- Jun 12, 2014
- 9,025
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Founding Member
Dong...Dong...Dong...
No, not the intro to Hell's Bells (though I think I might have used that phrase a time or two in the second half), but more like the clock striking midnight for Cinderella. Probably not the correct analogy, but I think it's safe to say that the clock did strike midnight on good fortune shining on us. The carriage we rode out of BHG after UT and from Lexington suddenly turned into a Yugo with a burnt valve and a couple of flat tires. Suddenly the momentum from the Vandy win that many hoped would carry us a while was nowhere to be found against an LSU team that was floundering. They were coming off a loss to Troy, for goodness sakes, their staff was infighting, and Ed O was under the gun from fans and the administration alike. By that token, Mac may have secretly helped us by providing a signature turning point that might help save Orgeron's job. But he's 1-0 against the Mac Attack, so all bets are off for next year.
Certainly there were factors beyond Mac's control that had an impact. Losing Cleveland, our only receiver it seems that can get separation, hurt the passing game. Eddy's miss was big and it looks like there might have been some problems with the hold, but the sad fact is that the O didn't piss a drop after that point. You can't win if you don't score anymore. Not sure of the stats, as I haven't looked, but we got gashed in the second half some. The first half, we couldn't stop Jet Sweep. Their rush hurt us, obviously. So next we entertain another struggling team, but who has an offensive pulse. Said Mr. Bill on Saturday Night Live..."Oh No!" Interesting to see how we'll fare after this performance. Let's talk some specifics...
*We had a few good defensive moments. Zuniga made a few good plays, as did Sherit. Hats off to Chauncey! He answered the critics, myself being one, as he should with better tackling. Keep it up, but no smug Twitter, please! Unfortunately, there were more bad things that went on on that side of the ball. Did I mention the early inability to stop the Jet Sweep? The ends hurt us on a couple of those by getting upfield and allowing the ball carrier a one-on-one with our LB, who was a step slow or, like Vosean on one sweep who was unblocked but never picked up the handoff and stood flat-footed as the back blew by him. He did a nice pirouette after the fact, however. He still is inconsistent on play diagnoses. He's young, but he's got to grow a little quicker. Later on, we were giving up lanes inside the tackles and had some misses that helped solidify LSU's rush. Consistency, thy name is not Florida Defense.
*Offesively, Frank's was able to make a few nice throws. Just not enough of them, to overstate the obvious. Perine had a couple of good runs and scored our two TDs, but someone please answer this for me: to me, Davis is our best back, so why does Perine get the bulk of the carries (or at least it looked like that without benefit of the stat line)? Head-scratcher. Toney had some good moments, just not enough, though that might be attributable to his ankle. If so, what happened to retaping and letting his nuts continue to drop? Play calls looked to be same song, different verse, but what else is new? Young receivers seem to consistently get stuck on defenders (no separation) or are imprecise on routes. LSU was not a vaunted D. What a lot of us have feared caught up to us. Question is, do we use this as a reason to change things or will it be same ol' same ol'? Two years and five games say the latter. Prove us wrong, dammit!
*Special Teams? Missed PAT is on everyone's mind. Did see a couple of good punt coverages, so maybe Mac's onto something. Personally, I still like to see Townsend boom a 60 yarder, hang time be damned. A good team has a group of want-to's out there who take pride in covering the long ones, so I guess we do what we have to to maximize the "talent" of that group. Hell, I'm nitpicking, I guess. We have much bigger issues.
*I coached a bunch of ball at the lower levels. I feel disengenuous questioning college coaches, but I consider myself to be a student of the game and I know there are many principals that are tried and true at all levels of football and as such, I just can't wrap my mind around Mac's thinking, game and clock management, and his penchant for often playing not to lose. The time outs toward the end of the game were puzzling to me as was the play sequence on our last possession. Nuss gets the lion's share of the blame and he deserves a lot, but Mac signs off on it and he has a headset that would allow him to both hear and override any call. But I don't think we see that happening. He was supposed to be beyond merely capable in that phase, but we don't see it, not with much consistency anyway. Also, the time out after lining up to go on 4th down and then punting made little sense. I'm sure LSU lined up in something that challenged the play call, but if you scouted them, you should know what looks you'll likely get in most formations and down and distances. Didn't hurt us, I guess, but didn't speak positively to our preparation and plan for such a situation. 4th down efficiency stayed high, so I guess that's a positive? I'll stop now before feelings are hurt any more than they have been already.
