- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,315
- 6,298
Well, I guess that feeling I referred to in the Kentucky preview Truth Takes was something. I have stayed away from most social media because I know UF fans are probably going all VolNation. Don't do that, we're better than that. I was impressed with how little meltdown there was on the call in show last night after the game.
I can sit here and write a piss and moan piece, and plenty of that would be justified, but I am going to try and keep it straightforward. Last night was in some ways as bad as many would believe and in some ways was not as bad. This is written with trying to give a not as negative take in mind. I'm not happy about the loss and I think plenty was inexcusable. But I figure it's a long season and I have plenty of time to tell Mullen off if things go downhill quickly from here.
Last night was a failure on so many levels. I think it can be broken down into these top 4 levels:
Tackling
I searched to see how many missed tackles we had (I didn't count on the re-watch) and I came across an intern's article that might be the most honest take a UF staffer has had in the media in a long time...I think his internship may end sooner than later. He estimates over 25 missed tackles, that would be a fair estimate in my view.
This is frustrating because most of the missed tackles are not about strength, but fundamentals and attitude. Stop trying to make arm tackles and wrap up. Have the mentality that you aren't letting go until the whistle blows. D-line wasn't great, but I saw them creating space for LB's to get to the RB or QB at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield just for a failure to tackle.
You allow 303 rushing yards by failing to tackle. In my preview, I thought Cece and Reese would have been back. Obviously, that was wrong. Cece's impact may have been minimal, but Reese would have been a step up. Although oddly enough, missed tackles, though accounting for tons of yards, didn't account for any of Kentucky's touchdowns. Those were longer plays, which brings me to my second problem.
Safeties
In my season preview series, I said one of the biggest question mark positions is safety. This game showed why. The safeties played a significant role in the 3 UK TD's that mattered. First Brad Stewart loses track of his assignment on the first TD. Then Taylor over shoots the hole on the TD run (excellently drawn up play by UK), then dives taking out the chance for most the team to catch up. Then Taylor plays slow on a 3rd and long allowing for a long TD pass that shouldn't have happened. Now, I'm not saying that Kentucky couldn't have continued to drive if these plays didn't work (well, at least on the first two, they weren't going for 4th and 15 on the last one). And that leaves UK with 14 points if the other drives would have continued to the endzone...just saying. Also, the first TD would have left them with 3rd and 16.
O-Line
I thought these guys could be brought to being more serviceable. Not a great line, but able to do enough. Until shown otherwise, I was wrong. I do not think that many people could be even a good QB behind this line. On the re-watch I was amazed how much Franks had to run. When running from pressure you downfield vision changes. Also, we couldn't run real well, which put more pressure on a passing game that was supposed to be a compliment to a great backfield. There were some good runs by backs, but not enough and part of that is this line. Here is the saddest part, besides Nick Buchanan, each of the line players have starts over a 3-4 year period. At the end of the season, this entire line is gone. Heggie needs to play more. Sure he's missed time with injury, but he did show some promise last year before injury. If this position groups plays even halfway decent, no other problem prevents us from winning in my opinion.
Play-calling
You know where Franks and crew did well and were moving the ball? The quick hitches, slants, and drags. The getting the receiver the ball with a chance to make a man miss and get yac. You know where we weren't successful? Running between the tackles and long balls. So, what did we do on an important 3rd quarter drive? Throw a long pass along the sideline 3 straight times. Although, a caveat is a good back shoulder throw where RJ Raymond again demonstrated he's a walk on with a leftover scholarship by dropping a pass.
My biggest play-calling problem? And one that impacted the game more than any in my mind? When Franks had the 1st down at the one moved back. We had 2 and 1 or 2 at the 3. Why not run? Instead, we go play-action and lose yards. Granted, on 3rd down we had a first down play...where Jordan Scarlett channeled last year's UT game and, just like Kelly, dropped the ball at the one in front of the north end zone.
