didn’t even deserve the victory as much as their opponent.