- Oct 5, 2017
- 2,306
- 6,270
There is a lot of overreaction out there this morning. Last night we saw good things, bad things, and things everywhere in between. There are things about the game we know, things we don't, and things that I think might be important details that we may never know.
In a 26-16 loss to Kentucky, that Kentucky team was in many ways who I thought they were. A team that would need us making multiple mistakes in order for us to win. We made those mistakes, and made plenty of them. They did show up to play, and played well, but without our mistakes, I don't think they win.
On offense, Anthony Richardson's stat line was dreadful, 14/35 (40%) for 143 yards and 2 INT's. There's no other way of saying it other than he was bad last night. I'm not selling stock in him as so many in Gator Nation seem to be doing. What I will say is that in the 1st half of the game I saw some limping from AR. Then I saw a video on Twitter of AR coming up limping after being hit in the ankles on the first pass of the game. None of this really is apparent on the broadcast version, which I saw on re-watch. I also see that AR only had 6 carries and I know for sure one came on the first drive and three were not called runs; the fumble he picked up and ran, a scramble for a few yards to the right where he slid in I believe the 3rd quarter, and when he went out of bounds instead of throwing it away (bad decision there) for a several yard loss. I also watching the game back saw very few read option plays. Why do those two things matter? Well, it leads me to believe that AR was playing with a hurt wheel. A bum wheel would limit this offense in that it takes away one threat of AR running/scrambling and could effect passing as it effects his foot work.
Now, does that mean all the offensive woes or the picks were because of that? Not at all. Kentucky got 13 points off of two picks from AR. Besides the obvious, of we lost by 10 due to a late FG and that's more than the margin of loss, it also changed momentum which definitely is a thing. If Kentucky goes into the half down multiple scores instead of a FG, the mindset of the game is different. The first INT, though an ill advised pass by AR was also a great play by the defender that I have to give him credit for. When he realized he couldn't get to AR before the release of the pass, instead of running at AR he broke towards where AR was looking got a hand up and made a nice play for the pick. The second INT, after the re-watch appears to be a miscommunication between Wright and AR. Not sure who that was on as AR threw the hitch and Wright went deep, but point is it was a pick 6. I can't say for sure it should have been thrown even if Wright ran the hitch. This one was definitely an unforced error.
What kills me is we had plenty of open passes for big plays early that we missed, plays we have seen AR hit before and some he hit several times last week. Some people talk about he needs more time to become accurate. Accuracy is not a playing time issue, it isn't. Reading the field, knowing what kind of touch to put on balls, feeling pressure are all things that do develop, accuracy is not that. We've seen him be accurate before and did well against a decent Utah defense last week. He just wasn't this week.
Moving to the running backs, as much as it pains me to say this, but we might need to move Wright down the depth chart. Johnson and Etienne have been vastly better two weeks into the season. I wish Johnson had a little more speed, but it is what it is. The guy finds holes and can get yards while Etienne in space will break at least one long one this year. Etienne was lower this week, but still had over 5 ypc, Johnson had 8.9 ypc and Wright 3 ypc. We are going to see what kind of coach Nape is going forward with how he handles this. I like Wright, but he simply isn't getting the job done.
It really is hard to say how our receivers did have 3 guys average over 10 yards per catch and the other one had a long of 28 yards. Our tight ends were in the same position. Zanders did have a drop early that helped kill a drive and a few times the tight ends didn't get to blocks on time with screens. Seeing that has been a few games in a row now, that might be scheming.
The offensive line started well, but then White and Tarquin both seemed to get injured, though White came back later. Leonard and Barber did alright as back ups, but still showed why they aren't the starters. One thing to take away though is that these game reps can be valuable for the future.
The defense started slow. Will Levis started 9 for 10. Then we cracked down and he went 4/14 the rest of the way. He did, barely, get his second ever SEC 200 yard passing game with 202 yards. We held him to 54% passing. The tight ends caught 5 balls during that beginning span for 74 yards. They had 0 catches after that. That is good enough for a win in the SEC.
The defensive line created havoc all night and kept Levis under pressure, especially once we covered past the first read. The linebackers played well, especially after the adjustments. Outside of Kimber allowing that 55-yard TD pass, our DB's played well. Kimber even played that pass pretty well overall, sometimes the other team just makes plays (and/or the cameras don't see them not make the play).