Also, where are the jet sweeps and the like with our speedy guys. Get them into space. I saw plenty of receivers, when they caught it or had a good throw, get 5+ yac yards.
Franks
Watch how much time Franks had in this game. Sometimes he was fine, sometimes he made stupid decisions. One bad decision is forcing a throw to Toney on the sideline that should have been picked. Swain was 5-10 yards inside of Toney and wide open. Obviously, the two-point conversion was bad. He also lead a 99-yard TD drive. Throwing in everything you want about soft coverage, which is valid, but he still made the throws. The urgency on his part, however, was poor. He also had drops from Scarlett, Lewis, Raymond and an alligator arm attempt by Cleveland on a 3rd down that didn't help. I predicted around 225 yards, he threw for 232. We knew going into the season we didn't want the team to lean on Franks. That is what we seemed to do from the 2nd quarter on. Doesn't help him or the team. I think we should keep the catch and run throws and not so many go routes (deep corner/posts are fine as a cut can lose a DB). He looks like the work in progress we know him to be. I don't think we should give him more than 25 throws a game, he had 38. It's not all on him, but he shoulders a part of the blame. I do believe that if he hits Davis in the 2-point conversion, there's less discussion about him today. Your only as good as your last throw, and there he made a horrendous decision and then said something awful about it.
Quick Hits:
Here's something to think about. I know that losing to Kentucky for the first time in my lifetime sucks. This loss could totally be a harbinger of things to come. However, this could possibly (and we will see) turn out like the South Carolina loss in '05, our first loss to Carolina in the SEC, where many point to it as a change in Urban Meyer's program. We will see the beginning of an answer this Saturday. I'm not trying to pump, but I figure there is probably enough negativity going around that I've chosen to give a different perspective.
I can sit here and write a piss and moan piece, and plenty of that would be justified, but I am going to try and keep it straightforward. Last night was in some ways as bad as many would believe and in some ways was not as bad. This is written with trying to give a not as negative take in mind. I'm not happy about the loss and I think plenty was inexcusable. But I figure it's a long season and I have plenty of time to tell Mullen off if things go downhill quickly from here.
Last night was a failure on so many levels. I think it can be broken down into these top 4 levels:
- Tackling
- Safeties
- O-line
- Play-calling
Tackling
I searched to see how many missed tackles we had (I didn't count on the re-watch) and I came across an intern's article that might be the most honest take a UF staffer has had in the media in a long time...I think his internship may end sooner than later. He estimates over 25 missed tackles, that would be a fair estimate in my view.
This is frustrating because most of the missed tackles are not about strength, but fundamentals and attitude. Stop trying to make arm tackles and wrap up. Have the mentality that you aren't letting go until the whistle blows. D-line wasn't great, but I saw them creating space for LB's to get to the RB or QB at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield just for a failure to tackle.
You allow 303 rushing yards by failing to tackle. In my preview, I thought Cece and Reese would have been back. Obviously, that was wrong. Cece's impact may have been minimal, but Reese would have been a step up. Although oddly enough, missed tackles, though accounting for tons of yards, didn't account for any of Kentucky's touchdowns. Those were longer plays, which brings me to my second problem.
Safeties
In my season preview series, I said one of the biggest question mark positions is safety. This game showed why. The safeties played a significant role in the 3 UK TD's that mattered. First Brad Stewart loses track of his assignment on the first TD. Then Taylor over shoots the hole on the TD run (excellently drawn up play by UK), then dives taking out the chance for most the team to catch up. Then Taylor plays slow on a 3rd and long allowing for a long TD pass that shouldn't have happened. Now, I'm not saying that Kentucky couldn't have continued to drive if these plays didn't work (well, at least on the first two, they weren't going for 4th and 15 on the last one). And that leaves UK with 14 points if the other drives would have continued to the endzone...just saying. Also, the first TD would have left them with 3rd and 16.
