Truth Takes: Orange Lang Syne

GatorTruth133

Alethea
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Oct 5, 2017
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A day late and possibly a dollar short, I know. Monday night was a perfect microcosm of Florida's season. There was action, there was poor oline play, there was passing, there was poor safety play, there was a multi-point lead, there were multiple sacks. We cheered with glee, yelled in frustration, and yet, in the end we still had put up numbers we would have begged most teams this decade to put up at all, much less against a top 25 power 5 foe. The chat box was fun during the game.

Offense

The best place to start is with Perine and him setting career records for himself in his last game. He broke a run to the left for a long TD early.If only there was someone saying all year that the left side, though not great was much stronger than the right side and we should run primarily that direction. Anyways, Lamical Perine as most, if not all of us have heard by now, has one of the best Gator stories we've had. Buying a bus ticket in hopes of earning an offer, earning the offer, showing up and balling out for four years. He was stuck in a bs offense his first two years and still made a top 5 NFL draft pick look absolutely silly on the road in a major game as a true freshman. In years 2 and 4 he didn't have an oline worth the cost of a single scholarship. Still he became one of the best pass catching backs we've had and showed it again in the Orange Bowl. In the Orange Bowl, Perine showed speed and power, making Gator Nation proud in the process.

Trask was hit and miss throughout the night. Although, in the first half it didn't matter as in the 5 real drives UF scored on 4 of them and 3 of those scores were TD's. The pick was a ridiculous catch on a ball tipped off the fingers of Swain. Granted, UVA made up for the ridiculous pick by dropping a few. It may have been the FG drive where Trask hit Pitts on a slant in between two defenders in what "would be a difficult catch". I'm sorry, we aren't UCF, I expect us to make more than we do. However, I can't fully blame Pitts or Trask on that play as Pitts gets pulled just before the ball gets there and if that pull doesn't alter Pitts just slightly then that throw is on the money and an easier catch for a TD for Pitts.

I know, it's hard to say our oline played poor when we ran for over 200 yards. I think it's more of poor as in very inconsistent at times for the Orange Bowl as opposed to consistently poor we've seen most of the year.

Some great plays by the receivers including a quick outside throw to Jefferson who made a man miss and took the ball for over 50. If only there was someone who for months was saying a quick passing game could be good for us. Anyways, great to see some big catches by the seniors and even a nice 3rd down play by Copeland. Next year he will be expected to be part of a much smaller rotation.

Defense
For what seems to be at least the 4th or 5th time this year the defense made an opposing QB look elite and put up season or career high numbers. The defense also managed 5 sacks. If they didn't blow some other opportunities where they had their hands on the QB, the numbers look much better.

When he kept his feet, Elam showed why is the next in a long line of good to great Florida CB's. Not just because of his interception, but for his knack for positioning. He even had an impressive pass break up diving around the body of the receiver.

We gave up 375 yards, granted 75 yards were on the last drive, but being up only 2 scores is not the time to relax on defense. It is worth noting that of all those yards, only 52 of those were rushing yards. Part of that is due to the sacks, but still that is an excellent number. However, that number may also be so low because we allowed 323 passing yards. May have been more if one of their scoring drives wasn't only 34 yards.

Make no mistake, most of this defense was upper classmen or players with multiple years of starting experience. Players who need to realize that after this game it is time to step up or step aside. UVA is a good team, but not a great team. UVA also lost to a 6-7 Miami team.

Special Teams

Townsend did ok in his final game, but did have what I believe is a career worst 28 yard punt. McPherson continues to march toward the all-time leading scorer record by adding 12 points to his resume. He finishes the year with 3 less points than last season. If he only misses one FG and is perfect on extra points, then he would have improved on last year. He sits at 199 points two years in. He only needs 170 points over the next two seasons to become the all-time leading scorer. Fair catch Freddie ended his career doing what he does best in the return game, fair catch.

Quick Hits
  • FSU and Miami have losing records. We are the only Power 5 school in Florida with a winning record, something to be happy about.
  • FSU has two straight losing record seasons. Even at our worst, we didn't do this. #conquered
  • Can we admit that Bo Nix is overrated now?
  • Speaking of overrated, its the Power 4, Big 12 has embarrassed itself enough with its champion and lack of defenses.
  • Good job Navy over KState.
  • #FailState continues to fall back to Earth.
  • Steve Levy is as bad as a commentator as I thought the first time. Good Anchor, bad coverage in my opinion.
  • Also, still don't like McElroy.
  • On a less joking note, Florida had a season of notable alumni deaths bookending the season. Mr. Two Bits and Neiron Ball to begin the year and Edward Aschoff to end the season.

Don't get me wrong, as frustrating as the game could be at times, I am beyond thrilled we win another NY6 bowl and finish a year averaging 300+ yards passing per game for the first time since Spurrier was at Florida. I know there are some UF fans who want to dispute that fact, or wanted to on the twitter machine, but it's true. We did so behind Kyle Trask. A guy who for many came out of nowhere, with no running game support, and threw it all over the yard. Overall, this was a fun game to watch and a good way to send out seniors who began their career by going to Atlanta for a SEC title opportunity only to see us get down while holding Alabama to negative yards in the first quarter, a 2nd year where the coach actually found a way for there to be a cause discussion with his firing, a 3rd year turnaround, and a fourth year where there was improvement.

There is a LOT of room for certain parts of this team to improve going into next season. Lots of good things this year. What a time to be a Gator.

Go Gators!
 

deuce

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"Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war."
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Jun 11, 2014
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Be careful, very careful.......

Go Gators!
 

ChiefGator

A Chief and a Gator, Master of the Ignore list!!!!
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Nov 9, 2015
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When the opposing defense pays no attention to stopping the run sure you can do well. Our oline needs a massive improvement. That said a win is a win.
 

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