*My son read me a funny (sic) Tweet after the game concerning our big recruiting weekend...something to the effect of "at least they (the recruits) could see we need help!"
*A big lack of fortune was Duke's pick being ruled a completed pass. Lost a possible momentum swing.
*Mentioned Chauncey's improved tackling, but Washington took over the role of Rooster to the LSU runner's semi. It's hurtful to see our guys either get trucked or whiff so often. Part of me believes Shannon knows he's got a lot of liabilities in the personnel he must play and even though I don't completely agree with his approach, I respect to an extent what he's trying to do. Didn't expect to get shoved around as much as we did today. Failures among all three D groups is a killer when your O is neutered for a good part of the second half, particularly late in the game.
So what happens now? Do we nut up and let TAMU leave feeling better about themselves? Hope not. I'll always expect us to come back fighting and get back on the road and out of the ditch we ran in today. Surely, the secondary will be more strongly tested than today and they haven't exactly been stalwart this season. Time for many things to be clicking on both sides, but no indicators after today that it will be a given. This team and staff have to be one game at a time. Lack of attention to detail has to do a 180. Expecting better, especially with the Dawgs looming as the East team to beat. Hell, who am I kidding? They'll beat the crap out of us if things don't change. But that's a discussion for another day. Take care of business next week. Then we'll worry about who's next. Go Gators!
P/S Dameon Pierce didn't play Friday night due to a hamstring injury suffered just before the half in the previous game. His Bearcats defeated The team from Warner Robbins where the UGA starting QB played. Incidentally, his younger brother is this year's QB, but not quite the same player. Hopefully Dameon heals and gets back after a bye week upcoming.
No, not the intro to Hell's Bells (though I think I might have used that phrase a time or two in the second half), but more like the clock striking midnight for Cinderella. Probably not the correct analogy, but I think it's safe to say that the clock did strike midnight on good fortune shining on us. The carriage we rode out of BHG after UT and from Lexington suddenly turned into a Yugo with a burnt valve and a couple of flat tires. Suddenly the momentum from the Vandy win that many hoped would carry us a while was nowhere to be found against an LSU team that was floundering. They were coming off a loss to Troy, for goodness sakes, their staff was infighting, and Ed O was under the gun from fans and the administration alike. By that token, Mac may have secretly helped us by providing a signature turning point that might help save Orgeron's job. But he's 1-0 against the Mac Attack, so all bets are off for next year.
Certainly there were factors beyond Mac's control that had an impact. Losing Cleveland, our only receiver it seems that can get separation, hurt the passing game. Eddy's miss was big and it looks like there might have been some problems with the hold, but the sad fact is that the O didn't piss a drop after that point. You can't win if you don't score anymore. Not sure of the stats, as I haven't looked, but we got gashed in the second half some. The first half, we couldn't stop Jet Sweep. Their rush hurt us, obviously. So next we entertain another struggling team, but who has an offensive pulse. Said Mr. Bill on Saturday Night Live..."Oh No!" Interesting to see how we'll fare after this performance. Let's talk some specifics...
*We had a few good defensive moments. Zuniga made a few good plays, as did Sherit. Hats off to Chauncey! He answered the critics, myself being one, as he should with better tackling. Keep it up, but no smug Twitter, please! Unfortunately, there were more bad things that went on on that side of the ball. Did I mention the early inability to stop the Jet Sweep? The ends hurt us on a couple of those by getting upfield and allowing the ball carrier a one-on-one with our LB, who was a step slow or, like Vosean on one sweep who was unblocked but never picked up the handoff and stood flat-footed as the back blew by him. He did a nice pirouette after the fact, however. He still is inconsistent on play diagnoses. He's young, but he's got to grow a little quicker. Later on, we were giving up lanes inside the tackles and had some misses that helped solidify LSU's rush. Consistency, thy name is not Florida Defense.
