- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,315
- 6,299
Glad to see there was a Little Bits & Pieces from Cover2, especially as I overslept and had trouble doing my customary re-watch before writing.
The Gators beat the 49ers 22-7. We can be honest and say it is good to win while acknowledging that in many ways that game was not great after the first two Gators offensive series offensively. Defensively, the Gators overall looked great. A few times they had issues or were bailed out by a penalty, but another solid outing as the defense, full of young guys, continues to build.
I said before the game I wanted to see us work on our downfield passing game and I was pleasantly surprised we did. I even told my cousin-in-law (who went with us) that he saw history as we actually threw a quick slant on a first down. We’d threw one on 2nd down later in the game and I almost had a heart attack. As you know, I’ve been keeping track of passing depth this season as it appears that we seem to throw a lot at or behind the line of scrimmage. Against the 49ers, Mertz completed 60% of his passes beyond the line of scrimmage (12 of 20). With that said, maybe there is a rule I don’t know, but on the reverse to Jean, the play started with the same jet sweep pass that has counted as a completion throughout the season before Pearsall gave the ball to Jean. I’m not sure why that didn’t count as a completion and reception. Can anyone shed light on that?
Speaking of Jean, it was nice to see him get touches. He had 25 yards on the reverse and 32 yards on one reception. I’ve read a few places that he’s been battling an injury, but now that he appears healthy, I hope to see more of him. I think he could fill in for the Wilson role while Wilson is out and I believe a four wide (wishful thinking) with Jean, Wilson, Pearsall, and Douglas could be a threat that takes opposing defenses out of the box and provides ample running room. Douglas did have the fumble, but has been impressive making contested catches this year. I can’t talk about catches and not mention Pearsall’s all-timer. Sitting in the South endzone, it looked good, but from my angle I didn’t realize how good it was until seeing the replay.
I can’t explain the running back usage. Montrell getting double the carries as Etienne is crazy. I’d hate to quote a bulldog here, but Murray was right in that it is hard to saw we are saving Etienne when we are having him return kicks and punts. He also had 6 of his 8 carries in the second half. Travis Etienne had some tweets about the situation that appear to have hurt some people’s feelings. I won’t defend him, but I’ll throw up this. Against the last 5 FBS opponents (excluding Oregon State in the bowl because reasons), Johnson has 209 yards on 59 carries (3.54 ypc) and Etienne has 383 yards on 59 carries (6.49 ypc). 3 yards in ypc is a gulf of a difference in my opinion. What is not my opinion are the numbers. If you include the bowl, the numbers become 70 carries, 223 yards (3.19 ypc) and 67 carries, 397 yards (5.93 ypc).
The missing OL is a convenient and somewhat reasonable excuse for the offensive issues that netted only one TD. The interesting part is they seemed to be doing just fine the first drive and a half rather than start slow and then get it together. It is also worth noting that according to PFF Slaughter, our back up Center, was the highest rated OL, and highest rated in both run and pass blocking (sometimes they can be highest overall with a really high average on one while being so-so in the other). The worst was surprisingly regular starter Austin Barber. Knijeah Harris was ok, playing the whole game at right guard. Graded better than Barber overall, better than 5th year senior Hudson at run blocking and better than 4th year sophomore (I’m sure a guy who should be a Junior or Senior is a young underclassman) Dameion George at pass blocking. Harris being a true freshman made mistakes, but definitely good for him to get the experience now to build towards the future. In short, it wasn’t necessarily the replacement OL that were the biggest problem.
On defense, we started strong and dominated early. After the first drive, Charlotte tried playing Ivey, their passing QB, but realized after two drives that was worse. Jones then came back in and had a decent game. The D did well to respond when the offense gave Charlotte the ball at the Gators 32 on a fumbled. They ate a screen alive for a big loss on first down that eventually led to a 55-yard FG attempt that just went left. It might’ve been good had the kick been a short one and brought the game to 16-10 at that point. Don’t give underdogs a chance to believe. Charlotte would later shoot themselves in the foot when they got momentum. First on 2nd and 1 at midfield they broke a huddle with 12 guys, then on 3rd down Jones threw a pass that would have had them inside the 10 two steps too late and got hit with an illegal forward pass. On the next drive, Charlotte again hit a few plays that were well designed. Jones did get a first down inside the 20, but a holding call at the sticks (5 yards downfield) negated that momentum. The Gators then ended the series with a sack of Jones.
