Leak will surely be blamed for Gators loss at Auburn

	Chris Leak had a controversial fumble and an interception as the Gators lost for the first time this season. AP
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AUBURN, Ala. -- Weeks from now, months from now, probably even years from now, the Florida Gators faithful will still be talking about those two fourth-quarter plays.

No, not Chris Leak's beautiful 32-yard floater down the sideline to Dallas Baker. Not his textbook option pitch to Andre Caldwell for a 27-yard gain.

If No. 2 Florida doesn't make it to Glendale, Ariz., in January, the only thing its followers will remember from Saturday night's 27-17 loss to Auburn will be the senior quarterback's fumble (or was it an incompletion?) and interception that cost the Gators the game and, most likely, their shot at a national championship. It's sad, and yet, for a guy whose career has had more ups and downs than an elevator, it's also cruelly fitting.

In a game as thrilling as any played this season in a raucous, primetime atmosphere befitting ESPN's multi-channel coverage, the 11th-ranked Tigers brushed off last week's Arkansas debacle to knock off the SEC's lone remaining undefeated team, thus completing the conference's now-annual ritual of national-championship cannibalism. They did it despite falling behind at one point 17-8, despite watching four first-half red zone trips end in a trio of field goals and a fumble, despite getting "Tebowed" one play and finishing last on more than one occasion in the Percy Harvin Track Meet, despite enduring a one-man clinic from Florida DT Marcus Thomas.

And they did it despite the fact that with 9:19 remaining, the Gators stood six yards away from at least a 23-17 lead, a seemingly insurmountable margin considering the Tigers would wind up going the entire game without scoring an offensive touchdown. Florida had marched 84 yards to reach that point, with Leak completing the aforementioned 32-yard pass and Caldwell running for gains of 27 and 9. On second-and-four from the Auburn 7, college football's most decorated relief-pitcher, Tim Tebow, had come in for his customary short-yardage running attempt and gained just 1 yard, leaving Leak with a third-and-three from the Tigers' 6.

What happened next will be forever etched into the memory of every orange-and-blue clad crazy in Gainesville and beyond. Leak faked the handoff, dropped back, cocked, stopped and cocked again, then began extending his arm to throw, but it was met almost simultaneously by Auburn linebacker Tray Blackmon. The ball fell backward, deemed a fumble by the referees, recovered 10 yards downfield by Tigers defensive end Quentin Groves. Florida would challenge the call, and replays indicated it may well have been an incomplete pass, but there would be no reversal. As Gators coach Urban Meyer said afterward, right or wrong, "it shouldn't have happened."

Nor should Leak, given a chance at redemption six minutes later following a missed Auburn field goal, have badly underthrown a wide-open Caldwell down the middle, instead hitting Tigers safety Eric Brock right in the numbers. This time Auburn kicker John Vaughn would connect on a 39-yarder with 32 seconds remaining to go up 21-17. And just to make sure his night would end that much more miserably, Leak's last-ditch miracle attempt would end in three incompletions and a fumbled lateral that Patrick Lee would return for an add-on touchdown at the final gun.

Fireworks shot off and the crowd went bananas. A jubilant Tommy Tuberville exclaimed in his postgame news conference, "Where's my toilet paper? I'm going to Toomer's Corner."

It was quite a different scene in the cramped interview room next to the Gators' locker room, where a forlorn Meyer offered one short-worded answer after another to a firing squad of questioners. One, asking about Leak's fumble, put it as bluntly as possible: "What do you say to a senior who ... should know better than that?"

"This is a team game," replied Meyer. "It doesn't fall on one player." Pressed further about the issue, Meyer said matter-of-factly: "We lost a tough game to a great team in a tough environment ... This is a tough-ass conference. You want to blame people, you're talking to the wrong guy."