*Offesively, Frank's was able to make a few nice throws. Just not enough of them, to overstate the obvious. Perine had a couple of good runs and scored our two TDs, but someone please answer this for me: to me, Davis is our best back, so why does Perine get the bulk of the carries (or at least it looked like that without benefit of the stat line)? Head-scratcher. Toney had some good moments, just not enough, though that might be attributable to his ankle. If so, what happened to retaping and letting his nuts continue to drop? Play calls looked to be same song, different verse, but what else is new? Young receivers seem to consistently get stuck on defenders (no separation) or are imprecise on routes. LSU was not a vaunted D. What a lot of us have feared caught up to us. Question is, do we use this as a reason to change things or will it be same ol' same ol'? Two years and five games say the latter. Prove us wrong, dammit!
*Special Teams? Missed PAT is on everyone's mind. Did see a couple of good punt coverages, so maybe Mac's onto something. Personally, I still like to see Townsend boom a 60 yarder, hang time be damned. A good team has a group of want-to's out there who take pride in covering the long ones, so I guess we do what we have to to maximize the "talent" of that group. Hell, I'm nitpicking, I guess. We have much bigger issues.
*I coached a bunch of ball at the lower levels. I feel disengenuous questioning college coaches, but I consider myself to be a student of the game and I know there are many principals that are tried and true at all levels of football and as such, I just can't wrap my mind around Mac's thinking, game and clock management, and his penchant for often playing not to lose. The time outs toward the end of the game were puzzling to me as was the play sequence on our last possession. Nuss gets the lion's share of the blame and he deserves a lot, but Mac signs off on it and he has a headset that would allow him to both hear and override any call. But I don't think we see that happening. He was supposed to be beyond merely capable in that phase, but we don't see it, not with much consistency anyway. Also, the time out after lining up to go on 4th down and then punting made little sense. I'm sure LSU lined up in something that challenged the play call, but if you scouted them, you should know what looks you'll likely get in most formations and down and distances. Didn't hurt us, I guess, but didn't speak positively to our preparation and plan for such a situation. 4th down efficiency stayed high, so I guess that's a positive? I'll stop now before feelings are hurt any more than they have been already.
*My son read me a funny (sic) Tweet after the game concerning our big recruiting weekend...something to the effect of "at least they (the recruits) could see we need help!"
*A big lack of fortune was Duke's pick being ruled a completed pass. Lost a possible momentum swing.
*Mentioned Chauncey's improved tackling, but Washington took over the role of Rooster to the LSU runner's semi. It's hurtful to see our guys either get trucked or whiff so often. Part of me believes Shannon knows he's got a lot of liabilities in the personnel he must play and even though I don't completely agree with his approach, I respect to an extent what he's trying to do. Didn't expect to get shoved around as much as we did today. Failures among all three D groups is a killer when your O is neutered for a good part of the second half, particularly late in the game.
So what happens now? Do we nut up and let TAMU leave feeling better about themselves? Hope not. I'll always expect us to come back fighting and get back on the road and out of the ditch we ran in today. Surely, the secondary will be more strongly tested than today and they haven't exactly been stalwart this season. Time for many things to be clicking on both sides, but no indicators after today that it will be a given. This team and staff have to be one game at a time. Lack of attention to detail has to do a 180. Expecting better, especially with the Dawgs looming as the East team to beat. Hell, who am I kidding? They'll beat the crap out of us if things don't change. But that's a discussion for another day. Take care of business next week. Then we'll worry about who's next. Go Gators!
P/S Dameon Pierce didn't play Friday night due to a hamstring injury suffered just before the half in the previous game. His Bearcats defeated The team from Warner Robbins where the UGA starting QB played. Incidentally, his younger brother is this year's QB, but not quite the same player. Hopefully Dameon heals and gets back after a bye week upcoming.
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