Hottie Tottie...GOD ALL MIGHTY!

[cover2]

I'll start by saying "Wow!" So much improvement from top to bottom from last week to this. But it was what we had to have, not just to stand a chance against Ol' Sis, but to validate 4-0 and a come from behind against mediocre UT. Also to keep the young and the faithful believing. Kudos to Mac and staff and to the players. They are buying in. Now, a few observations:

*How about the OL?! They might have shown the most growth of any unit in this week's time. Run blocking still had some inconsistency, though one great shot if anyone happened to see it was our Left Tackle (Sharpe maybe) on a Krokrite B-Gap run not getting his man turned out but staying connected to him so that K could run through his tackle attempt. Superb second effort. The pass pro was pretty good. Good enough to give Grier time to hit 24/29 and 4 TDs. Summers is earning his paycheck.

*I thought Nussmeier called a pretty good game (especially compared to last week). I think we had them scouted pretty well and exploited their tendencies, especially in the secondary.

*Didn't look like the same D out there as a week ago. Not nearly as many missed tackles, great pressure on the QB to go along with pretty good coverage, takeaways, and the running game kept in check. Room for improvement of course, but huge strides made.

*I think it is safe to say that Mac has found his QB. Kid from the private school league played with a lot of poise, leadership, and looked to have a great command of the offense. His red shirt year appears to be a great decision, especially when so many questioned, most of them hoping to see him replace Driskel at some point last year. It's great to think about him getting better because he was special tonight.

*Field position was a big deal in this game and a lot of that goes to our punter. Them starting inside their 10 or 15 on 4 drives can be a bit demoralizing. And as far as that goes, Spec Teams also looked better, though I am puzzled nobody attacked the onside kick. It was too close to stand and watch. Wouldn't have mattered in the outcome, but it'll need to be fixed.

*With apologies to Sesame Street...This game sponsored by the number Four. Four Sacks. Four takeaways. Four TD margin of victory. Four TD tosses to Four different receivers. Four quarters of great Gator football!,

Holly Rowe asked Mac if we were back and his response was "Can't I enjoy this one?!" I'll say this in his stead: if we aren't, we're heading in the right direction and the neat thing is that now some of those games we were all marking off are looking now like we can be competitive. At any rate, I'm breathing fresh air again. Go Gators!

 

[I Have No Friends :(]

And that's why I didn't overreact to last week's game. There's just something special about this team. Great write-up as always, cover.

 

[GatorJ]

Tackling was superb. If we continue to wrap up like that, this season can be special.

 

[gardnerwebbgator]

Nice cover, as always.

Shepard Smith can suck a big fat one. Oh, wait a minute, he already does....never mind.

 

[L-boy]

I was happy to pull out last week, but wasn't feeling good about our prospects against top ranked competition.

This week an entirely different story. We are now in the driver's seat for the east. GA is certainly beatable. LSU will be a challenge, but I think we have the ability to pull that one off if all goes well. Even if we don't, we can still be in command of the SEC east.

This is the most satisfying victory I have seen in years. I really feel like the program is back in contention, and much faster than I would have ever imagined.

 

[Swamped Gator]

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but we look better than everyone left on our schedule other than LSU. LSU will be very difficult on the road but they really have nothing going for them on offense outside of LF. If we can contain him we have a shot in that game. Atlanta is a very real possibility this year and I never thought I'd say that.

 

[ChattanooGATOR]

Great cover Cover!

 

[Born2beagator]

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but we look better than everyone left on our schedule other than LSU. LSU will be very difficult on the road but they really have nothing going for them on offense outside of LF. If we can contain him we have a shot in that game. Atlanta is a very real possibility this year and I never thought I'd say that.

LSU has one player. Unfortunately he is the best player in college football. Their QB isn't good

 

[maheo30]

Props to the tight ends tonight. They had their best game blocking.

Grier got rattled in the ut game. He worked through it. Since then, he has been on another level.

I love watching Treadwell. Dude is a man amongst boys. Why they didn't go to him more often I don't know. We locked him down and he still caught the football.

Was it just me, or did Ole Sis look soft? I got the impression their offense wanted no part of our physicality.

 

[Born2beagator]

Ole Miss looked slow and stiff on offense to me.

 

[Zambo]

Our D line is beastly and blew up so many plays I lost count. In fact our whole defense is sick. On offense, our plan pretty much nullified their excellent pass rushers by keeping them guessing all night. Great balance of playcalling and not being afraid to throw the ball around. You could see later in the game when things were well in hand how difficult it was to just run the ball straight ahead and eat clock. Mac is a great coach and Nuss is proving to be a good one. Back to defense however, I expected a letdown after chump left but this season has shown just how important discipline and teamwork is to a unit. So solid. Hell, even our ST looked better tonight, despite our shakiness at the placekicker position. Good coverage, great punts, good returns. About the only trend I saw there was giving that rugby punter too much time to do his thing.

