- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,306
- 6,270
I will not shy away from the fact that I tweeted that I've never cheered for a garbage time touchdown more in my life than our against UGA. No, not getting shutout is not the standard in Gainesville nor is it a moral victory. But do we want to get shut out for the first time in my brother's and all my cousins on my mom's side (who all attend Jax with us) lives by the Bulldogs? No. Why am I starting with this? Because we all knew we were probably losing and losing bad going into this game. We all hoped for a win, but knew it was very unlikely. So what was I wanting? To not lose our streak at the hands of the Bulldogs. I was there until the final whistle. It wasn't fun, we had UGA fans behind us.
This isn't the LSU or Kentucky loss where we should've won. This is an indictment on where the program is in year 4 under Mullen. Connor O'Gara has a great piece at Saturday Down South speaking about Mullen being on the hot seat. The type of writing you will probably not see out of anyone, and I mean anyone, in the mainstream UF media. Yes, the guys like Neil at IAKOW and the Gator Nation Football Podcast might have some things similar, but that's about it.
So much of the media (and certain former players, but not all) were in the "this is what you wanted Gator fans" mode. In the Mullen, "I told you so" wagon circling vein.
Offense
7 points is inexcusable, even against this UGA defense. I know, we missed two FG's and the first one might've changed the game, but still, you have to do better.
The play-calling was lacking, but there were some reasons for that beyond just simply Mullen being conservative when starting a redshirt freshman QB. Don't get me wrong, that was a big part of it, but there's more to that story. First, we were missing our best O-Lineman, Ethan White, for the game and Braun does not do as well on the left as he does on the right side of the line. With that, and our usual pass blocking issues we couldn't run too many downfield routes because AR simply didn't have time to execute them. He was hit quite a few times and his first pick was a rushed throw (obvious he didn't scan the underneath guy who tipped the ball) due to an unblocked blitzer. Also, overall the run game was being ineffective outside of Pierce's few runs.
When the run game is ineffective, it opens up the defensive playbook. When you can only run short routes, it impacts the offense. Without re-watching, I believe we only ran one screen pass which was on the second missed field goal drive where AR got injured. It went for a decent game. I know there are a lot of complaints about when we try to screen teams to death, and that's not what I am asking for, but screens can be useful in neutralizing a pass rush. It can also cause linebackers to cheat closer to wideouts opening up some room in the middle for the RB's. Also, not running directly at the nation's most dominant defensive lineman like Addazio running Demps/Rainey at Mount Cody in '09 is a good idea. Unfortunately, people think what didn't work then would work now.
Let's talk QB's. I am not going to judge a RS Freshman QB in his first start against the nation's best defense. As discussed above, he didn't have the best help with playcalling, offensive line, and the running game. For the most part, he wasn't staring down receivers and trying to make plays. Sometimes that cost us, such as on the fumble. It's also hard when it's 5 defenders on one QB for that to end well for the QB. He did make mistakes, it's the mistakes you expect a guy to make when he is making his first start against a great defense. If you thought he was going to be dominant in his first start against this defense, I don't know what to tell you.
Saw an old friend, who I've attended a few games with this season (and might read this) post on Twitter that Gator Nation isn't ready for the conversation that EJ took us to a TD when AR didn't. I've seen this sentiment a few times. However, I'm sure UGA didn't go into prevent defense because they were afraid of EJ. He did have a few nice throws and scrambles though. When he came in for AR, he about threw a 100 yard pick 6, but luckily, the d-lineman batted the ball down before it could get to the defensive back. It's about ceiling and I'd rather build for the future.
Defense
These guys did about as well as they could yesterday. Outside of the garbage time touchdown they gave up 6 points that weren't off of turnovers by the offense. They had a goal line stand to hold UGA to a field goal. There were little to no way most defenses were going to make stands in two of three drives (first TD drive for UGA was 11 yards after our first INT). Shouldn't have given up a one play, 36-yard drive, but it happens frequently in football after turnovers.
I know there are things the defense can improve and Grantham shouldn't be back next season, but I can't blame them for this game. Torrence continues to do well and though his picks were not exactly him making a big break on a ball, we've missed plenty of similar opportunities recently. I can only imagine that Torrence thought he caught the ball further in the field than he did and thought he'd get a safety if tackled in the endzone when he brought the ball out. Good job by the team getting three turnovers. If you had told me this defense would've got three turnovers, I would have thought the game would be closer.
Special Teams
I'll repeat it, if you are relying on kickers who couldn't win jobs at a lesser school, you are failing.
Extra Points
The rest of our games are awful teams, but watch, lots of people out there will say we've turned it around if we win out. Calling it now. I'm beyond annoyed with this staff.