Despite the few opportunities for Charlotte to make it a game after the crowd went flat, the defense stepped up when it needed to and held Charlotte to 7 points. If the offense did better than 1 for 9 on 3rd downs, then the crowd would be more into it and pumping energy into the defense. With that said, only allowing 211 yards and 7 points is a great performance. I doubt anyone had a top 10 defense through this point of the season on their bingo card. Also, don’t look now, but our 3rd down defense has jumped over 100 spots since last season. Hopefully, it stays that way.
I do find it weird we have more youth in the vein of true and redshirt freshmen playing on D, but somehow the multi-year starters and/or 4th year sophomores on offense are considered the young side. That is a discussion for another time, but something to think about.
Before the game, I said it would be interesting to see how we handle success. It did not appear like we did that very well. I hope that this is just getting a bad game out of our system. I hope it is not a case of looking ahead. Looking ahead, with the way the rest of our schedule is, will get us in trouble. Although the SEC does appear to be down this season, teams have shown that they can be capable in different ways. Arkansas, without Rocket Sanders, gave LSU all they wanted last night. UK and Vandy put up a slap fight that makes me want to believe both are awful, but I’ve seen that tape before. Rattler and company put up LSU numbers offensively on Miss St. These are things that we will need to come to each game ready for and we can win each of them. An uninspired performance like this could have us shaking our heads after another loss in a winnable game (another when considering last season).
It is possible to be happy with a win and recognize that things need to improve.
Next week in Lexington is the first hurdle in the rest of our season and possibly the best defense we’ve faced so far. Time to move to Kentucky week, three straight losses to them would be awful.
Go Gators!
The Gators beat the 49ers 22-7. We can be honest and say it is good to win while acknowledging that in many ways that game was not great after the first two Gators offensive series offensively. Defensively, the Gators overall looked great. A few times they had issues or were bailed out by a penalty, but another solid outing as the defense, full of young guys, continues to build.
I said before the game I wanted to see us work on our downfield passing game and I was pleasantly surprised we did. I even told my cousin-in-law (who went with us) that he saw history as we actually threw a quick slant on a first down. We’d threw one on 2nd down later in the game and I almost had a heart attack. As you know, I’ve been keeping track of passing depth this season as it appears that we seem to throw a lot at or behind the line of scrimmage. Against the 49ers, Mertz completed 60% of his passes beyond the line of scrimmage (12 of 20). With that said, maybe there is a rule I don’t know, but on the reverse to Jean, the play started with the same jet sweep pass that has counted as a completion throughout the season before Pearsall gave the ball to Jean. I’m not sure why that didn’t count as a completion and reception. Can anyone shed light on that?
Speaking of Jean, it was nice to see him get touches. He had 25 yards on the reverse and 32 yards on one reception. I’ve read a few places that he’s been battling an injury, but now that he appears healthy, I hope to see more of him. I think he could fill in for the Wilson role while Wilson is out and I believe a four wide (wishful thinking) with Jean, Wilson, Pearsall, and Douglas could be a threat that takes opposing defenses out of the box and provides ample running room. Douglas did have the fumble, but has been impressive making contested catches this year. I can’t talk about catches and not mention Pearsall’s all-timer. Sitting in the South endzone, it looked good, but from my angle I didn’t realize how good it was until seeing the replay.
