On a day when Iowa lost to Northwestern (the Vanderbilt of the Big Ten,) Florida should consider themselves lucky for escaping with a 27-3 victory against Vandy at home despite struggling in the red zone in yet another conference game. They are undefeated going into their final conference games with South Carolina, and only have Florida International and State between them and their already guaranteed spot in the SEC Championship Game. On paper, it’s all puppies and hundred dollar bills for the Gators.

On paper, when read another way, this game continues to flash many of the warning lights Florida has been driving along and nervously ignoring all year long. Tim Tebow was sacked three times and hurried on numerous occasions, and worse still reverted to many of the habits he seemed to have broken out of in the game last week versus Georgia: indecision in the pocket, holding on the ball like it was a crying newborn, and taking off before cycling through all of his available receivers.

Were it not for Vandy’s punter accidentally downing the ball on a funky snap and giving Florida a layup, we’re talking a moribund 20-3 performance against the conference’s worst team. Forget any discussions of a national title; the real challenge for Florida will be assembling their talented pieces into something resembling an effective scoring threat over the final three weeks of the season. Without that, the dream of repeat will be ground to tiny pieces on the turf of the Georgia Dome by the Crimson Tide’s defense on December 5th.