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Once again, the Florida Gator football team was a prohibitive favorite to win a game. Once again Florida does win...but the win doesn't come easily.

Get used to this Gator fans. Your team is going to get everyone's best shot. Heck, FIU will give Florida its best shot. Why? Because when you're number one, when you've won 17 straight games and you are the defending national champions, you get the best shot from everyone.

Blowouts? Forget it, not in the SEC this year. Be satisfied when you get a win, like this 29-19 win in Starkville.

It certainly was not pretty at times. There were missed extra points, missed field goals and two interception returns for touchdowns in this game and those were just Florida's problems. And when is the last time you saw THREE pick 6's in one game, and two thrown by Tim Tebow?

With a record crowd on hand at Scott Field to see former Gator assistant and new Bulldogs coach Dan Mullen face his old team, the cowbells were loud and the game was close as the Gator lead was only 16-13 in the fourth quarter. But the game turned on a play call by Mullen that I would not have made in that situation.

If the fake punt call worked deep in his own territory, Mullen would have been a genius but it to me was high risk move without a high enough reward. Give Dan The Man kudos for trying anything he could to win a game, but wouldn't it have been better to punt the ball away then and let a defense which had been playing well all night line up and try to stop Florida again? The play didn't work, Florida took over, scored a touchdown and never looked back.

Despite the win, there are questions surrounding this team but there is no question that the strengths of this Gator team are the running game and its defense and on this night the Gators won with their strengths. The Gator running game nearly ran for 250 yards and the defense held the Bulldogs to under 250 total yards for the game.

"I thought Chris Rainey probably had his best game as a Gator," Gator coach Urban Meyer said. "He ran real hard, a lot of opportunities and you know if we just get the ball in when we're down in the red zone you score some more points."

Ah yes, the red zone. Coming into this game, Florida has 30 red zone chances and only scored 15 touchdowns and it didn't get better in this game. Meyer said his team is pressing to score in that area of the field.

"There's no question guys are pressing; absolutely no question," Meyer said. "You know, why aren't we scoring 35, 40 points, if I get asked that question again...sometimes you don't, you know, we just gotta get a lot better."

While there were some struggles on offense, the Gator defense played very well without starters Brandon Spikes, Lawrence Marsh, and Jaye Howard as well as Justin Trattou who anchors the "joker" package in a three man line. And how about the play of senior linebacker Ryan Stamper? He's a very underrated player but as solid as they come and he led the Gators in tackles in this game with 12 filling in for Spikes.

As we turn the page on this game and look ahead to Georgia, we wonder if the red zone offense can get better. Is it a matter of play calling, execution, or a combination of both things?

If there is a game where the Florida running game is shut down, can Florida win a game offensively with the pass? Tebow completed only 12 passes against MSU and nine of them went to Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez combined, a trend we have seen very often this year. Will other receivers step up and will the offensive line give Tebow a little more time to throw when faced with increasing numbers of blitz packages?

It was very encouraging to see Florida go under center for Chris Rainey's touchdown run. It was a power run behind a powerful run blocking offensive line and I wonder if we'll see this a little more as the season progresses.

Despite the questions, the number one most important thing is that Florida remains unbeaten. I love the moxie this team has, overcoming injuries, high expectations of fans and media and other distractions to keep winning.

You should like it too, and learn to enjoy a win....any way you can get it.