I can’t explain the running back usage. Montrell getting double the carries as Etienne is crazy. I’d hate to quote a bulldog here, but Murray was right in that it is hard to saw we are saving Etienne when we are having him return kicks and punts. He also had 6 of his 8 carries in the second half. Travis Etienne had some tweets about the situation that appear to have hurt some people’s feelings. I won’t defend him, but I’ll throw up this. Against the last 5 FBS opponents (excluding Oregon State in the bowl because reasons), Johnson has 209 yards on 59 carries (3.54 ypc) and Etienne has 383 yards on 59 carries (6.49 ypc). 3 yards in ypc is a gulf of a difference in my opinion. What is not my opinion are the numbers. If you include the bowl, the numbers become 70 carries, 223 yards (3.19 ypc) and 67 carries, 397 yards (5.93 ypc).
The missing OL is a convenient and somewhat reasonable excuse for the offensive issues that netted only one TD. The interesting part is they seemed to be doing just fine the first drive and a half rather than start slow and then get it together. It is also worth noting that according to PFF Slaughter, our back up Center, was the highest rated OL, and highest rated in both run and pass blocking (sometimes they can be highest overall with a really high average on one while being so-so in the other). The worst was surprisingly regular starter Austin Barber. Knijeah Harris was ok, playing the whole game at right guard. Graded better than Barber overall, better than 5th year senior Hudson at run blocking and better than 4th year sophomore (I’m sure a guy who should be a Junior or Senior is a young underclassman) Dameion George at pass blocking. Harris being a true freshman made mistakes, but definitely good for him to get the experience now to build towards the future. In short, it wasn’t necessarily the replacement OL that were the biggest problem.
On defense, we started strong and dominated early. After the first drive, Charlotte tried playing Ivey, their passing QB, but realized after two drives that was worse. Jones then came back in and had a decent game. The D did well to respond when the offense gave Charlotte the ball at the Gators 32 on a fumbled. They ate a screen alive for a big loss on first down that eventually led to a 55-yard FG attempt that just went left. It might’ve been good had the kick been a short one and brought the game to 16-10 at that point. Don’t give underdogs a chance to believe. Charlotte would later shoot themselves in the foot when they got momentum. First on 2nd and 1 at midfield they broke a huddle with 12 guys, then on 3rd down Jones threw a pass that would have had them inside the 10 two steps too late and got hit with an illegal forward pass. On the next drive, Charlotte again hit a few plays that were well designed. Jones did get a first down inside the 20, but a holding call at the sticks (5 yards downfield) negated that momentum. The Gators then ended the series with a sack of Jones.
Despite the few opportunities for Charlotte to make it a game after the crowd went flat, the defense stepped up when it needed to and held Charlotte to 7 points. If the offense did better than 1 for 9 on 3rd downs, then the crowd would be more into it and pumping energy into the defense. With that said, only allowing 211 yards and 7 points is a great performance. I doubt anyone had a top 10 defense through this point of the season on their bingo card. Also, don’t look now, but our 3rd down defense has jumped over 100 spots since last season. Hopefully, it stays that way.
I do find it weird we have more youth in the vein of true and redshirt freshmen playing on D, but somehow the multi-year starters and/or 4th year sophomores on offense are considered the young side. That is a discussion for another time, but something to think about.
Before the game, I said it would be interesting to see how we handle success. It did not appear like we did that very well. I hope that this is just getting a bad game out of our system. I hope it is not a case of looking ahead. Looking ahead, with the way the rest of our schedule is, will get us in trouble. Although the SEC does appear to be down this season, teams have shown that they can be capable in different ways. Arkansas, without Rocket Sanders, gave LSU all they wanted last night. UK and Vandy put up a slap fight that makes me want to believe both are awful, but I’ve seen that tape before. Rattler and company put up LSU numbers offensively on Miss St. These are things that we will need to come to each game ready for and we can win each of them. An uninspired performance like this could have us shaking our heads after another loss in a winnable game (another when considering last season).
It is possible to be happy with a win and recognize that things need to improve.
Next week in Lexington is the first hurdle in the rest of our season and possibly the best defense we’ve faced so far. Time to move to Kentucky week, three straight losses to them would be awful.
Go Gators!
