No. 25 Missouri spoils No. 8 Florida's brief time near the top of the AP poll with a dominant 45-17 win

Florida's time in the top 10 lasted exactly one week.

The Gators vaulted up 13 spots to No. 8 in the AP Top 25 after a blowout win over Ole Miss in Week 4. Now, the Gators are going to find themselves tumbling down the rankings on Sunday after a 45-17 loss at No. 25 Missouri.

It's a massive win for a Mizzou program that has struggled against top-tier competition under coach Eli Drinkwitz. Outside of bowl games, the Tigers entered the game just 6-19 against ranked opponents in Drinkwitz's tenure. And it had been 13 years since Missouri got a regular-season win over a top-10 opponent.

A week ago, Florida ran all over Ole Miss. On Saturday, Missouri ran all over Florida in the second half as Jamal Roberts put the game away with a pair of massive runs.

With the Tigers leading by 20, Roberts broke off a hide-and-seek 77-yard run to set up a TD and a 28-point lead.

And then on the first play of Missouri's next possession, Roberts made it a five-touchdown game with an 80-yard score.

Before those two runs, Roberts had run for just 44 yards on 17 carries as Missouri had picked apart Florida's defense through the air. QB Austin Simmons was 23-of-30 passing for 340 yards and two first-half touchdowns. The first was a 47-yard strike to Donovan Olugbode. The second was a 36-yard TD to Caleb Goodie with 2:05 to go before halftime.

Florida tied the game at 10-10 with 4:26 to go in the second quarter. By the time there was 12:24 to go in the third quarter, the Gators trailed 27-10.

That seven-minute sequence was a perfect encapsulation of how the game started to unravel for the Gators. RB Jadan Baugh never looked like himself on Saturday and ended up with just 12 carries for 13 yards. Twelve of those yards came on one run. Missouri's defensive line and linebackers consistently pushed the Florida offensive line into the backfield.

That put more pressure on QB Aaron Philo, especially with leading receiver Vernell Brown III out. Philo didn't play especially poorly; but as the win over Ole Miss showed, the Florida offense is operating far better with a run game that's consistently getting chunk yardage.

Florida finished the game with just 42 yards rushing, and a significant portion of that yardage came late in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach.

It was a stark reminder that early-season climbs can be followed by drops that are just as precipitous. And also proof that Jon Sumrall's Florida turnaround probably needs more than a few weeks. The Gators host South Carolina in Week 6 before games against No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Georgia to end October.

The Tigers lost at Mississippi State in Week 4 after giving up 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. With the Bulldogs getting blitzed at home earlier in the day by No. 7 Alabama, it's fair to say that no result is going to be a surprise among the teams that currently occupy the second tier of the SEC.

Mizzou can safely consider itself a member of that group, especially when Simmons is throwing the ball as well as he has so far in 2026. The Ole Miss transfer is the most dynamic passer the Tigers have had in years and gives the Missouri offense an ability to beat teams deep on any given play that it simply hasn't had in recent seasons.

It's an offensive aspect that's sorely needed as it looks less and less likely that Ahmad Hardy will return to the lineup anytime soon after suffering a gunshot wound in his leg in the spring. The All-American back was the source of Missouri's explosiveness in 2025 as he rushed for 1,649 yards and 16 scores.

Roberts is now the focal point of the Mizzou rushing attack in Hardy's absence after rushing for over 750 yards on 124 carries in 2025. Can he and Simmons push Mizzou further toward the top of the conference?