The defense allowed 70 yards rushing (well 109 when you take away the bad snap on the punt for the safety). That is still 2.9 yards per carry and that is after we allowed a longer run late because we were trying to strip the ball out. This defense did enough to win this game.
The defense allowed 10 points basically. I'm not holding against them the points off the picks or the turnover on downs.
I say that because this defense was much maligned after last week. Some it really was that Utah did what they do and is one of the best offenses we will face this season. I don't think Kentucky's offense is up there, but Kentucky early on tried to exploit us in the same way Utah did, were successful, but then we adjusted and it shut that down. We are playing a ton of young talent including Moore, James, Kimber, Watson, Lee, Princely, Sapp, Helm, Marshall, and Wilson. All these young guys getting time will help them develop and help this defense get back to the Gator Standard for defenses. Seeing these adjustments and their success, tells me that Patrick Toney can be that guy. He will grow as well.
On special teams, I liked seeing us go for a block on punt return, though Hendo is not that guy for returning punts. Mihalek might be good for us at kicker. Everything else could use some work.
All in all, I don't like losing and I like losing to Kentucky even less. Without the picks, I think UF wins this game. Without what I believe to be an injured AR due to the context clues, I believe we win this game. I am not trying to make excuses, but I am trying to tell you things that were seen live, but not on the broadcast that might offer some explanation for how a QB can regress from week 1 to week 2 from a better opponent to a worse one. I've heard he denied being hurt, but I'd never expect him or Nape to admit it both in a "no excuses" way and in a don't let future opponents know your limited kind of way. If this play continues, obviously, a change must be made. However, we've seen better from him and it could've just been a bad night. All I'm saying is it is too early to rush to judgment.
There has been much made about playcalling on offense, but if you get rid of your base play, the read option, it limits what you can do. I still hate seeing a lot of screens/outside runs to the short side of the field and I HATED going for it on 4th down at our own 40 with 8:41 to go when our defense had overall been solid since giving up the first TD, play the field position game.
If things continue this way for a few more games, then questions should be asked. However, I don't think a single game should be how we judge anyone, coaching, players, etc. It's a game we should have one and needed disaster to lose. We provided the disaster. My hope is that this disaster becomes a learning experience for all involved, players and coaches. Now is not the time to abandon ship on anyone as last week was not the time to abandon ship on anyone. Stay the course and I do believe we will be better on the other side of this storm.
Go Gators!
In a 26-16 loss to Kentucky, that Kentucky team was in many ways who I thought they were. A team that would need us making multiple mistakes in order for us to win. We made those mistakes, and made plenty of them. They did show up to play, and played well, but without our mistakes, I don't think they win.
On offense, Anthony Richardson's stat line was dreadful, 14/35 (40%) for 143 yards and 2 INT's. There's no other way of saying it other than he was bad last night. I'm not selling stock in him as so many in Gator Nation seem to be doing. What I will say is that in the 1st half of the game I saw some limping from AR. Then I saw a video on Twitter of AR coming up limping after being hit in the ankles on the first pass of the game. None of this really is apparent on the broadcast version, which I saw on re-watch. I also see that AR only had 6 carries and I know for sure one came on the first drive and three were not called runs; the fumble he picked up and ran, a scramble for a few yards to the right where he slid in I believe the 3rd quarter, and when he went out of bounds instead of throwing it away (bad decision there) for a several yard loss. I also watching the game back saw very few read option plays. Why do those two things matter? Well, it leads me to believe that AR was playing with a hurt wheel. A bum wheel would limit this offense in that it takes away one threat of AR running/scrambling and could effect passing as it effects his foot work.
Now, does that mean all the offensive woes or the picks were because of that? Not at all. Kentucky got 13 points off of two picks from AR. Besides the obvious, of we lost by 10 due to a late FG and that's more than the margin of loss, it also changed momentum which definitely is a thing. If Kentucky goes into the half down multiple scores instead of a FG, the mindset of the game is different. The first INT, though an ill advised pass by AR was also a great play by the defender that I have to give him credit for. When he realized he couldn't get to AR before the release of the pass, instead of running at AR he broke towards where AR was looking got a hand up and made a nice play for the pick. The second INT, after the re-watch appears to be a miscommunication between Wright and AR. Not sure who that was on as AR threw the hitch and Wright went deep, but point is it was a pick 6. I can't say for sure it should have been thrown even if Wright ran the hitch. This one was definitely an unforced error.
