- Jun 12, 2014
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Some days just aren’t meant to be your day. Maybe we should have known something was up when earlier in the day our best basketball player, Keyontae Johnson, suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed very early in the game with FSU? Most certainly our prayers and concerns go out to this great Gator athlete and his family. And if you believe in such foreshadowing, this could have been a sign. Add to that the mysterious last minute scratch of Kyle Pitts and the eerie fog that rolled into the Swamp in the second half and you have all the makings of a Poe epic. “Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore!’” about sums up where we find our Gator hopes and dreams at the moment.
Believe what you will, but personally I think you lie in the bed you make and Saturday night the problems in the secondary that have plagued us for a great while now, along with with some OL troubles, led to our undoing. Maybe most glaringly was that the simmering pot of coaching issues, particularly on the defensive side, finally boiled over with two botched corner blitzes that resulted in open receivers behind the safeties and a foolish and a very selfish penalty by a veteran, yet underperforming Marco Wilson that negated a timely third down stop. LSU was then able to convert a 57 yard field goal that became the difference. Eventually, you have to pay for your transgressions. Or in this case, your lack of attention to continuing problems. Even though you can lay much of this on Grantham, English, and company, ultimately this falls squarely on Dan Mullen’s shoulders.
*There’ll be references to other stats, but the most important one last night was three turnovers by us, two interceptions, one a Pick Six, and a fumble, all by Trask, and none by the Tigers. I don’t think you’ll find a better competitor than Kyle, but tonight wasn’t his best night despite throwing for 474 yards.
* For two games in a row, we’ve had consecutive three-and-out possessions. Three of them in a row in the second half immediately following two scoring drives was a head scratcher. It’s almost as if we expect the opposition to just roll over and let us cruise on to victory, and in a sense we have previously. Not last night, though. This is the SEC and even the most down-trodden can beat you...if you allow them the opportunity.
*Toney was en fuego. 182 receiving yards and a TD on 9 receptions and 56 yards rushing was quite a night. Though it’s taken him some time to fully bloom, or the coaches are finally taking advantage of his abilities, he is pure excitement. It hasn’t hurt that he has developed a great pair of hands to go along with some great route running. We’ll sure miss him.
*”Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the definition of insanity!” That finally caught up to us with the inability to get lined up defensively and the poor coverage that has been constantly on display. That this has been allowed to go on for so long is inexcusable. Chris Doering called this an “embarrassing loss.” I would not disagree, especially against this edition of the Bayou Bengals, fresh off a thrashing by Bama and only dressing 50 some odd players. After listening to Mullen’s presser, I’m not quite sure he sees it that way.
* Ventrell Miller has steadily developed himself into a pretty decent ILB. He was a man last night, recording 10 tackles and 6 assists with a sack. What’s really impressive to me is to see how much better his reads and scrapes have become. You don’t see him taking the shallow angles that result in him getting pinned or tangled up inside. We need to be seeing similar development in other defensive positions.
*And just like that, Evan McPherson became just another good kicker. Not the great one that we all hoped for. There’s still time for him to rub out the tarnish of his missed 51 yarder (and a head scratching couple of easy ones that didn’t really hurt us this year), but he missed when we really needed one. Such are the vagaries of a place kicker. You might say it never should have had to come down to his kick, and you’d be right; but it did. That’s when you’ve got to make the kick. No excuses.
*Like all of you, I’m pissed with Marco Wilson. That was a bone-headed move of epic proportions. The gut reaction is to want him to be dismissed. Understandable. But the guys I’m really pissed with are the coaches who have continued to play him through his coverage mistakes and poor techniques. He doesn’t need to be dismissed, he needs to be sat, starting about nine games ago. There are a couple of youngsters who could have benefited from his wasted reps.
*Malik Davis had a nice game, 7 rushes for 81 yards and 5 receptions for 25. I’d like to compliment the OL for their efforts in this regard, but a -28 yards by Trask and 4 sacks surrendered is a backward step.
*Copeland had a good night. He looked very dynamic and poised to become one of the next greats. Arms extended on a couple of catches. In the absence of Pitts, it was a great opportunity for him to shine.
It’s going to be hard going into the SECCG against Bama next week with much confidence. We missed a great opportunity to build some momentum against our west rival who was literally a game away from packing their suitcases and heading home for the holidays. You can understand players getting ahead of themselves, but the coaches should know better. If they did, it didn’t look like it. What should have been, by all accounts, a walk in the park, turned into a disaster. Another kite lost in the trees.
We’re at a crossroads. We can show up, get our butt spanked, and spin it that we reached one of our goals. Or we can act and perform like we’re better prepared and fight with everything we’ve got. This is what’s required; this is what’s expected. Go Gators!
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