Bits & Pieces: Florida vs. Louisiana State

cover2

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"Thibodaux, Fontaineaux, the place is buzzin'..."

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"...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!
:chomp:
 
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SeabeeGator

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Great write up, as always. As far as USC goes, they got beaten up badly. They’ll be missing multiple starters on bth sides of the ball. If our O plays up to snuff, we shouldn’t have any issue with them.
 

Gatormac2112

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Spot on, it all comes down to we need to recruit better. With the lack of talent we have in certain position groups we are still very competitive and can beat anybody. We can lose to anybody to and dont accept trophies for just being competitive. If we had better talent and depth we dominate tonight.
 

Musclepug

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We were playing with house money tonight, it doesn't affect the big picture in the quest to get to Atlanta. We knew we would be tested , I didn't think we would give up 500+ yards. Man I wanted to see zu and greenard healthy, would have loved to see them reek havoc on that little twerp. Nobody thought we would win a shootout, we held up......till we couldn't
 

AlexDaGator

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It’s not a good morning. But it is still a far better morning than most of the last decade’s mornings.

We did not win, but the Lost Decade of Gator football is officially over.

Thanks, C2.

Much appreciated.


Alex.
 
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oxrageous

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Instead of giving me dislikes, perhaps tell me how my statement was anything but a fact?
 

FireFoley

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Excellent C2, as always. The Gators tried and were just over matched and there were a lot of good things that happened, yet not be fundamentally sound and just some small game management decisions, whether they came back to haunt a team or not, can be costly now or in the future. Just as many people were genuflecting last weekend to service the anointed best DC in the country, Joe Lee Dunn Jr., I used the words of caution offered by "The Wolf" in "Pulp Fiction": "Let's not start sucking each others d**ks just yet". Well I am not laying it all on the feet of Joe Lee Dunn Jr B/C LSU as I mentioned in another thread does not have Auburn's sideways , high school passing attack. But I said many times, when it works, Joe Lee Dunn Jr. looks great, and when it doesn't Joe Lee Dunn Jr. is just that. Injuries notwithstanding, the defense did not offer enough to aid the team and the safety play as has been around here for many years, is atrocious.

You mentioned a couple of questionable calls late by Cousin Eddie and I agree and I am not going to bag too hard on those at the end, but I go back to two calls that make Cousin Eddie who he is and why his management has always been questionable to me. Taking (or as I said wasting) a timeout on 4th down and 12 very early in the game when you are punting anyway just to save 5 yards was dumb. Sure we scored late in the 1st half but for a few seconds it looked like we might have needed that timeout. Regardless of outcome, using that timeout when you were punting already was just not smart in my opinion. On the Trash INT in the end zone, that falls first on Cousin Eddie and then squarely on Trash. It was 3rd down and 2 inches, so getting a first down to get a fresh set of downs is job 1. I would have understood that particular call better had EJ been in the game b/c LSU would clearly have been expecting QB run with EJ, but with Trash a pass is always a possibility and credit to LSU for being fundamentally sound and making the correct play. However if you have such a "smart QB", he has to know (or be told in no uncertain terms) that if that play is not WIDE OPEN, to throw the ball 10 feet over the WR's head and live to play 4th and inches. Totally inexcuseable IMO if you care about the management of games as much as I do. I disliked the play call to start with and the QB actually made it much worse. A first down would have garnered 4 more downs and that was objective #1 in that series.

I believe this game was about what this team is. Good enough to beat the weak schedule we had already played (sans AU)., but overmatched physically in the 2 most important areas and talent deficient at others. Add that to questionable coaching at times and it makes each week a tough slog. I hope somehow this team can find a couple of answers otherwise the next few weeks could be tough to watch,
 

fischerwood

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Instead of giving me dislikes, perhaps tell me how my statement was anything but a fact?
Ox, can't disagree with your assessment. The underlying reason we are in this predicament goes to priorities of the previous AD (who shall remain nameless). Rome wasn't built in a day, and this culture of reactionary fixes is going to depend on recognizing and acting on a remedy similar to what really successful programs (i.e. Alabama,Clemson) are built on. Just my $.02
 

BassinGator

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Great analysis Cover. Tigers were just the better team last night.
Gators will recover, gotta get that D line healthy. Go Gators!
 

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