- Jun 10, 2014
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So I've purposely waited a little while to post my thoughts on the Missouri game, partially so I could rewatch it on DVR, and partially because I wanted to process what I had to say. The game itself at face value was a smashing success. Seeing how Missouri has given us fits whether we've beaten them or not since they joined the East, it was nice to beat them up for once. I'll go around each position group and offer up some points of wisdom for your reading pleasure.
QB - Obviously Del Rio had a rough game. I don't know if it was rust, or if he's still not back to 100%, but he wasn't even close to his best. Underthrows and bad decisions were the story of the game for him. I will say that he did make some absolutely fantastic plays to keep drives alive, the most impressive being his early deep toss to Cleveland under pressure in the pouring rain, and the deep out to Powell in the 2nd half on 3rd and long. The one really big positive about what he did Saturday was he only took one sack despite being under pressure quite a bit. He's very crafty at avoiding the pressure and getting away from the pocket when he needs to instead of panicking and bolting immediately (Driskel and Treon style). And he knows how to throw the ball away. Now we just need him to recognize early that if the primary option on a route tree is double covered, he should maybe go somewhere else with the ball.
RB - The running back by committee didn't bother me until Herndon got in there. Not sure what the hell that was all about. Scarlett and Perine remain our best threats at RB, but Thompson had some very, very good runs himself and seemed to be reading his blocks much better than he was earlier in the season. The three of them combined for 33 carries for 272 yards, a 8.24 ypc average. We can piss and moan about RBBC all we want, but those are GREAT numbers. Some here have said we only had that many yards because we wore them out, but that's sorta the point of RBBC. You've got three fresh RBs going up against a tired defense in the 4th quarter. Look at how Cook and Henry did against us late in those games last year if you want to know how that works out.
WR - Another rough game for this position group outside of Cleveland. Callaway seems to be lost in Neverland somewhere, his head hasn't been in it all year. Two false starts, and he stopped and waited on the ball on Del Rio's pick in the 3rd quarter instead of coming back to the ball. The defender made a nice play to jump the route, but if Callaway had kept coming back, maybe that's just a PBU instead of an INT. Several times during the game, I was watching the route tree and absolutely nobody was getting open. Then when Del Rio scrambled, nobody worked to get open on his side to give him an option for an outlet. Bright side is we have a legit threat in Cleveland, and I hope they can work him into the passing game more as the season rolls on.
TE - Not much to say other than Goolsby and Lewis both remain as good security blankets in the passing game. The throwback to Goolsby was a thing of beauty (my all time favorite offensive play is the rollout throwback to the TE, makes me happier than a fat kid in a candy store).
OL - All in all, they honestly had a pretty good game outside of the penalties. Del Rio only took one sack and they paved the way for almost 300 yards rushing. Most of the times LDR was running for his life was because of the aforementioned lack of ability to get open by the WR. They let in some pressure here and there, but it was a more consistent performance than we're used to seeing from these guys. As far as the false starts are concerned, it looked to me like Dillard was a half count too late snapping the ball. I know people here and Musburger/Palmer (ugh) were blaming the speed rush of Missouri, but it really didn't seem like LDR and Dillard were on the same page with the cadence. If these guys can continue to set the edge on outside runs like they did Saturday, our run game is going to become a real strength for us.
All in all, what I saw from the offense was a "close, but no cigar" kinda day. It was another weird performance like North Texas in which we put up tons of yards, but it didn't show on the scoreboard. I'm hoping that whatever the issue was with the false starts, it gets addressed in practice the next two weeks and they iron it out. Because without those, we're scoring a hell of a lot more points. I'm also continuously baffled at the decision to run on 2nd & long after an incomplete pass on 1st down every single time. I get the strategy, and it makes sense, but you can't do it 100% of the time. I don't see why we can't use the fact that we always run on 2nd & long to our advantage and maybe run some playaction passes to the outside portions of the field. Every DC we face knows what we do on 2nd & long, so we should exploit that. I was also happy to see us take multiple shots down the field. Even if we only hit one of them, you've got to make the defense at least think you're going to throw it deep. That's something Muschamp has still never figured out.