 

[L-boy]

Our D line is beastly and blew up so many plays I lost count. In fact our whole defense is sick. On offense, our plan pretty much nullified their excellent pass rushers by keeping them guessing all night. Great balance of playcalling and not being afraid to throw the ball around. You could see later in the game when things were well in hand how difficult it was to just run the ball straight ahead and eat clock. Mac is a great coach and Nuss is proving to be a good one. Back to defense however, I expected a letdown after chump left but this season has shown just how important discipline and teamwork is to a unit. So solid. Hell, even our ST looked better tonight, despite our shakiness at the placekicker position. Good coverage, great punts, good returns. About the only trend I saw there was giving that rugby punter too much time to do his thing.

I have to say I was surprised how vanilla Ole Miss's offense looked. TN had more success, mainly with gadget plays and some unorthodox plays that broke things open for them.

The big difference for our D this week wasn't I didn't see many missed tackles. Missed tackles have plagued us from week one, but the D was just much tighter tonight.

 

[cover2]

I was happy to pull out last week, but wasn't feeling good about our prospects against top ranked competition.

This week an entirely different story. We are now in the driver's seat for the east. GA is certainly beatable. LSU will be a challenge, but I think we have the ability to pull that one off if all goes well. Even if we don't, we can still be in command of the SEC east.

This is the most satisfying victory I have seen in years. I really feel like the program is back in contention, and much faster than I would have ever imagined.

Last week affected the fan base in many ways. Some, myself included, were happy that we pulled it out but realized we made a ton of errors that must be corrected (tackling, blocking, QBs continued maturity, etc.), as we were preparing to enter the meat of the schedule. Others were elated with the win and felt like this team has the making of something special, which they certainly displayed last night IMO. Still others wanted to simply enjoy the UT win. Nothing wrong with that.

Maybe there are other subgroups and opinions on the UT win, but all are related to expectations. Personally, mine are growing with the team and also as I can see what the staff does from week to week and I think that they did a great job in preparation as well as stimulating the necessary growth and clean up of the errors from UT to 'OL Sis. The players, from the looks of things and as I previously stated, have or are in the process of buying in to Mac's way of doing things. This indicates to me that we have some leaders among them who help inspire this. Morrison, Hargreaves, Bullard, Cox and Davis impress me in that regard defensively, by their play and individual stories. Offensively, Taylor, by his response to Mac's @ss chewing, McGee, Powell, and Grier, who I think is maturing into the necessary role by virtue of his position, are the leaders on the offensive side. Maybe as or more importantly, our kids are allowing themselves to be led. For example, young Callaway, to me, displays a lot of moxie to go along with his skills and this obviously inspires the play of those in his position group.

I certainly agree that next week will be tough, but hopefully more manageable if last evening is an indicator. I have been worried that Fournette would have his way with us. Now, maybe not to the fullest extent. If tackling continues to gain consistency, and we'll need to do so with several on him with each touch, we've got a good chance in Death Valley. Making their QB have to beat us is likely the best recipe. That is, as long as we maintain our offensive production and secure the football.

This will be the next great test our squad faces. We fans face one as well. Do we maintain our perspective if we drop our first game? Do we maintain it if we slay the Tiger? Again, it is a matter of expectations and for me, I want to keep them healthy and growing, one game at a time. If 7-5 was reasonable to begin, then I'll hold on until 7 gets here and it will certainly be cool if it happens within the upcoming stretch. Gator football is fun again!

 

[TN G8tr]

Cover, you covered that perfectly. Great read as usual.
Our Offense was great, but the D.....they played like they were possessed.

 

[Gulfstream]

I really enjoy reading your take on these games Cover, I hope we have continued success. Keep em coming Cover!

 

[CGgater]

Mizzou is next. Time for some payback.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Okeechobee Joe]

Give praise to the Gator defensive line. It was a total effort on the part of the offense and defense and we beat Ole Miss in every phase of the game. Ole Miss has a weak offensive line and the Gators took advantage of that. Our defensive lines speed put Gators in the Ole Miss backfield consistently and Ole Miss got negative yardage on a lot of plays. The Gator defensive line sacked Chad Kelly and affected him on many plays that were not sacks causing him to be off in his timing and throw erratically.

What this game showed was the importance of having a good offensive line. Ole Miss came in with an explosive big play offense. They have many skill players at the receiver position -- Treadwell, Cody Core, Abedoyjo, Evan Engram, Stringfellow et al. and they have a quarterback who can throw a good ball. But without the offensive line the Rebels were unable to take advantage of their skill set. They racked up the yards and points on cupcakes like UT-Martin and Fresno State, but their scoring machine folded on an electric Saturday night in the Swamp.

Like so many games the game was won and lost in the trenches.

 

[deuce]

Good takes on the game but I just want to say, "Isn't this cool"?

 

[Jbossgator8]

Great job by Foley by hiring Coach Mac!!

 

[NCOGator]

Did anyone else see the retweet of WilleyG's dad? He said the Will had the "Jordan Flu".