Twenty Consecutive Wins And More Questions

by mlmintampa on Nov 14, 2009 7:41 PM EST in Football Comment 15 comments

More photos » Mary Ann Chastain - AP

The Gators' 24-14 win over South Carolina gives the Gators their first undefeated SEC regular season since 1996. UF has now won 20 consecutive games.

The Gators also will have to continue to deal with the problems of their offense. Poor Caleb Sturgis cannot be the only offense because, you know, he is a kicker. Not including the final kneel down, UF had 4 drives start in South Carolina's end and managed seven points. Sturgis missed two field goals and there was the reenactment of the Ole Miss game. In addition, UF had two drives start outside of their 40, both ending with non scores.

Give credit to South Carolina, who after allowing scores on the first three drives, locked down. While UF did not turn the ball over, the Gators were 5-14 on third down, 0-1 on fourth down, and SC held the Gators to only 140 yards of rushing. Once again, Tim Tebow was used as a battering ram, with 16 carries, 26 yards, and two flips on his head. His 199 yards passing was a sight for sore eyes, but 68 came on the long bomb to Riley Cooper. Cooper also had chances at two more long touchdown passes, a sign that maybe, just maybe, Urban Meyer and Steve Addazio are willing to drop the Big Ten offense and throw the ball down field.

The defense again saved the Gators, holding the Gamecocks to 61 yards on the ground as they were willing to blitz and make Stephen Garcia beat them. Garcia did get 186 yards, but on 17 of 32 passing and 2 interceptions. Every week, I think it is finally the week the UF defense cannot make a stop, but they continue to play above their heads.

Next week brings Florida International and more questions as to why Florida has to settle for so many field goals and leave points on the field. I don't know what Florida can do and you don't know either. The problem is that Meyer and Addazio might not know either. But relying on Tebow and praying that your players solve your awful playcalling is not the answer.

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Awful playcalling is right

I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.

On the bright side, our defense seems to get better as the game wears on. They were really putting it to USC late in the fourth. And Justin Trattou is a MAN.

by wangalusa on Nov 14, 2009 9:10 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Sturgis missed 3 FG's i thought

Haden was the broadcaster’s MVP of the Game, in my mind it was Cunningham or someone around him.

"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
The Flavour of the Day is Turf. - Courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars
Keeper of the "That's what she said"

by TheTealDeal on Nov 14, 2009 9:12 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

It was three

the two 50-plus tries (speaking of bad playcalling—both times I’d have preferred to punt and pin USC deep) and the chip shot late in the 4th.

by wangalusa on Nov 14, 2009 9:45 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah

Strategically I would rather punt, but also your chances of making 50+ FG’s aren’t great, add in Sturgis’s wierd accuracy at times.

"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
The Flavour of the Day is Turf. - Courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars
Keeper of the "That's what she said"

by TheTealDeal on Nov 15, 2009 8:05 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, but...

I understand, even go through much the same thing during the game: I AM afraid it’ll catch up with us sooner or later—that’s my real worry. It IS frustrating to see the missed opportunities, the points left all over the field AGAIN. But the defense got even tougher in the second half (had to this time, and they knew it), then got the big turn-over and I KNEW we had the game. You could feel it, right?
I want to see this offense “set free”. I want to see these games won earlier. Like everyone else, I am SURE the talent is there to accomplish this, if only the coaches would make a few adjustments to the scheme and loosen things up. But we have this superb defense, plus a QB who can and WILL go out there and get whatever is needed, whenever it is needed to win. It may come later than we would like , but there comes a point in each game when we KNOW “we’ve got this one”. I’m starting to feel that way about the regular season too (say it softly, though!). As long as the players don’t buy it, they’ll get it done.
Beyond that. these Gators still have the potential to “put it all together” for a championship run…but what I find encouraging is this team’s clear talent for prevailing when they DON’T have it all clicking on offense. I’ve heard “All they do is win…” about a lot of teams over the years, but that is literally the case with these guys.
We all get the feeling that this Gator team could ROLL right on through Pasadena if this offense were run properly—and with the guys we have NOW. What I am beginning to believe and appreciate is that they are capable of getting to the same place the way they’ve done it so far—warts and all.

by texgator on Nov 14, 2009 9:45 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

All good points

Although I must say this was the first game I’ve been seriously worried about Tebow. His decision making seems very poor lately, whether it’s missing open receivers or taking unnecessary sacks. I think the ultra-conservative approach this year has him feeling confused and hesitant.

I have seen flashes of more aggressive playcalling the last few weeks, but also a lot of real head-scratchers, like passing on first down in the red zone late in the game when what we need more than anything is to run clock, and have been having success running the ball against a tired USC defense.

We’ve been playing not to lose all year, and so far we haven’t, but I for one am glad we’ve got a few weeks to try and rediscover ourselves before the stretch run.

by wangalusa on Nov 14, 2009 9:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Play calling has been terrible

But what a good game by brandon James. I was the first to criticize but he put on a show tonight. Also I wouldn’t look past fsu, they have a weird knack for scoring in bunches randomly.

Buffalo, that's where it's at baby. - Adam 'Pacman' Jones

by silverstreak3k on Nov 14, 2009 10:46 PM EST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

I would be much more worried about FSU

if they had Ponder. Without him, I don’t think they have much of a chance to score more than 10 points or so on us, and their defense is just terrible this year. Should be laugher, but with this team you never know.

by wangalusa on Nov 15, 2009 12:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

teboe did not throw to wide open receivers a couple times

by pLANEolG8RB8 on Nov 15, 2009 10:33 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

TEBOW! NOT TEBOE

by Hook85 on Nov 16, 2009 7:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

if sturgis hits 2 outta 3 FG's it's 30-17 just another laugher, relax, it's 1996 all over again

by pLANEolG8RB8 on Nov 15, 2009 10:32 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

A loss to FSU?

Except this time we won’t have the old bowl alignments to give us another shot.

Unless you meant 2006. While it certainly feels like 2006, it’s absolutely unacceptable that it does. This team has more talent on offense than that team had by a country mile. The defenses are comparable, but that ’06 offense was ugly, mainly because we were still in transition mode. There no excuse for this pathetic offense, especially the joke of a red zone offense.

Texas would murder us. Their defense would sack Tebow 15+ times, and I’m not kidding.

by Giant Catfish on Nov 15, 2009 8:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

It's hard to blame Sturgis.

He had one bad miss, but two of them were from 50+, and no kicker on Earth makes 50+ yarders always. One of them missed by inches. Besides, we shouldn’t be relying upon a first year kicker to be our only source of points.

Did anyone else catch the replay of a Tebow scramble in the first half. I think it ended up being an incompletion or something. Anyway, the thing I noticed is that not only is Tebow holding the ball too long, his progressions are non-existent. It’s not that he was making the wrong reads….he wasn’t making any reads. From the snap, he was locked onto Cooper, and remained with him for a full 4 seconds, before the pressure forced him to scramble and look for someone else.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. High school quarterbacks don’t do that. Whatever the coaches have told him, it’s caused him to regress significantly.

I still like us to beat Bama, just because our secondary is lock-down, and we can focus on slowing down Ingram. As I said above, I believe Texas would destroy us. They get after QBs like we can only dream about, and we give up sacks like free candy. Tebow would be utterly smothered, and the [expletive deleted] coaches trust absolutely no one else, in any circumstances, to do anything.

by Giant Catfish on Nov 15, 2009 8:25 PM EST reply actions 0 recs