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A first half of confusion and a second half of dominance could describe Florida’s win. The Gators defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 34-10 on Saturday after a scare in the first half.

It seemed like more of the same with the Florida defense on the opening drive: open receivers and the opponent driving down the field.

But the flood gates opened in the redzone. A first down sack by Brenton Cox Jr., a hurry by Cox on second down forcing an incompletion and a big sack on third by Mohamoud Diabate and Zachary Carter forced a UK punt.

Meanwhile, Florida seemed like it would stall out to start the game too. But Dan Mullen stayed true to his aggressive nature and called a fake punt inside his own 30 yard-line. Kyle Trask didn’t waste the new set of downs and Kyle Pitts let everyone know he’s back as the two connected for a 56-yard touchdown to give Florida a 7-0 lead.

It was a microcosm of first half of twists and turns. After another stop on defense, Florida was in rhythm driving the ball. Then Justin Shorter fumbled on a screen pass to give Kentucky the ball with a short field.

The Wildcats jammed it down Florida’s throat to the four yard-line. And, on third down no less, Terry Wilson hit Keaton Upshaw over the middle and -tied the game 7-7. They got the ball back one minute and 41 seconds later from an out-of-sync Gator offense.

Pinned inside the 10 by a Jacob Finn punt, Wilson and Co. grinded out an 87-yard field goal drive and took up almost 7.5 minutes of game time. Florida’s offense clearly wasn’t clicking as it took the ball off that ensuing kickoff and went only 25 yards in one minute. Kentucky managed over 20 minutes of possession to Florida’s six.

However, special teams made some plays to make up for Florida overal getting manhandled in the first half starting with a Jacob Finn punt downed at the one. The Gator defense forced a three-and-out allowing for some half-ending fireworks on punt return with a little trickery and Kadarius Toney.

Then Florida took the ball right down the field aided by three straight Kentucky penalties. Two facemasks and a pass interference gave Florida first and goal. Then it was just Kyle to Kyle on a slant for a 21-10 lead.

The Gators wrestled control away from Mark Stoops’s squad. They forced a three-and-out, kicked a field goal for 24-10 and Mohamoud Diabate made a great play on an interception to give Florida the ball back in Kentucky territory.

What happened three plays later? Kyle to Kyle for a third time pushed it to 31-10.

The Gators fumbled on their next drive and gave Kentucky another short field but the Florida defense came out a different unit in the second half. Florida and UK were tied with 175 yards of offense at halftime. After halftime Kentucky gained 46 yards compared to Florida’s 243.

Part of that is attributed to great plays on defense to get off the field. A clutch fourth down tackle by Marco Wilson ended the drive after a Florida fumble. Florida used that drive to add a field goal. Following that, Shawn Davis picked off Terry Wilson on an overthrow. And another Evan McPherson field goal came off it.

Fans saw a healthy amount of the backups after Florida’s last scoring drive. Freshmen Trevez Johnson picked off Joey Gatewood to end UK’s final possession. Emory Jones and the second team offense then ran out the final 5:53 to end the game, opting to not score after reaching the goal-line.

Mullen’s team moved to 7-1 on the year with the win. Barring a Georgia loss to South Carolina, the Gators are one win away from securing the SEC East.