- Jun 10, 2014
- 16,578
- 20,016
Founding Member
Always love it when we beat the Cocks and have a happy ending. 
Yesterday sure was a tale of two games, at least for the defense. The offense really wasn't doing THAT poorly outside of a couple sluggish drives. They were moving the ball consistently basically the entire game, especially on the ground, and had a couple shots to the foot with penalties that killed drives. I mean we only punted three times, so obviously it was a much, much better performance all-around from them after two rough games the last two weeks.
When you look at Franks' stat line, nothing jumps out that much, but 15-21 is GREAT for him after having some serious accuracy issues against UGA and Missouri. Mullen is still giving him a lot of easier throws, which is fine. I'd rather he give him higher percentage throws than chuck it deep on 3rd & 1 like last week. And even with all the short throws, we still averaged over 10 yards per completion, so it's effective if nothing else. He also proved to be an effective weapon in short yardage situations as long as he isn't fumbling the ball away. With a guy that big, just let him fall foward and that's another two yards guaranteed. He had 60 rushing yards if you take away the yards he lost on sacks and bad snaps. I'll take that every week.
The offensive line had a much better game after being manhandled the last two weeks. Every game is an adventure with these guys, especially with multiple false starts at home, but in the end they got it done. Scarlett was running like every defender insulted his mother, my goodness. It was a war zone down there. Perine had some crafty carries and was able to break a lot of tackles. Toney finally got a chance to show what he can do, and considering he's just about our only offensive player who can turn a broken play into a positive, he needs to keep getting touches. That's the best our ground game has looked against someone other than a cupcake in quite a while, maybe since the 400+ yard game against UGA in '14. It's amazing when on your game-winning drive in the 4th quarter, you don't really have to rely on the passing game, you can just keep gashing a team for 7-10 yards a carry. Great bounceback on that front.
Defensively, I'm not sure what the hell is going on with these guys in the locker room before the game. We've had so many slow starts on defense this year, it's baffling. Thankfully, we've more often than not made adjustments and improved into the 2nd half in most of our games, which is great, but I'd like to see us play a complete game for once. Third down was ugly again yesterday, but when it mattered, we nutted up and shut them down. And we FINALLY got another turnover after almost three full games without one. CJ Henderson once again proved he's our most valuable defensive player, chasing down Deebo on the long pass play and sealing the game with that pick. Obviously they scored after that 90 yard pass play, but that was a HUGE play by Henderson to save the TD and give us a chance to keep them out of the end zone.
So here we stand, on the cusp of an 8th win next week and going into Tallahassee to play a team that has full on quit on the season. We seemed to have taken the car out of reverse and put it in drive again, now it's time to hammer down and win these last two games going away. With FSU and Miami being as bad as they are this year, finishing 9-3 would do wonders for us on the recruiting trail. Getting a bowl game against the little sisters of Orlando and shutting them up would be even better, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.
Next week will be a bit of a milestone for me, as it will be my 50th Gator football game. Looking forward to a fun afternoon and a big win, go Gators!
Yesterday sure was a tale of two games, at least for the defense. The offense really wasn't doing THAT poorly outside of a couple sluggish drives. They were moving the ball consistently basically the entire game, especially on the ground, and had a couple shots to the foot with penalties that killed drives. I mean we only punted three times, so obviously it was a much, much better performance all-around from them after two rough games the last two weeks.
When you look at Franks' stat line, nothing jumps out that much, but 15-21 is GREAT for him after having some serious accuracy issues against UGA and Missouri. Mullen is still giving him a lot of easier throws, which is fine. I'd rather he give him higher percentage throws than chuck it deep on 3rd & 1 like last week. And even with all the short throws, we still averaged over 10 yards per completion, so it's effective if nothing else. He also proved to be an effective weapon in short yardage situations as long as he isn't fumbling the ball away. With a guy that big, just let him fall foward and that's another two yards guaranteed. He had 60 rushing yards if you take away the yards he lost on sacks and bad snaps. I'll take that every week.
The offensive line had a much better game after being manhandled the last two weeks. Every game is an adventure with these guys, especially with multiple false starts at home, but in the end they got it done. Scarlett was running like every defender insulted his mother, my goodness. It was a war zone down there. Perine had some crafty carries and was able to break a lot of tackles. Toney finally got a chance to show what he can do, and considering he's just about our only offensive player who can turn a broken play into a positive, he needs to keep getting touches. That's the best our ground game has looked against someone other than a cupcake in quite a while, maybe since the 400+ yard game against UGA in '14. It's amazing when on your game-winning drive in the 4th quarter, you don't really have to rely on the passing game, you can just keep gashing a team for 7-10 yards a carry. Great bounceback on that front.
Defensively, I'm not sure what the hell is going on with these guys in the locker room before the game. We've had so many slow starts on defense this year, it's baffling. Thankfully, we've more often than not made adjustments and improved into the 2nd half in most of our games, which is great, but I'd like to see us play a complete game for once. Third down was ugly again yesterday, but when it mattered, we nutted up and shut them down. And we FINALLY got another turnover after almost three full games without one. CJ Henderson once again proved he's our most valuable defensive player, chasing down Deebo on the long pass play and sealing the game with that pick. Obviously they scored after that 90 yard pass play, but that was a HUGE play by Henderson to save the TD and give us a chance to keep them out of the end zone.
So here we stand, on the cusp of an 8th win next week and going into Tallahassee to play a team that has full on quit on the season. We seemed to have taken the car out of reverse and put it in drive again, now it's time to hammer down and win these last two games going away. With FSU and Miami being as bad as they are this year, finishing 9-3 would do wonders for us on the recruiting trail. Getting a bowl game against the little sisters of Orlando and shutting them up would be even better, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.
Next week will be a bit of a milestone for me, as it will be my 50th Gator football game. Looking forward to a fun afternoon and a big win, go Gators!