Defensively, there's not much to say other than we completely and utterly shut down a passing offense that was in the top 10 nationally. I know they've played some weak teams and padded their stats, but many people here were wringing their hands over this passing attack all week and thinking we were about to get smoked. What I saw was a cat toying with a mouse and then finally killing it with two pick 6's. Drew Lock had 4 complete passes, one of which was a quick screen, and one of which was one of those quick toss jet sweeps where it counts as a pass because he tosses the ball forward. So Drew Lock, who everyone was so afraid of, had TWO complete passes downfield the whole game. You guys can make all the sarcastic "DBU" comments you want, but that was just about as dominant as it gets.
The rushing yards we gave up were ok in my book. The way Missouri's offense was, and I'm not sure if this was apparent on TV, is they spread you wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out. I'm talking there were times when there wasn't a WR within 20 yards of the tackle box in either direction. By design, they spread as many defenders out as they can and then try to sneak the RB up the middle. If an OL or two can get to the second level and disrupt the LBs long enough for the RB to slip by, you get a gash. Most of their running plays against the first string guys ended up in the negative or 0-3 yard range, but they hit a couple plays here and there. Then they padded their stats with like 160 yards against our scrubs, so whatever. Since they're literally the only team we'll play the rest of the year that runs an offense like that, it doesn't bother me.
What does bother me is Jarrad Davis being hurt. He couldn't put one iota of weight on his left foot coming off the field. That's bad. Really bad. He's lucky it's not broken, but I'm guessing there's going to be some type of tear in his ankle ligaments. I'll be shocked if he comes back at all this year. Nice thing is, Reese filled in admirably, and Anzalone had another solid game. But neither of them can get hurt now, because the drop off after them is drastic.
At the end of the day, winning "ugly" 40-14 is a hell of a lot better than losing "ugly" 42-13 (like the last time Missouri came to Gainesville). Looking forward at the rest of the season, @Arkansas remains our toughest test. UGA is in shambles and has been all year, still very fortunate to not be a 2-win team. USC is an absolute joke. They might score about 6 points at most on us in the Swamp. We'll see with LSU and FSU, as they're both Jekyll & Hyde teams. Being on the road against them sucks, but it is what it is at this point. Arkansas is going to be a tough one, though. They've been really balanced on offense and their defense has shown improvement. They also get a bye week while we play UGA. It's going to take our best game of the year to beat them, so hopefully our boys are healthy and up to the task.
Thanks for reading my novel, I'll be doing a book signing this afternoon at 4 if anyone's interested. Go Gators!
QB - Obviously Del Rio had a rough game. I don't know if it was rust, or if he's still not back to 100%, but he wasn't even close to his best. Underthrows and bad decisions were the story of the game for him. I will say that he did make some absolutely fantastic plays to keep drives alive, the most impressive being his early deep toss to Cleveland under pressure in the pouring rain, and the deep out to Powell in the 2nd half on 3rd and long. The one really big positive about what he did Saturday was he only took one sack despite being under pressure quite a bit. He's very crafty at avoiding the pressure and getting away from the pocket when he needs to instead of panicking and bolting immediately (Driskel and Treon style). And he knows how to throw the ball away. Now we just need him to recognize early that if the primary option on a route tree is double covered, he should maybe go somewhere else with the ball.
RB - The running back by committee didn't bother me until Herndon got in there. Not sure what the hell that was all about. Scarlett and Perine remain our best threats at RB, but Thompson had some very, very good runs himself and seemed to be reading his blocks much better than he was earlier in the season. The three of them combined for 33 carries for 272 yards, a 8.24 ypc average. We can piss and moan about RBBC all we want, but those are GREAT numbers. Some here have said we only had that many yards because we wore them out, but that's sorta the point of RBBC. You've got three fresh RBs going up against a tired defense in the 4th quarter. Look at how Cook and Henry did against us late in those games last year if you want to know how that works out.
WR - Another rough game for this position group outside of Cleveland. Callaway seems to be lost in Neverland somewhere, his head hasn't been in it all year. Two false starts, and he stopped and waited on the ball on Del Rio's pick in the 3rd quarter instead of coming back to the ball. The defender made a nice play to jump the route, but if Callaway had kept coming back, maybe that's just a PBU instead of an INT. Several times during the game, I was watching the route tree and absolutely nobody was getting open. Then when Del Rio scrambled, nobody worked to get open on his side to give him an option for an outlet. Bright side is we have a legit threat in Cleveland, and I hope they can work him into the passing game more as the season rolls on.