What kills me is we had plenty of open passes for big plays early that we missed, plays we have seen AR hit before and some he hit several times last week. Some people talk about he needs more time to become accurate. Accuracy is not a playing time issue, it isn't. Reading the field, knowing what kind of touch to put on balls, feeling pressure are all things that do develop, accuracy is not that. We've seen him be accurate before and did well against a decent Utah defense last week. He just wasn't this week.
Moving to the running backs, as much as it pains me to say this, but we might need to move Wright down the depth chart. Johnson and Etienne have been vastly better two weeks into the season. I wish Johnson had a little more speed, but it is what it is. The guy finds holes and can get yards while Etienne in space will break at least one long one this year. Etienne was lower this week, but still had over 5 ypc, Johnson had 8.9 ypc and Wright 3 ypc. We are going to see what kind of coach Nape is going forward with how he handles this. I like Wright, but he simply isn't getting the job done.
It really is hard to say how our receivers did have 3 guys average over 10 yards per catch and the other one had a long of 28 yards. Our tight ends were in the same position. Zanders did have a drop early that helped kill a drive and a few times the tight ends didn't get to blocks on time with screens. Seeing that has been a few games in a row now, that might be scheming.
The offensive line started well, but then White and Tarquin both seemed to get injured, though White came back later. Leonard and Barber did alright as back ups, but still showed why they aren't the starters. One thing to take away though is that these game reps can be valuable for the future.
The defense started slow. Will Levis started 9 for 10. Then we cracked down and he went 4/14 the rest of the way. He did, barely, get his second ever SEC 200 yard passing game with 202 yards. We held him to 54% passing. The tight ends caught 5 balls during that beginning span for 74 yards. They had 0 catches after that. That is good enough for a win in the SEC.
The defensive line created havoc all night and kept Levis under pressure, especially once we covered past the first read. The linebackers played well, especially after the adjustments. Outside of Kimber allowing that 55-yard TD pass, our DB's played well. Kimber even played that pass pretty well overall, sometimes the other team just makes plays (and/or the cameras don't see them not make the play).
The defense allowed 70 yards rushing (well 109 when you take away the bad snap on the punt for the safety). That is still 2.9 yards per carry and that is after we allowed a longer run late because we were trying to strip the ball out. This defense did enough to win this game.
The defense allowed 10 points basically. I'm not holding against them the points off the picks or the turnover on downs.
I say that because this defense was much maligned after last week. Some it really was that Utah did what they do and is one of the best offenses we will face this season. I don't think Kentucky's offense is up there, but Kentucky early on tried to exploit us in the same way Utah did, were successful, but then we adjusted and it shut that down. We are playing a ton of young talent including Moore, James, Kimber, Watson, Lee, Princely, Sapp, Helm, Marshall, and Wilson. All these young guys getting time will help them develop and help this defense get back to the Gator Standard for defenses. Seeing these adjustments and their success, tells me that Patrick Toney can be that guy. He will grow as well.
On special teams, I liked seeing us go for a block on punt return, though Hendo is not that guy for returning punts. Mihalek might be good for us at kicker. Everything else could use some work.
All in all, I don't like losing and I like losing to Kentucky even less. Without the picks, I think UF wins this game. Without what I believe to be an injured AR due to the context clues, I believe we win this game. I am not trying to make excuses, but I am trying to tell you things that were seen live, but not on the broadcast that might offer some explanation for how a QB can regress from week 1 to week 2 from a better opponent to a worse one. I've heard he denied being hurt, but I'd never expect him or Nape to admit it both in a "no excuses" way and in a don't let future opponents know your limited kind of way. If this play continues, obviously, a change must be made. However, we've seen better from him and it could've just been a bad night. All I'm saying is it is too early to rush to judgment.
There has been much made about playcalling on offense, but if you get rid of your base play, the read option, it limits what you can do. I still hate seeing a lot of screens/outside runs to the short side of the field and I HATED going for it on 4th down at our own 40 with 8:41 to go when our defense had overall been solid since giving up the first TD, play the field position game.
If things continue this way for a few more games, then questions should be asked. However, I don't think a single game should be how we judge anyone, coaching, players, etc. It's a game we should have one and needed disaster to lose. We provided the disaster. My hope is that this disaster becomes a learning experience for all involved, players and coaches. Now is not the time to abandon ship on anyone as last week was not the time to abandon ship on anyone. Stay the course and I do believe we will be better on the other side of this storm.
Go Gators!
