"Thibodaux, Fontaineaux, the place is buzzin'..."
"...Dress in style and go hog wild, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou."
Only it didn't quite work out like that. This night, we learned more about our Gators, some of it reinforcement of what we already knew (but were maybe secretly hoping that it wouldn't hurt us). We know that we're a scrappy bunch to go along with talented, in some places, but not across the board. We know that we have a good defense, but not a great one despite, their high national statistical ranking. We knew the Tigers were a really good offensive team. Turns out, they were better than good...and so was Joe Burrow. We believe in the emergence of Kyle Trask and as good as he's been, he's still a mortal in the SEC football league. We know that Mullen is a ball coach, but he's not infallible. I'm sure there's more, but the image in my mind is that we fought hard, gave a great effort, overcame some issues in-game, but in the end we didn't get the job done.
If you're an all-or-nothing person, then the season could be finished for you. That's the trouble when a team possibly overachieves and gets our hopes up. The odds are probably against us for making the SECCG against either these Tigers or Bama. And although UGA left the door ajar, we all know just how treacherous our remaining schedule could be. But the beauty of the game, especially if you aren't 100% all-or-nothing, is that there is still a lot to play for and it either gets better each week or we readjust. As for me...yeah, I'm a little dejected about now, but I'm in it for the long haul and I don't mind walking uphill a little longer. I remember having these feelings a few times when SOS was in charge and we lost a conference game and fell behind only to find our way to the top at the end. Mullen ain't SOS and the conference has changed, but we've still got a chance at our SEC goals. I'm grateful for that. On to the particulars...
*One is greater than five. We saw that tonight when our D had trouble slowing down their O. I think it's no stretch to say that Coach O's hiring of his new OC from the Saints was a good stroke for them. They had a good plan against our D, killed us with the intermediate crosses, and exploited our somewhat depleted DL and shaky LBs with the run. 500+ left some cuts and bruises.
*Trask was pretty good for most of the game. He was cool in the pocket, very accurate with the majority of his throws, and played relatively mistake free, but his biggest one, the late pick in the end zone, left us in a hole we couldn't climb out of. Burrow, on the other hand, was dynamic. 21 of 24 passing, no turnovers and not sacked was impressive. How many times did he escape the pocket for a first down or positive gain? He may be cocky and weird to boot, but he's deserving of the praise he's getting.
*We saw two pretty good groups of DBs tonight. LSU has some talent. We do, too, but they could have used some help from a better pass rush scheme perhaps. We got lost in coverage some and we missed far too many tackles once again. Burrow is too accurate and their plan of attack was too well constructed for us to have success with the amount of mistakes made. Also, as the nation's leader in INTs, we had none tonight. We were not DBU this evening. Nowhere close.
*We rushed for 150+ and threw for almost 300, but our OL got manhandled most of the night. LT and C had terrible nights, especially with pass rush. We missed several blocks (e.g. the last time Trask was sacked, Forsythe looked inside to the tackle that was being blocked by our LG and whiffed on their DE; there still seems to be confusion on assignments). Coach O in his presser praised his DL and rightfully so. Quite often, our five couldn't block their four. We weren't able to escape the deficiencies of this group (that have not gone away) against a better team. It would be miraculous for us to be a championship team as weak as we are on the offensive line of scrimmage.
*Unfortunately, we weren't much better on the DL (or with the LBs). No Greenard was a huge blow and a limited and injured yet again Zuniga did not help matters. Moon was lost quite often and I can't recall enough significant plays by the LBs in general. Giving up nearly 250 on the ground and recording no sacks will not allow you to win very often. No turnovers for us was a big deficit.
*As far as game plans go, I thought Mullen's was pretty good up until the final two or three plays. Might not have made a difference, but the fake reverse pass and the final option play were not good. Made me feel like he was out of bullets at that point, so to speak ;). As for Grantham, I know why we didn't blitz any more than we did (wanted to have safety help on their speedy receivers; afraid that they'd get behind us and Burrow was good enough to find them), but after getting little to no pressure from our hobbled front, I'd like to have seen him take some chances. Burrow carved us up with all the time he had to survey the field and go through his progressions. He also used his eyes very well. I wish we could have adjusted as well as they did at the half, but I suppose our personnel was a limiting factor.
*More kudos to our receivers and our TE just gets better and better. He's a match up problem against LBs with his speed and against DBs with his size. Hats off to LSU's DC. He took him out of the equation for most of the second half.
*EJ looked pretty good in his role this evening. Really was quite elusive running the ball and made a couple of nice throws, though his TD pass wan't exactly a thing of beauty. If we were going to run it there at the end, I'd rather have seen him in the game. Anyhow, I feel like he won't do anything but get better and better.
*Perine ran hard. My respect for him grows. He might have really had a good night if there were some more holes to run through. He made a couple of nice catches, too.
*I haven't seen the injury list, but I'm guessing we need to heal up quite a bit before next week.
After knocking off the Dawgs, Muschamp and the 'Cocks will be crowing in anticipation of our visit next week to Williams-Brice. I'm sure they'll be nursing some injuries like us (might be down to their #3 QB), but they've got to be riding the swell of upsetting the once east-leading Mutts in Athens. Muschamp probably had his greatest coaching moment this afternoon against his alma mater and close friend, but you know he'd like nothing better to stick it to us. If there's any truth to the old adage "it's not whether you get knocked down, but whether you get back up," and if we really believe that, then next Saturday should be a big one. But aren't they all at this point?
Go Gators!