TE - Not much to say other than Goolsby and Lewis both remain as good security blankets in the passing game. The throwback to Goolsby was a thing of beauty (my all time favorite offensive play is the rollout throwback to the TE, makes me happier than a fat kid in a candy store).
OL - All in all, they honestly had a pretty good game outside of the penalties. Del Rio only took one sack and they paved the way for almost 300 yards rushing. Most of the times LDR was running for his life was because of the aforementioned lack of ability to get open by the WR. They let in some pressure here and there, but it was a more consistent performance than we're used to seeing from these guys. As far as the false starts are concerned, it looked to me like Dillard was a half count too late snapping the ball. I know people here and Musburger/Palmer (ugh) were blaming the speed rush of Missouri, but it really didn't seem like LDR and Dillard were on the same page with the cadence. If these guys can continue to set the edge on outside runs like they did Saturday, our run game is going to become a real strength for us.
All in all, what I saw from the offense was a "close, but no cigar" kinda day. It was another weird performance like North Texas in which we put up tons of yards, but it didn't show on the scoreboard. I'm hoping that whatever the issue was with the false starts, it gets addressed in practice the next two weeks and they iron it out. Because without those, we're scoring a hell of a lot more points. I'm also continuously baffled at the decision to run on 2nd & long after an incomplete pass on 1st down every single time. I get the strategy, and it makes sense, but you can't do it 100% of the time. I don't see why we can't use the fact that we always run on 2nd & long to our advantage and maybe run some playaction passes to the outside portions of the field. Every DC we face knows what we do on 2nd & long, so we should exploit that. I was also happy to see us take multiple shots down the field. Even if we only hit one of them, you've got to make the defense at least think you're going to throw it deep. That's something Muschamp has still never figured out.
Defensively, there's not much to say other than we completely and utterly shut down a passing offense that was in the top 10 nationally. I know they've played some weak teams and padded their stats, but many people here were wringing their hands over this passing attack all week and thinking we were about to get smoked. What I saw was a cat toying with a mouse and then finally killing it with two pick 6's. Drew Lock had 4 complete passes, one of which was a quick screen, and one of which was one of those quick toss jet sweeps where it counts as a pass because he tosses the ball forward. So Drew Lock, who everyone was so afraid of, had TWO complete passes downfield the whole game. You guys can make all the sarcastic "DBU" comments you want, but that was just about as dominant as it gets.
The rushing yards we gave up were ok in my book. The way Missouri's offense was, and I'm not sure if this was apparent on TV, is they spread you wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out. I'm talking there were times when there wasn't a WR within 20 yards of the tackle box in either direction. By design, they spread as many defenders out as they can and then try to sneak the RB up the middle. If an OL or two can get to the second level and disrupt the LBs long enough for the RB to slip by, you get a gash. Most of their running plays against the first string guys ended up in the negative or 0-3 yard range, but they hit a couple plays here and there. Then they padded their stats with like 160 yards against our scrubs, so whatever. Since they're literally the only team we'll play the rest of the year that runs an offense like that, it doesn't bother me.
What does bother me is Jarrad Davis being hurt. He couldn't put one iota of weight on his left foot coming off the field. That's bad. Really bad. He's lucky it's not broken, but I'm guessing there's going to be some type of tear in his ankle ligaments. I'll be shocked if he comes back at all this year. Nice thing is, Reese filled in admirably, and Anzalone had another solid game. But neither of them can get hurt now, because the drop off after them is drastic.
At the end of the day, winning "ugly" 40-14 is a hell of a lot better than losing "ugly" 42-13 (like the last time Missouri came to Gainesville). Looking forward at the rest of the season, @Arkansas remains our toughest test. UGA is in shambles and has been all year, still very fortunate to not be a 2-win team. USC is an absolute joke. They might score about 6 points at most on us in the Swamp. We'll see with LSU and FSU, as they're both Jekyll & Hyde teams. Being on the road against them sucks, but it is what it is at this point. Arkansas is going to be a tough one, though. They've been really balanced on offense and their defense has shown improvement. They also get a bye week while we play UGA. It's going to take our best game of the year to beat them, so hopefully our boys are healthy and up to the task.
Thanks for reading my novel, I'll be doing a book signing this afternoon at 4 if anyone's interested. Go Gators!
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