By Mark Long
Associate Press
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Quarterback Chris Leak left Tiger Stadium with grass stains all over his uniform and a dazed look on his face, clear and convincing evidence LSU’s defense was dominant against Florida.
The Tigers hurried, harassed and hit Leak on nearly every play. He was sacked four times, knocked to the ground more often and routinely forced out of the pocket. He finished with a career-low passing day in LSU’s 21-17 victory Saturday.
The Tigers moved up three spots to No. 7 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll Sunday. Florida tumbled from 11th to 18th.
Leak was 11-of-30 for only 107 yards, and his longest completion was 20 yards that came on a screen pass. He routinely threw off his back foot, showing little confidence in a shaky offensive line that has now given up 24 sacks this season.
“I don’t think he was ever comfortable with what we were doing on defense,” defensive tackle Kyle Williams said. “We kept hitting him and hitting him and hitting him.”
The steady pressure disrupted Florida’s timing routes and caused Leak to overthrow and underthrow. Leak had to settle for short routes, leaving the Gators with numerous third-and-long plays. They were 2-of-16 on third down.
Florida punted on its first five drives and might not have scored at all without LSU’s five turnovers – four of which gave the Gators great field position. They scored all their points following miscues.
“We felt like if we could keep them in normal field position, they weren’t going to score against us because they didn’t move the ball consistently all day,” Williams said.
The Tigers were willing to let Florida run the ball, but they didn’t let Leak and receivers Chad Jackson, Dallas Baker and Jemalle Cornelius beat them.
DeShawn Wynn ran 16 times for 93 yards and a touchdown, and backup Kestahn Moore added a 32-yard scoring run in the second quarter. But the Gators did little in the passing game.
Every time Florida lined up in a five-receiver formation — a trademark of Urban Meyer’s spread offense — the Tigers blitzed. And they got to Leak early and often.
The Gators finally scored midway through the second quarter, cutting the lead to 14-7, but only after getting the ball on the LSU 32-yard line following Joseph Addai’s fumble.
Florida took the lead by scoring on its first two possessions of the second half. Both followed interceptions thrown by JaMarcus Russell.
Chris Hetland kicked a 22-yard field goal, and Wynn scored from a yard out to put the Gators ahead 17-14.
The Tigers answered with their best drive of the game – moving 75 yards on 12 plays that featured seven runs by Addai, including a 3-yarder for the go-ahead score with 12:35 to play. He finished with a career-high 156 yards on the ground.
LSU’s defense took over from there, making up for an inconsistent offense.
The defense didn’t allow Florida to move past the 30-yard line in any of its last four possessions. The Gators ran 18 plays and gained 27 yards in the four drives.
“When our line puts that kind of pressure on a quarterback, it makes it kind of easy because he’s always getting rid of the ball hot,” linebacker Ali Highsmith said. “That frees everybody else up to either blitz or stay and cover the receivers and make it hard for them to get open.”