The dust has now settled in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium after the Florida Gators gave the visiting Tennessee Volunteers the ol’ Swamp treatment on Saturday night, notching a convincing 38-14 win against their SEC East foes. The first half had the Gator Nation biting its nails, as the Big Orange took a 14-10 lead early in the second quarter and only trailed by three at the half. That, however, was the extent of the scoring for the boys from Rocky Top as the Orange and Blue put up 28 unanswered points to punctuate the victory.

Now that there has been some time to chew on the results from Florida’s win on Saturday night, the Gators Wire staff presents its Good, Bad and Ugly from the battle between the two SEC East rivals in the Swamp. Take a look at our retrospective takes below.

Adam Dubbin - Managing Editor

Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun

GOOD: It was a solid win over a Tennessee team that had a bit more tenacity than some of us expected. Emory Jones showed continued improvement under center and the ground game showed that it truly is the real deal.

BAD: There were two defensive units missing their leaders on Saturday night — the linebacker corps are without Ventrell Miller for the foreseeable future and then Kaiir Elam was scratched from the secondary rotation. While the overall effort was sufficient there are still clearly some holes on the defensive side of the ball.

UGLY: That depleted defensive back unit got burned a few times, including a big second-quarter TD bomb on a flubbed coverage by sophomore Mordecai McDaniel. True freshman Jason Marshall is still trying to figure things out as well, but those growing pains are becoming actual pains for the team pretty quickly.

Tyler Nettuno - Assistant Editor/Writer

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

GOOD: Emory Jones proved his second half against Alabama wasn’t an aberration. He had his best game as Florida’s starter on Saturday night, delivering an efficient game through the air with no interceptions and taking off for 144 yards on 15 carries, which led the team. All in all, UF totaled 283 yards on the ground against a Volunteers defense that entered as the nation’s fifth-best unit against the run.

BAD: Florida mostly shut down Alabama’s ground game, but even knowing Tennessee’s struggles passing the ball, the Gators allowed a fair amount of rushing success from the Vols. As a team, they had 148 yards, and the two-headed backfield of Jabari Small and Tiyon Evans each reached the 50-yard threshold.

UGLY: This was only a three-point game at halftime, and it was only that close because the Gators gave up two big plays. The first was a terribly covered screen to Evans that featured several missed tackles as he broke it for a touchdown, and the second was on a blown coverage from Mordecai McDaniel, who allowed a deep 75-yard touchdown on the outside. The Gators clearly missed Kaiir Elam in this one, and they’ll hope he’s able to go against Kentucky on Saturday.

Pat Dooley - Staff Writer

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

GOOD: Florida continued its offensive run in this league under Dan Mullen. The Gators were able to rest back-up quarterback Anthony Richardson and defensive back Kaiir Elam for the rough stretch ahead.

BAD: Florida’s defense is still sketchy at best with too many big plays allowed in the secondary. The Gators seem to play on spurts on that side of the ball and have not made a lot of big plays.

UGLY: People are still trying to get a grip on this team. They are second-guessing a lot of Dan Mullen‘s decisions (like he cares) and America is still trying to figure this team out. It will come in October, trust us.

David Rosenberg - Staff Writer

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

GOOD: Emory Jones, Anthony Richardson, Malik Davis, Dameon Pierce and Nay’Quan Wright are all threats to the run the ball for Florida. Coming into the game this weekend, Tennessee had the fifth-best run defense (54.3 YPG) in all of college football coming into Saturday’s game, and Florida put up 283 rushing yards against the Volunteers. The Gators are proving they can run the ball against strong defenses, which bodes well for a certain rivalry game that will be played in October.

BAD: The first half of the game was too close for comfort. It’s becoming a trend for Florida to play better in the second half than they do in the first, but the Gators need to be consistent throughout if they want to stand a chance against Georgia.

UGLY: Florida shut out Tennessee in the second half, but the two touchdowns the Volunteers did score made the Gators’ defense looks silly. Blown coverages and missed tackles are always going to be a talking point the day after a game, even if Florida wins by more than three touchdowns. I’m sure Kaiir Elam wasn’t happy with how the defense looked without him.

Jay Markle - Staff Writer Emeritus

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

GOOD: Dan Mullen has a long leash with his players, so he was never going to push through a change in the quarterback room unless Emory Jones failed in spectacular fashion. Avoiding that eventuality is a decidedly positive outcome, and it’s good to see Jones keep his traction after finishing on the upside of an up and down performance against Alabama. Additionally, Damien Pierce continued to look like a beast and is building a case to be a legitimate NFL prospect in the upcoming draft.

BAD: The Gators have played down to their competition at points during each game they’ve played so far this season. That continued against the Vols, who were able to comfortably trade blows with Florida throughout the first half. At the end of the day, a win is a win but it’s not a good look for a playoff-hopeful team to see him on the same level as Tennessee — one of the SEC’s bigger disaster programs this year.

UGLY: Funny enough, my eye was drawn to the same things as Adam for this segment: Mordecai McDaniel and Jason Marshall Jr. McDaniel is an astonishing athlete, but as we saw at times with Marco Wilson, athleticism without the football IQ to put it on the field is moot. Marshall Jr. was supposed to be an SEC-ready outside guy to challenge for a starting spot and succeed Kaiir Elam as CB1 next year, but he’s looked out of his depth all year with silly penalties and blown coverages.

Both are young and it’s tough to play the secondary in this conference without much experience, but the defense needs them to step up if the Gators are going to look like title contenders. I had high hopes for McDaniel and Marshall Jr. as breakout candidates this season, and it just hasn’t come to pass.

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