Go Gators!
This isn't the LSU or Kentucky loss where we should've won. This is an indictment on where the program is in year 4 under Mullen. Connor O'Gara has a great piece at Saturday Down South speaking about Mullen being on the hot seat. The type of writing you will probably not see out of anyone, and I mean anyone, in the mainstream UF media. Yes, the guys like Neil at IAKOW and the Gator Nation Football Podcast might have some things similar, but that's about it.
So much of the media (and certain former players, but not all) were in the "this is what you wanted Gator fans" mode. In the Mullen, "I told you so" wagon circling vein.
Offense
7 points is inexcusable, even against this UGA defense. I know, we missed two FG's and the first one might've changed the game, but still, you have to do better.
The play-calling was lacking, but there were some reasons for that beyond just simply Mullen being conservative when starting a redshirt freshman QB. Don't get me wrong, that was a big part of it, but there's more to that story. First, we were missing our best O-Lineman, Ethan White, for the game and Braun does not do as well on the left as he does on the right side of the line. With that, and our usual pass blocking issues we couldn't run too many downfield routes because AR simply didn't have time to execute them. He was hit quite a few times and his first pick was a rushed throw (obvious he didn't scan the underneath guy who tipped the ball) due to an unblocked blitzer. Also, overall the run game was being ineffective outside of Pierce's few runs.
When the run game is ineffective, it opens up the defensive playbook. When you can only run short routes, it impacts the offense. Without re-watching, I believe we only ran one screen pass which was on the second missed field goal drive where AR got injured. It went for a decent game. I know there are a lot of complaints about when we try to screen teams to death, and that's not what I am asking for, but screens can be useful in neutralizing a pass rush. It can also cause linebackers to cheat closer to wideouts opening up some room in the middle for the RB's. Also, not running directly at the nation's most dominant defensive lineman like Addazio running Demps/Rainey at Mount Cody in '09 is a good idea. Unfortunately, people think what didn't work then would work now.
Let's talk QB's. I am not going to judge a RS Freshman QB in his first start against the nation's best defense. As discussed above, he didn't have the best help with playcalling, offensive line, and the running game. For the most part, he wasn't staring down receivers and trying to make plays. Sometimes that cost us, such as on the fumble. It's also hard when it's 5 defenders on one QB for that to end well for the QB. He did make mistakes, it's the mistakes you expect a guy to make when he is making his first start against a great defense. If you thought he was going to be dominant in his first start against this defense, I don't know what to tell you.
Saw an old friend, who I've attended a few games with this season (and might read this) post on Twitter that Gator Nation isn't ready for the conversation that EJ took us to a TD when AR didn't. I've seen this sentiment a few times. However, I'm sure UGA didn't go into prevent defense because they were afraid of EJ. He did have a few nice throws and scrambles though. When he came in for AR, he about threw a 100 yard pick 6, but luckily, the d-lineman batted the ball down before it could get to the defensive back. It's about ceiling and I'd rather build for the future.
Defense
These guys did about as well as they could yesterday. Outside of the garbage time touchdown they gave up 6 points that weren't off of turnovers by the offense. They had a goal line stand to hold UGA to a field goal. There were little to no way most defenses were going to make stands in two of three drives (first TD drive for UGA was 11 yards after our first INT). Shouldn't have given up a one play, 36-yard drive, but it happens frequently in football after turnovers.
I know there are things the defense can improve and Grantham shouldn't be back next season, but I can't blame them for this game. Torrence continues to do well and though his picks were not exactly him making a big break on a ball, we've missed plenty of similar opportunities recently. I can only imagine that Torrence thought he caught the ball further in the field than he did and thought he'd get a safety if tackled in the endzone when he brought the ball out. Good job by the team getting three turnovers. If you had told me this defense would've got three turnovers, I would have thought the game would be closer.
Special Teams
I'll repeat it, if you are relying on kickers who couldn't win jobs at a lesser school, you are failing.
Extra Points
- Dan Mullen defined the "Gator Standard" as championships, SEC Title or fire him next year. As I've said for months, he doesn't get fired this year short of being arrested or going 4-8...no even 4-8 buys him one more season. That's not a what I want or not, that's just what I know about how UF handles things.
- FSU/Miami might be a battle for who finishes 5-7 and who finishes 6-6.
- If you haven't heard Kirby Smart's take on Recruiting vs. Scheme, look it up. He's right
The rest of our games are awful teams, but watch, lots of people out there will say we've turned it around if we win out. Calling it now. I'm beyond annoyed with this staff.
Go Gators!
