As day gradually faded to night and shadows marched across the face of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium — much more inexorably than LSU and Florida’s offenses did at times, it must be said — the P.A. system blared out Tom Petty’s defiant “I Won’t Back Down” with the fourth quarter looming ahead.

On this day, Gainesville’s lost son could have been wailing plaintively about either team.

There was a bit more scoring than expected, but the Tigers and Gators turned into the kind of titanic punch/counterpunch, hit and miss Southeastern Conference struggle you expected it would be.

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