O-Line
I thought these guys could be brought to being more serviceable. Not a great line, but able to do enough. Until shown otherwise, I was wrong. I do not think that many people could be even a good QB behind this line. On the re-watch I was amazed how much Franks had to run. When running from pressure you downfield vision changes. Also, we couldn't run real well, which put more pressure on a passing game that was supposed to be a compliment to a great backfield. There were some good runs by backs, but not enough and part of that is this line. Here is the saddest part, besides Nick Buchanan, each of the line players have starts over a 3-4 year period. At the end of the season, this entire line is gone. Heggie needs to play more. Sure he's missed time with injury, but he did show some promise last year before injury. If this position groups plays even halfway decent, no other problem prevents us from winning in my opinion.
Play-calling
You know where Franks and crew did well and were moving the ball? The quick hitches, slants, and drags. The getting the receiver the ball with a chance to make a man miss and get yac. You know where we weren't successful? Running between the tackles and long balls. So, what did we do on an important 3rd quarter drive? Throw a long pass along the sideline 3 straight times. Although, a caveat is a good back shoulder throw where RJ Raymond again demonstrated he's a walk on with a leftover scholarship by dropping a pass.
My biggest play-calling problem? And one that impacted the game more than any in my mind? When Franks had the 1st down at the one moved back. We had 2 and 1 or 2 at the 3. Why not run? Instead, we go play-action and lose yards. Granted, on 3rd down we had a first down play...where Jordan Scarlett channeled last year's UT game and, just like Kelly, dropped the ball at the one in front of the north end zone.
Also, where are the jet sweeps and the like with our speedy guys. Get them into space. I saw plenty of receivers, when they caught it or had a good throw, get 5+ yac yards.
Franks
Watch how much time Franks had in this game. Sometimes he was fine, sometimes he made stupid decisions. One bad decision is forcing a throw to Toney on the sideline that should have been picked. Swain was 5-10 yards inside of Toney and wide open. Obviously, the two-point conversion was bad. He also lead a 99-yard TD drive. Throwing in everything you want about soft coverage, which is valid, but he still made the throws. The urgency on his part, however, was poor. He also had drops from Scarlett, Lewis, Raymond and an alligator arm attempt by Cleveland on a 3rd down that didn't help. I predicted around 225 yards, he threw for 232. We knew going into the season we didn't want the team to lean on Franks. That is what we seemed to do from the 2nd quarter on. Doesn't help him or the team. I think we should keep the catch and run throws and not so many go routes (deep corner/posts are fine as a cut can lose a DB). He looks like the work in progress we know him to be. I don't think we should give him more than 25 throws a game, he had 38. It's not all on him, but he shoulders a part of the blame. I do believe that if he hits Davis in the 2-point conversion, there's less discussion about him today. Your only as good as your last throw, and there he made a horrendous decision and then said something awful about it.
Quick Hits:
- That offsides by Chauncey was a killer (If I remember right that was on Kentucky's last drive). Seriously, when was the last time you saw a DB called for offsides?
- People leaving halfway through the 3rd quarter? I know it wasn't going well, but we've won from worse spots with MUCH less time in the last 3 years alone.
- That FG call...game changer for momentum, scoring etc. Very curious to see what discussion takes place with field goals going forward. I am convinced the ref didn't watch the kick until the end before signaling. Unfortunately, we do not have the wide shot (or I didn't see it) that shows the whole goalpost area as we have seen in football for years.
- Bright side, there is not another QB remaining on our schedule with the speed and athleticism we saw from UK's. Dude was running away from DB's. Fitz has power and some speed, but not that speed and shiftyness. Fromm can run, but see speed and shiftyness.
Here's something to think about. I know that losing to Kentucky for the first time in my lifetime sucks. This loss could totally be a harbinger of things to come. However, this could possibly (and we will see) turn out like the South Carolina loss in '05, our first loss to Carolina in the SEC, where many point to it as a change in Urban Meyer's program. We will see the beginning of an answer this Saturday. I'm not trying to pump, but I figure there is probably enough negativity going around that I've chosen to give a different perspective.
