GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- LSU and No. 21 Florida swapped touchdowns on three straight second-half possessions. They did not, however, swap extra points.
And that proved the difference.
UF sophomore tailback Lamical Perine scored on a 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, but Eddy Pineiro yanked the point-after wide left and the Tigers held on to defeat the No. 21 Gators 17-16 in their Southeastern Conference showdown Saturday at Spurrier/Florida Field.
For Florida (3-2, 3-1), the loss snapped a three-game winning streak and dropped the Gators from atop the SEC East Division standings. It was also the first conference defeat in the "Swamp" for UF coach Jim McElwain, now in his third season, and it came against an LSU (4-2, 1-1) team that came in reeling and wounded after losing at home last weekend to Troy, out of the Sun Belt Conference.
Wounded Tigers can be dangerous.
"For this Gator team, it hurts," McElwain said. "They should hurt."
And probably will for a couple days.
The Gators, down by that single point, had three fourth-quarter possessions to take the lead. They managed just 37 yards on 13 plays. The first two possessions were three and outs. The third, which started with 4:01 to play, began after a punt pinned UF at its 4. Quarterback Feleipe Franks managed to move his unit out to the 25, but threw incomplete on third- and fourth-and-3, as the Tigers commenced celebrating on the Florida home field.
"I'm so proud of our team. No one blinked," said LSU coach Ed Orgeron, whose team's loss to Troy last weekend marked the program's first defeat against a nonconference foe at "Death Valley" since the 2000 season. "We made the decision on Monday that we were going to win this football game under any conditions, and we did that."
The Tigers rushed for 216 yards for the game, which allowed them to control the ball for nearly 34 minutes. Quarterback Danny Etling completed nine of 16 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. Wideout Russell Gage had a 30-yard scoring run off a "jet" sweep in the first quarter to set an early tone for the Tigers and their ground game.
For the Gators, Franks was 10-for-16 for just 108 yards passing. What damage UF did do it did on the ground, rushing for 194 yards, including 90 from true freshman Malik Davis and 70 yards and two touchdowns from sophomore Lamical Perine. Florida, though, netted just 302 total yards, its fewest this season since gaining only 192 in the opening-week loss to Michigan. The Gators were just 2-for-9 on third down.
Trailing 17-10 midway through the third quarter, the Gators went 76 yards in nine plays to put themselves in position to tie the game. Along the way, Davis had an 11-yard run, true freshman all-purpose guy Kadarius Toney dashed 22 yards out of the "wildcat" formation, then Davis took off for a 21-yard run to the UF 2 to set up Perine's score that drew UF to within one.
Enter Pinerio to tie the game.
"That's why they don't give you the automatic one," McElwain said. "They make you kick it."
The missed PAT was Pineiro's first in 46 career attempts.
"I don't think it affected the guys that much," Franks said. "We had momentum. Defense was doing good. Offense was doing good. We just have to finish at the end."
They had those three cracks in the final quarter, but the offense couldn't replicate a third quarter when the Gators gained 130 total yards, including 112 on the ground.
"As an offensive line, once we get going, we get going. We don't turn back," UF junior offensive lineman Martez Ivy said. "As an offensive unit, everyone was feeding off it. The defense was feeding of it. The crowd was into it."
Perine's touchdown came just over 10 minutes after the Gators, looking for a fourth straight win, fell behind the Tigers 17-3 after Etling tossed a 1-yard touchdown pass to fullback Tory Carter barely four minutes into the second half. UF, though, answered with a 75-yard drive that was capped by a 2-yard run scoring run from Perine about four minutes later at the 7:39 mark of the third quarter.
The LSU touchdown to open the half was its second score over five minutes spanning the halves after Connor Culp kicked a 38-yard field goal 25 seconds before intermission. The Tigers got the second-half kickoff and turned that seven-point lead into a two-touchdown cushion, aided by a big play that could have gone either teams' way.
Etling dropped and fired a bomb down the right sideline. Wideout DJ Chark and cornerback Duke Dawson were running step-for-step. The ball came down, with Dawson appearing to take it into his arms for the interception as the two players went to the ground. But in the scrum, officials ruled it was Chark who ended up with possession and the Tigers had a 47-yard gain to the UF 17.
Six plays later, on third-and-goal from the 1, Etling play-faked into the line and found Carter all alone in the right flat of the end zone at the 10:56 mark.
On the ensuing possession, Franks drove the Gators 75 yards in just seven plays. He threw a 12-yard completion to Freddie Swain and got a 23-yard run by Perine that ended with a late hit against the Tigers and another 15 yards to the LSU 16. After Franks scrambled inside the 5, Perine took it across to make it a one-possession game.
With the Culp kick, the Tigers answered the Gators' first scoring drive of the game, which ended with UF, after a first-and-goal at the LSU 7, settling for a 25-yard field goal from Pineiro that made the score 7-3 with 4:01 left before halftime.
The Tigers then got a 15-yard completion from Etling to tailback Derrius Guice, a 21-yard gain when Etling dumped a checkdown to tight end Foster Moreau -- who appeared stopped before the first-down line, but trampled through a tackle attempt by safety Nick Washington -- then a 15-yard pass-interference penalty against true freshman CJ Henderson to move the ball to the UF 24. That's where things stalled for LSU, who called on Culp for the seven-point lead at the break.
LSU took a 7-0 lead when Gage came in motion, took a handoff and took it untouched 30 yards for a touchdown to give the Tigers with 1:22 to play in the first quarter. The Tigers drew first blood by driving 86 yards in 11 plays, taking advantage of some missed tackles and a holding penalty against UF cornerback Dawson on third-and-8 that gave LSU a first down at the Gators' 30. On the very next snap, Gage motioned from the right side, got the handoff from Etling, easily hit the edge of the UF defense and sprinted untouched to the end zone at the 1:22 mark of the opening period.
UF got on the board by moving 70 yards on 11 plays, along the way converting a third-and-15 pass from Feleipe Franks to Brandon Powell, then getting consecutive runs of 18 and nine yards from Perine and 25 from Davis down to the LSU 7. From there, though, the Gators went backward, with Franks taking a sack on third-and-goal from 5, bringing on Pineiro for his kick.
Florida wouldn't score again until the Gators found their groove in the third period.
The Gators lost it in the fourth.
"It hurts and it's a tough one to swallow," McElwain said. "We knew they were going to come in with everything they had, and they did. That's what good teams do when their backs are against the wall."
That's where the Gators now find themselves.
